First, a brief lesson on random facts and useless information. Although most of the world calls it football, the United States of America remains resolute in calling it soccer. According to some, the term soccer evolved from a shortening of associational football (as distinguished from rugby football). In fact, this is a classic example of American exceptionalism—as with the metric system and British spelling, our young nation recognized the importance of throwing off colonial influences to exert ourselves as an independent nation. As such, it was only logical that we would rename football as soccer, retain rugby, and reappropriate “football” to describe a game we evolved from rugby. Although the United States won the first World Cup in 1930, we were not permitted to change the name to suit our purposes. Therefore, this Guide will use the commonly accepted “football” in reference to the game.
As Americans know, it is not necessary for a competition to include global participants in order to be classified as a world championship (see, e.g. World Series). However, in the spirit of inclusiveness FIFA decided to allow teams from around the world to participate in the World Cup—just like the Olympics. Also like the Olympics, the games are designed to replicated global power structures, which means that they should always be hosted and won by the wealthier and more powerful countries. Unfortunately, certain countries have rejected this belief (see, e.g. Brazil) and through a series of unlikely events, the World Cup is presently taking place in South Africa. In case you’ve been living on another planet for the past few years, I’ll point out that this marks the first time the World Cup has been held on African soil.
Well, that’s not a big deal, right? I mean, sure, it’s a huge competition and probably makes a ton of money for the host country, but South Africa is way down at the tip of the continent. Only a handful of African countries are even competing (Algeria, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa)—none of whom are strong contenders. Surely nobody in Sierra Leone, whose national team was nowhere near qualification, would care about it. Except for one little detail: football is life in Africa. It is nearly impossible to go anywhere without seeing football games of every level—from youth (which here means 20-30) wearing full uniforms to barefoot children randomly kicking a ball without proper teams. Everyone has alliances to a mixture of teams (Chelsea, Manchester United, Spain, and Brazil are all popular), and one of the best ways to make friends in the shared taxi is to ask which team everyone supports. However, these alliances are less rigid than it would initially appear. While someone might tell you they absolutely cannot support Ghana, because they love Cote d’Ivoire (because they have several players from Chelsea), that really only matters if the two teams manage to face each other. Ultimately, the most important thing for this World Cup is to see as many African goals as possible, as many African wins as possible, and ultimately an African victory. While the individual nation that wins may be proud, a victory by any of these nations will be seen as a victory for the entire continent.
Understandably, this level of enthusiasm is highly contagious and it would be impossible not to get sucked into the competition. The bar next door has played all the games loud enough to hear from my office (starting at 11am) and when South Africa scored the first goal the streets were filled with cheers. Anyone with a television is broadcasting the game, and all the bars are packed for all three games of the day. With this in mind, it becomes important to pick your location carefully. Consider first the location and its amenities: Are there seats? Is it covered? How many screens and how large are they? Does the sound work? Is there a generator, just in case the power goes out? Do they have Star beer? None of these are determinative, but get weighed into the equation. Next, and most importantly, you consider the fan base and the match. For England-US, we decided to go to the Atlantic—a bar down on Lumley beach. Fans had their faces painted, flags waving, and the occasional vuvuzela blaring. Half the bar stood up to sing along with God Save the Queen, and a few (going for volume over quality) sang the Star Spangled Banner. The setting was idyllic—looking over the beach we enjoyed a fantastic sunset as the teams played to a draw.
It’s not a bad way to spend an evening, but for the important matches—the ones with African teams particularly, you don’t want to be surrounded by ex-pats or wealthy Leoneans. Instead, you make your way to the nearest local bar (doesn’t really matter which one), pay 1000 leones at the door, and order a blissfully cheap Star. Before the Ghana-Serbia match, we found ourselves trapped in a monsoon, the taxi slowly making its way through streets that had turned into rivers. We jumped into Frenzy, where we were greeted with momentary stares (being the only white people and among the only women), but attention was quickly diverted back to the game. Unlike most nights, there were relatively few unwanted advances, and instead we were able to talk about the match with the guys surrounded us. When Ghana scored on a penalty kick, the crowd was ecstatic—cheering, singing, and dancing through each of the countless replays that followed. When the game wrapped, the enthusiasm was unparalleled. After so many years, Africa had finally won on their own soil.
Wherever you are, I hope you have the chance to watch the World Cup. Pick a team and find yourself wrapped up in the energy—its better than the Olympics, Superbowl, Stanley Cup and every other playoffs combined. As a bonus to reading this absurdly long post, I have a challenge for readers. Anyone who correctly names three players of your national team (honor system: no using the internet) will win a prize from Sierra Leone.
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