Beautiful Barca

I don't know if you are aware, because maybe it isn't a big deal where you are, but we are currently experiencing the final stages of the Champion's League. In Liberia that is a big deal. A very big deal. I have never followed football to a great extent before, but I felt that I'd better pick a side and inform myself a little if I were to survive in the football-crazy culture. I picked FC Barcelona because they are from Spain and because I really want to go there. When I found a Barca jersey in the market for 2 bucks, it sealed the deal. I was now a Barca fan. This meant that I was now best friends with half the town of Ganta and friendly enemies with the rest, who happen to mostly be Chelsea fans. All this football excitement came to a climax yesterday, when Barcelona faced Chelsea in the second leg of their semi-final match.

My good friend with the world's coolest name, Lansana Zomoway, gave me a ride on his motorbike to the town's main video club to watch the game. Now "video club" means a large shack (think wood planks nailed together / zinc roof / no windows) with lots of tightly packed wooden benches, and three suprisingly good TVs on the front. Now imagine that space filled with over a 100 large, sweaty men, packed shoulder to shoulder, screaming at the top of their lungs for an hour and a half.

Drogba and Essein seem to be favorites of the Liberian crowd, especially the latter who is from neighbouring Ghana. Whenever they so much as touched the ball things got pretty loud. Thanks to some confusing regulations all Barcelona needed for the win was a draw. However, Chelsea scored early on and then clung unto that one goal lead desperatly, pushing back wave after wave of Barca attack. Once in stoppage time it seemed like Barca's fate was sealed and the Chelsea fans were laying it on pretty thick. Then with one minute left, the unthinkable happened. They scored.

I checked "crazy" in the Thesarus to see if I could find a word to adequately describe the situation, but the English language fails me. 100 men jumping on top of each other in a space that was not built to hold 100 people.