Benin vs Ghana: Sunday, October 12

On Sunday, I went to the football match of Benin vs. Ghana. This was a very big game for Benin. They needed to win this game to stay in the tournament. Ghana had already qualified for it.

Me and a couple of girls from the ship went to the game together. Our driver picked us up and took us to the game. The streets were crowded more then usual and people we singing and dancing everywhere. When we arrived at the stadium it was chaos! There were people everywhere. Just getting into the parking lot took about 10 minutes or so.

Once we parked our driver negotiated Benin jerseys for us. We got them for $5.

People were lined up body to body to get into the stadium. There was no real order and these men were ready to get in. (the stadium had to be 98% men there) I didn't understand their system of lettng people in. Our driver got us past the line and we were allowed to go in front of people which was nice. Once you are in the stadium you have more lines to get into a different sections.

Once we got in there were no seats, just concrete rows with numbers on them. The numbers didn't mean anything. The concrete was hot and we had gotten there 2 hours before the game had started. Besides all that the game was fun. We did the wave all the way around the stadium which was fun to see. Also there were a ton of bands in the spectator sections. One band had shirts that made up the Benin flag.

The mascot for the Benin football team is a squirrel. The saying here is when the squirrels come you better protect your nuts. I don't know how that is scary but that is their mascot.

The game was good. There were some really good plays made by both teams. The game was scoreless until the very last few seconds and Benin scored a goal and the whole stadium went crazy. They were cheering and screaming! The whole city went crazy. It was fun to see. As we were driving back to the ship people were lining the streets in hopes to see the football team.