Soccer Insanity: Mosh Pits, Pick-Pockets and GOOOOOALS!!!

So I have been greatly anticipating today's Ghana versus Libya Word Cup qualifying match here in Kumasi. It has been apparent from the moment I landed on Ghanaian soil that people here live and breathe soccer ("football"). And after this evening's match, I think I can say that the football fans here are more passionate about the game than the players themselves.

This weekend, the four other students here on my program (two who are doing research on sickle cell genes in Accra and two doing research in Aburi on native herbs that have been used for centuries in obstetrics here to induce uterine contractions during labor or slow post-partum hemorrhage) have come to Kumasi to visit. We arrived at the football stadium two hours before the game began, and had some late lunch. Kofi, our Ghanaian liaison here (without who we'd still be sleeping in the cement jail cell) warned us we'd better get inside before all the seats were gone.

We made our way around the stadium to the side we had tickets for. When we approached the entrance - two turn styles about 8 feet apart going thorough a huge concrete wall - we were met with utter football fan chaos: about 150 crazy fans fighting in a massive mosh pit to get through the turn styles. I mean, there was absolutely NO line whatsoever, just a sea of sweaty fans screaming, pushing and cajoling each other. When someone would finally get up the turn style, they would try and get their friends up there too, and people were elbowing each other even when they got to the turn style, using any body parts the could to push people back.

As we joined the craze, we noticed a young man getting yelled at and slapped in the face by a couple of other young men. I was able to get the gist of the argument, which was that the guy had been pickpocketing and had been caught. I yelled to the other seven girls to hold tightly onto their purses and not to keep anything in their pockets. As we slowly got shoved, pushed and elbowed towards the turn style, I started having fun with it- what else could I do? I pushed back, stuck my butt out so the guy trying to push past me got stuck, jabbed a couple of men in the ribs, felt myself get actually lifted up off the ground and moved forward by the surge of the crowd. The other girls weren't finding as much sport in it as I was: their hair was being pulled, their necklaces torn off, groped (it pays in such circumstances to be tall as I am...) - one of the girls actually started punching the guys around her. A football fan and I caught each other's eye and he saw my wry smile and the other girls getting upset and yelled to me "football is everything to us fans, welcome to Ghanaian football!"

I managed to make it to the turn style before most of the girls by perfecting the skills of knowing when to push back and when to let myself be carried by the crowd. I was laughing and high-fiving the girls who made it through before me, and shook hands with the football fan I'd spoken with on "the other side." The whole thing took about 15 of the sweatiest, exhilarating minutes of my life, and I found it hilarious. Until I realized I'd forgotten to take my own advice and had left my phone in my front pocket. Gone. I'd even felt hands in my pocket in the mass of limbs, but had thought to myself that I had nothing in them.

But the rush of it all made it impossible for me to be upset - especially because I knew to be thankful that it wasn't my wallet, passport or credit cards (like in Barcelona). The last time I'd had my phone stolen was in Kingston, when I had been in a similarly crowded scenario in the back of a route taxi.


We all finally made it in and found seats. The game was amazing: thousands of excited fans, the Black Stars of Ghana scoring three magnificent goals against Libya, and an incredible sunset as a backdrop.

Football here truly is a sport for all - for the players on the field, and the fans jostling to get a chance to watch. Todays' experience reminds me of the absolute passion of the fans I experienced in S. Korea during the World Cup. It is such a shame that those of us who grew up playing and adoring soccer in the States never got to experience soccer with such nationalistic religiosity. It's worth a cell phone any day.