Last Night I Saw an Amazing Sports Spectacle…..

I am a serious soccer fan and the Africa Cup is taking place right now and Cameroon is an underdog this year but soccer here holds a place in this country like no sport in the US. You see the green, red and yellow national soccer jerseys everywhere and, also, the tri-color national flag---Cameroonians have very strong feelings of patriotism and that is most evident in their pride in the national soccer team. This year in the Africa Cup they are not favorites but earlier in the week they upset Tunisia and last night they played the perennial soccer superpower Ghana.

Outside my hotel—I’m on the third floor with a patio—there is a public arena that holds about 10,000 people and is used for political rallies and concerts. Last night they had a huge screen and the place was packed for the soccer match. In a major upset, Cameroon won the match and the crowd below my balcony went absolutely wild. The cheering was absolutely deafening—far louder than when the Houston Dynamo qualified for the championship game last year. After the win, the crowd surged into the street singing and celebrating and for at least an hour they danced and waved flags. There is a large traffic circle near the arena and the fans totally shut down traffic and paraded around the circle chanting and cheering. I knew soccer here was important but the intensity of the victory celebration still surprised me.

It was an amazing spectacle….to be in the capital city of a major soccer country on the night they upset the tournament favorite and to be able to watch the celebration from above is probably a sports experience I’ll never forget……