Are you ready for some football?

As a red-blooded (possibly more like vermilion) American, I'm ashamed to say this, but I saw one of the most exciting sporting events of my life last night, and it was soccer. The FIFA Under-20 World Cup has been taking place in Egypt, so we've been following that as soccer is on TV all the time here, and Ghana is in the tournament. Last night was the final of the tournament, Ghana vs. Brazil, who was naturally the favorite since they're Brazil.

Early on Brazil was dominating the possession as well as looking far more prepared than Ghana. Late in the first half, a Ghanaian player got an undeserved red card (so says my roommates who watch much more soccer than I do), and was kicked out of the game. You also can't sub in another player when someone gets a red card, meaning that Ghana had to play with 10 men against Brazil's 11. The result was that Ghana had a much more defensive strategy and wasn't able to capitalize offensively because they had an extra man back defending. The second half had more opportunities, but ended with a 0-0 tie.

This meant the game went to extra time, and after the 30 minutes it was still tied. Ghana had to play about 80 minutes of the game down a man and still kept it tied. The goalie for Ghana was pretty good as well, making save after save. After extra time came penalty kicks, and out of 5, Brazil got up quickly. On the last set of them, Brazil had to miss, and they did, and then the Ghanaian player had to make his shot, which he did. This left the game still tied at 3-3, meaning that then it would be sets of 1 penalty kick, and as soon as someone made one and someone else didn't, the game would end. The Brazilians went first and missed, and then the Ghanaians made their kick, winning the tournament.

The entire city erupted at that point, and we ran out side and joined in an impromptu parade. Everyone was hugging everyone else and jumping for joy, or beating on pots and screaming. This was also Africa's first championship in any World Cup, so people were very proud of that. We followed the parade down a busy street, with all the cars honking their horns and flashing their lights. We ended up at a gas station, which is where Ghanaians like to party, and I bought liquor for some 10 year olds, which I view as my good deed for the day. Everyone danced and jumped around, but we ended up having to head off once the girls in our group started getting a little too much attention from elated Ghanaians. A few of us headed into Osu (the nightlife section of Accra) and danced and drank until the early morning. This was definitely an experience I couldn't have anywhere else, and everyone's still elated and talking about the game today. Now we'll see if Ghana can win the regular world cup too.