A Fun Tournament
My country played in a big international football tournament a while back, and it was a blast watching the team. Everybody around here takes football very seriously (way too seriously actually), and this tournament was the only thing I heard about for weeks. Every day all the newspapers had articles about the team on the front page.
The matches were shown on tv late at night (starting at like 10pm), and all of us (us being every able-bodied male in the country) went to cafes to watch. Watching the people's reactions to the match is almost better than watching the match itself. Each setback was met with anger or crushing disappointment, each good thing with wild celebrations, hugs, and shouts.
The matches themselves were good, we would always fall behind and then score a goal in literally the last 30 seconds of the match to win. We won that way 3 different times before we finally lost in the semi-finals. But, no one expected us to get that far, so everyone was pretty pleased.
One night another foreign friend of mine came to visit from another city. I picked him up from the bus station and we headed to the nice cafes downtown. We watched a thrilling match where we came from behind to upset the other team and take the victory. After a match like that, we all took to the streets.
The match ended around 12 midnight, but the party was just starting. Everyone got in big groups and shouted, waved flags, danced, and otherwise celebrated like it was 1999. Those with cars (including me and my friend that night fortunately) drove around the strip honking our horns and hanging out our vehicles shouting. My friend and I drove around for an hour or so screaming and honking, then started heading home. There was such a crowd driving around and honking, and so many people dancing in the streets, it took us another hour to get home. It was a really fun night, I have never felt such goodwill among everybody as I did that night. It was like everybody was everybody else's best friend. I liked it. The pictures below don't really do the night justice, but they give you an idea.
Thanks for the good times, guys.
