The Day I Screamed So Loudly I Thought The Veins In My Head Would Explode

MONDAY'S POST:

It was almost a perfect game-watching experience. It was so surreal. The weather was perfect all day, there was no traffic... can you believe it? NO TRAFFIC! Well, actually there was a lot of traffic on the brand new highway that leads straight to the brand new stadium... but my friend and I were smart enough to figure out that if we take the old road, we'd be clear. We were right. We made it to the stadium in a record-breaking 20 minutes. People that took the highway took 3 hours or more to get there. We arrived at the stadium with only 1 ticket, and there were 2 of us... but we felt fairly certain that there would be hustlers selling tickets at the door, as usual. Angolans never fail to have some extra on the black market, lol.
To our surprise, there WEREN'T any smugglers or hustlers or whatever you call them selling tickets at the door. In fact, this event had been so well-organized and controlled that noone has been able to falsify, duplicate, or smuggle any tickets. If you didn't get them from the official agency, you didn't get them at all. Dang. Looks like I was gonna have to find a way out of the stadium and on home while my friend got to go in and enjoy. However, we decided to stand around for awhile to see what would happen. All of a sudden, this guy just materializes in front of us and says 'hey!' all happily greeting my coworker, and they hug and chitchat a bit all excited about the game and all that. Finally the random guy says wistfully, 'Oh, I have this extra ticket for no reason... my wife changed her mind and decided not to come at the last minute...' My friend and I just look at each other and we're like 'We need a ticket!' He pulls out the ticket, and no joke, he had bought his tickets of the same value, in the same section, but a different row from the ticket my friend had. It was perfect! Finally we all had tickets and we got in line.

Now, waiting in line for big events in Angola has proven to be quite hazardous... people here are so accustomed to lack of organization that they don't know how to patiently wait their turn and basically trample each other trying to make it in first. Remember that scene from the Selena movie where some people were getting squished at the concert for being in the front row? Yeah, that's pretty much how it is here. When the pope came, two girls died in the stampede of people trying to inch closer to him. It's crazy... so we thougth we were gonna be in some danger of a stampede for the game as well. But no siree, not this time. It was SO organized. There were long lines, but they moved along, and they moved along FAST. We went through the metal detectors, scanned our tickets, and were on our way inside in about 3 minutes. It was so... evolved, lol.

Anyways, once inisde, we found our seats and got ready to wait forever for the ceremony to start. Angolan events are never on time. No, really they're NEVER EVER on time. It was about 15 til 5 pm when we sat down. The event was scheduled for 5 p.m. To our surprise it actually started at 5! (They might've been a few minutes late... but it was sometime around 5...) This was just a shock to us. But we were indeed pleasantly surprised!

Then came the opening ceremony. It was AWESOME. I always see these kinds of events on T.V. (Olympics, World Cup, etc) and they're always entertaining to watch. But to be there is a whole other level. It was AWESOME. The acrobats, the little kiddy acrobats, the traditional dancers, the light show, the people marching with the flags, the triumphant music, the contortionists, the history of Angola interpreted in dance, the grand finale, the firecrackers, etc. We were all pumped up and cheering just from the pre-game festivities.

And then the game started... dude, it is so awesome to be a 1 of 50,000 people decked out in full attire of red, black and yellow, doing the typical sports fan antics such as the wave (lol! I haven't done the wave in forever), the chants, and the screaming alternatively at the ref for what you consider to be a stupid call and at one of the team members instructions as to how to proceed in their game strategy... as if they can hear you...

The Palancas Negras played like champs the whole game. The very first goal was so surreal... because noone believed Angola could beat Mali going into this tournament... when Angola first scored we couldn't believe it. We screamed excitedly, hugged each other, patted each other on the back, high-fived each other.... Total strangers became buddies in a matter of seconds... we were there with one common goal: to cheer our beloved Palancas towards a victory.

But the second goal... Man, the second goal. This was the one that boosted our confidence. 2-0. That's it. There's no way they can catch up. Not at this pace. We SCREAMED. Like, veins were portruding on all necks and faces. We reached a mind-boggling amount of decibels... From there, we were just loud the whole time. People barely touched their seats... too much excitement flowing through us to sit down.

Then Mali started getting aggressive... I guess in their desperation to slow down our momentum. Well, that only backfired on them because the only thing that resulted from their aggression was two fouls, which means two penalty shots, which Angola scored. 4-0. Kaching!

By this point, I had ran over to a different section of the stadium where Quito, Alice, Celso, and Momas (Chinha's husband) were sitting and had watched as Angola scored their 4th goal and celebrated with them. We were all talking loudly over each other, laughing at Alice's silly screams and just having a grand ol' time. When I finally decided to go back to my section for the remainder of the game (this was at minute 88. There were 2 minutes left of the game) so I wouldn't get lost on my way out. I clearly remember chanting to myself as I ran to the beat 'Go start the buusss, go start the bus. Go start the buuussss, go start the bus!'

Victory was ours. It was over. Go home Mali.

That was the last time I felt the euphoria. Everything went downhill from there. As I reached my section, I heard people groaning in annoyance and looked at the scoreboard: Mali had scored. 2 minutes to go, and they decide to score. I hadn't even seen the goal, in my distraction to get from point A to point B. But the scoreboard don't lie. Well whatever... let's just let the clock run and it'll all be over soon.
Minute 90 came and passed. The officials decided to go for 4 more minutes to make up for down time during the game. Ok, nothing much ever happens in these post-90 minutes... right? Wrong!

I don't even know how to explained what happened next. All I know is that before we knew it, Mali had scored again. At this point, the screaming started up again, but this time it was screams of anger for the Angolans to get their butts and gear and defend their end of the field.
A few seconds later, Mali scored again. 4-3.
Guys, you don't understand. This NEVER happens in soccer. Scoring 2 goals per game is the norm. Scoring 4 or 5 goals is amazingly high. Scoring 3 goals in a matter of minutes? Almost unheard of...
But there they were. The numbers glowing brightly from the scoreboard. The Angolan crowd grew restlessly quiet. When would this game be over, for goodness sake? Haven't the post 90-minutes ran out yet? Hurry up, clock!
Finally... last minute of the game. It's just a matter of seconds now...
Just before the ref flagged the end of the game, a Mali striker got brave and tried for one more goal.
He scored.

If I were a cursing woman. Boy oh boy, the expletives that would have come out of my mouth at that moment.

Game was over. Score was 4-4. There were tears on grown men's faces, I kid you not. Although it was a tie, it was a tie that felt like a huge loss.

I looked over at the small group of Mali fans. They ERUPTED in song, dance, drumming, noise, and all kinds of nonsense of the sorts. Just a few minutes ago, they had been sitting so still, so defeated. Grown men cried on their side too. But their tears were tears of joy and relief. One Malian jumped the rail, ran accross the track, into the field, and threw himself on the player that scored one of the goals in a melodramatic bear hug. Security immediately rushed after him to peel him off the player, who was in turn telling them to leave him alone, it was ok, he could thank them. I was disgusted. I picked up my baggie of souvenirs and got ready to go.

It was a long drive back home. Tired from the excitement. Dissappointed with the final results.
But at the end of the day, I cannot fail to admit that it was SUCH a fun day.
Needless to say, I've already gotten tickets to the Thursday game.

Watch out Malawi, we're coming, and we're coming with a vengeance!!!!

P.S. Pics and videos to come as soon as I can get them!