Up Nigeria!!

On my list of "must-do-in-africa", right after wearing gargantuas head-ties and driving a motorbike through the countryside (both being crossed off, by the way), was seeing a professional soccer game. I mean, here soccer is thoroughly appreciated, if not worshipped, as the noble sport that it is. Every afternoon you can easily stumble upon any number of pick-up games being played on patches of dirt, gravel, pavement or stubbly grass. Every boy learns to play before he's even taller than the ball, and virtually each one has the dream of making it big and being drafted for Manchester United of Chelsea. SO, when I stumbled upon an opportunity to see Nigeria's national team, the Super Eagles, play against Kenya in a World Cup Qualifier match, you can bet I jumped all over it...and so did about 20 other friends.
We journeyed to Abuja where the Super Eagle Stadium sits just outside of the city, backdropped by a huge gorgeous rock (see pic below). I had heard that the stadium's capacity was something like 60,000, but for some reason, it rarely gets more than half-full, despite tickets selling for N300 (= $2.00). Well, not so for this match! Yes, the tickets were basically given away for that price, but they evidently sold WAY more tickets than they had seats.I'm not sure if you can see, but every seat was filled and people packed the stairs, aisles, and walkways. It's a good thing there wasn't a need for an emergency exit, because we couldn't budge!

The game was scheduled to start at 4, but even World Cup Qualifier games can't overpower the African clock...so it didn't start till close to 5. Some of our crew got there early to reserve seats, so if you happened to watch the game, you might have spotted a pocket of batures on the 2nd level at center-field. decked out in Nigeria jerseys and homemade facepaint. Glorious.

I have heard all sorts of stories about unruly fans here in Africa and so REALLY hoped Nigeria would win. Thankfully, Nigeria put the ball in the back of the net within the first 2 minutes and maintained a lead the whole match. Other than the typical fouls, injuries, and player theatrics, the game was fairly tame. I was surpised to see how the Nigerian fans expressed their strongest displeasure with the captain. Virtually every time he touched the ball and made a less-than-stellar play, up with the hand cursing him! I gather they aren't to pleased with his leadership. (And yes, I am ignorant of pretty much everyone's name on the team...quite the disappointment to my sports trivia guru of a fiance)

Though a few squirmishes amongst the fans broke out in front of me due to invade personal space (which i didn't think Nigerians really had), the most unruly actions were actually made in jubilation. Fans used their empty plastic drink bottles as confetti, chucking them onto the track. The small army of police and military were powerless to do anything about it expect dodge the projectiles being hurled about them. The announcer attempted to discourage this, but only succeeded in provoking fans to do it more. I was mildly amused, but started to take cover when my friend got pegged by an empy coke can.

We took our time exitting the stadium, flowed with the tide of people to our vehicles parked a couple kilometers away, and then somehow stuffed 21 people and a guitar into two small cars (VW Golf and an 80's model Toyota camry wagon). Nigerians were delighted to see us batures supporting their country, cheering "Up Nigeria!" and cramming into cars. Definitely ranks up there on memorable moments in Nigeria. Check out more pictures and stay tuned because Nigeria's still in the running for a World Cup bid!