Achieved the impossible!!!
Bought a ticket at face value over the counter.
I have made friends with locals in each city and they have been helping me find my way around. Also arranged that when I came back they would try and have tickets waiting for me.
Even though I arrived in Takoradi an hour ahead of schedule Nicholas was waiting for me. He told me he had been to the Bank & the Post Office the previous day but that no tickets were on sale. We returned today and walked out with the tickets, when he mentioned that he had been the previous morning they just said that they don't sell them in the morning.
At the game I met the Benin witch doctor - a larger than life character who I first saw on the stadium screen. I met him under the stands during half time and asked to take his photo, he was reluctant and asked for money. Aware of this practice I had been saving my coins to use in such a situation. He kindly told me I could take one, just one.
I asked him to explain the different trinkets he had and what effect they would have on me. I gathered that he had complete control over me, but reassuringly he wasn't going to kill me.....just now. I took the photo and asked if he wanted to see it, as I held it away from and showed his entourage. He became curious and as the others were commenting he now wanted to see.
As he looked a big smile appeared on his face. Then other Benin supporters wanted their photo taken with him. I told them that I couldn't help as I was only allowed to take one. (I was worried about the consequences if I took more). I think they elected me Benin supporters' official photographer, so suddenly they had agreed that I would take their photographs with the witch doctor. Email addresses were exchanged and the witch doctor grabbed my hand and invited me into the stadium. As he danced I shot some film, and after called him over to see this. After watching this he grabbed me in some sort of bear hug and then started to rub noses, cheeks and forehead. Suddenly this white man was no more! A quick trip to the bathroom and the paint was removed.
From Takoradi, I caught the local transit van. The vans wait until they are full and then set off. I guess the warning signs were there when they had to push it to get it started. Sure enough after two hours on the road & in the middle of nowhere we broke down. Normally there are street vendors at every roadside dwelling you see, selling their wares, bags of iced water, fish, yam amongst other things. Here there was no one.
The driver jumped in a car and headed back to Cape Coast. Two hours later he returned, and our journey continued. Arriving in Kumasi 45 minutes before the game I quickly sorted out accomodation and went to meet my friends, not surprisingly they were not there, but they left someone at the meeting place to tell me there was no problems and you could buy tickets at the stadium.
Yesterday in Tamale, there was no sign of official tickets available and so of I went with my latest entourage. I ended up paying 25 cedis (Twelve pounds 50 pence) for 3 VIP tickets (Face value 75 cedis each). My friends Nodge and Mustafa thought it was great, but I told them the best seats were the ones behind the goals, where the supporters made all the noise.
Sure enough after twenty minutes, Nodge with his Leeds United badge on, was cheering on Rui Marques for Angola. This obviously inspired the team as they turned their 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 win. The second game saw South Africa play Tunisia and there were few Tunisians to be seen. However once they scored the local drummers started up and a party atmosphere was seen all around us as local Ghanaians danced to the rythmn and gestured to the South Africans.
© Ross Clegg & Soccerphile
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Sunday, February 3, 2008
Saturday, February 2, 2008
World Soccer News
World Soccer News - For week of 3rd February
Bayern introduce code of conduct
Bayern players had better behave. Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld personally compiled a code of conduct, obligatory for all the players at the Bavarian club. The introduction of the code was motivated by the captain's Oliver Kahn's recent outburst, a public criticism of his two new teammates Franck Ribery and Luca Toni.
"A couple of newcomers must understand that two or three good games are not enough here. Bayern is not Marseille or Fiorentina," said Kahn, obviously referring to the French and the Italian.
Bayern's board suspended the goalkeeper and fined him 25,000 euros, believing him to have violated the club's reputation.
It will be intriguing to see whether the incoming coach Jürgen Klinsmann will observe Hitzfeld's code when he takes over on July 1st or will perhaps introduce modifications.
Modest president refuses to have stadium named after him
The Mexican president Felipe Calderón rejected a proposal of having his name given to the soccer stadium of Pachuca Tuzos. Calderón was presented with the idea on the occasion of the inauguration of a soccer academy in the Central Mexican city of Pachuca.
"I'm honoured, but I cannot accept the proposal. We the politicians have to avoid temptations that could lead us to losing contact with reality. Streets and buildings should not carry names of current politicians at all," said the modest president.
And his refusal had nothing to do with his support for Tuzos' rivals, Morelia Monarcas.
"On the contrary. My son supports Pachuca and even asked Santa Claus to bring him (goalkeeper's) Miguel Calero's shirt last Christmas. I wish the whole of Mexico could make progress like Pachuca, who came up from the Second Division and joined the elite."
Irony of fate: Kastrati had a testicle injured
Bekim Kastrati, from Fortuna Düsseldorf, sustained a severe injury during a game against Bayern Munich...an injury seriously reminiscent of his name.
In a collision with the mighty stopper Daniel van Buyten, Kastrati received a powerful blow on one of his testicles. Even though he somehow managed to stay on the pitch for a while, the pains forced him to call for help. He was urgently shipped to a hospital where the surgeons performed an operation on his ruptured testicle. The destiny of the misfortunate organ has not been made public, but doctors say Kastrati should be back in action in early March.
Sevilla's president rants against Juande Ramos
José María del Nido, president of UEFA Cup winners Sevilla, is not exacly an admirer of his former employee, Juande Ramos. Del Nido called the current Tottenham coach "a traitor" and that in Seville no-one follows his work at White Hart Lane.
"Not a single Sevilla fan is interested in how he fares in England. I, for one, could not care less," said the president of the coach who brought five trophies to his club in the space of 15 months.
On the other hand, Tottenham reached a major final after six years after beating none other than Arsenal by 5-1 in the League Cup semifinals.
"It doesn't matter. Juande Ramos is history. He betrayed Sevilla and went to another club for more money," concluded the president.
However, Juande is doublessly more concerned about what his current employers are thinking of him.
Manchester United, champions of ugly?
Wayne Rooney is the least attractive soccer player in the world, just ahead of Ronaldinho and Carlos Tévez according to a survey carried out on 2500 women. In the survey published on www.thepeoplesclub.com roughly a third of the participants voted for Rooney, humorously nicknamed Shrek after the ogre from the homonimous film.
The Manchester United ace finished ahead of Barcelona's Ronaldinho with his cartoon character features and his fellow Red Devil Tévez, famous for his facial scars. The comic beampole striker Peter Crouch just missed out on the medals, while Ronaldo Nazario occupied the fifth spot even though (or maybe because) of his recently grown curls.
"Our survey show that money can't buy you looks," said Carl Christensen, spokesperson of thepeoplesclub.com, in an interview to the Daily Star. "But money sure does help an ordinary guy get a good-looking girl. You have to look no further than Peter Crouch and Abbey Clancy."
He is certainly right about that, since 20% of the surveyed women claimed they wouldn't mind dating the ugly guys from the list, because their star status and their attractive bank accounts more than adequately compensate for any aesthetic shortcomings.
Top ten
The top-20 includes no less than seven Manchester United players, which speaks about the local character of the survey more than the guys' true status on the beauty market.
1 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)
2 Ronaldinho (Barcelona)
3 Carlos Tévez (Manchester United)
4 Peter Crouch (Liverpool)
5 Ronaldo Nazario Lima (Milan)
6 Luke Chadwick (Manchester United)
7 Robbie Fowler (Cardiff)
8 Darren Fletcher (Manchester United)
9 Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United)
10 Ruud Van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid)
Torres best looking, say the men
Probably inspired by the PeoplesClub's poll, the satirical website Chicken Dinner tried to find out about the best looking players in England. So they asked their male, presumably mostly heterosexual readers. The most popular with 35% of the votes turned out to be Liverpool's Fernando Torres, called El nino (The Boy).
"Torres is prettier than my last girlfriend," said one of the participants.
The Brazilian Kaká won a notable 9th place even though he does not even play in England.
"I voted for him because Milan kicked out Manchester United from the Champions' League," explained a City supporter.
The most attractive players
1 Fernando Torres (Liverpool)
2 Jermaine Jenas (Tottenham)
3 Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn)
4 David James (Portsmouth)
5 Theo Walcott (Arsenal)
6 Nani (Manchester United)
7 Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea)
8 Shaun Wright-Phillips (Chelsea)
9 Kaká (Milan)
10 Jeremy Aliadiere (Middlesbrough)
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Bayern introduce code of conduct
Bayern players had better behave. Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld personally compiled a code of conduct, obligatory for all the players at the Bavarian club. The introduction of the code was motivated by the captain's Oliver Kahn's recent outburst, a public criticism of his two new teammates Franck Ribery and Luca Toni.
"A couple of newcomers must understand that two or three good games are not enough here. Bayern is not Marseille or Fiorentina," said Kahn, obviously referring to the French and the Italian.
Bayern's board suspended the goalkeeper and fined him 25,000 euros, believing him to have violated the club's reputation.
It will be intriguing to see whether the incoming coach Jürgen Klinsmann will observe Hitzfeld's code when he takes over on July 1st or will perhaps introduce modifications.
Modest president refuses to have stadium named after him
The Mexican president Felipe Calderón rejected a proposal of having his name given to the soccer stadium of Pachuca Tuzos. Calderón was presented with the idea on the occasion of the inauguration of a soccer academy in the Central Mexican city of Pachuca.
"I'm honoured, but I cannot accept the proposal. We the politicians have to avoid temptations that could lead us to losing contact with reality. Streets and buildings should not carry names of current politicians at all," said the modest president.
And his refusal had nothing to do with his support for Tuzos' rivals, Morelia Monarcas.
"On the contrary. My son supports Pachuca and even asked Santa Claus to bring him (goalkeeper's) Miguel Calero's shirt last Christmas. I wish the whole of Mexico could make progress like Pachuca, who came up from the Second Division and joined the elite."
Irony of fate: Kastrati had a testicle injured
Bekim Kastrati, from Fortuna Düsseldorf, sustained a severe injury during a game against Bayern Munich...an injury seriously reminiscent of his name.
In a collision with the mighty stopper Daniel van Buyten, Kastrati received a powerful blow on one of his testicles. Even though he somehow managed to stay on the pitch for a while, the pains forced him to call for help. He was urgently shipped to a hospital where the surgeons performed an operation on his ruptured testicle. The destiny of the misfortunate organ has not been made public, but doctors say Kastrati should be back in action in early March.
Sevilla's president rants against Juande Ramos
José María del Nido, president of UEFA Cup winners Sevilla, is not exacly an admirer of his former employee, Juande Ramos. Del Nido called the current Tottenham coach "a traitor" and that in Seville no-one follows his work at White Hart Lane.
"Not a single Sevilla fan is interested in how he fares in England. I, for one, could not care less," said the president of the coach who brought five trophies to his club in the space of 15 months.
On the other hand, Tottenham reached a major final after six years after beating none other than Arsenal by 5-1 in the League Cup semifinals.
"It doesn't matter. Juande Ramos is history. He betrayed Sevilla and went to another club for more money," concluded the president.
However, Juande is doublessly more concerned about what his current employers are thinking of him.
Manchester United, champions of ugly?
Wayne Rooney is the least attractive soccer player in the world, just ahead of Ronaldinho and Carlos Tévez according to a survey carried out on 2500 women. In the survey published on www.thepeoplesclub.com roughly a third of the participants voted for Rooney, humorously nicknamed Shrek after the ogre from the homonimous film.
The Manchester United ace finished ahead of Barcelona's Ronaldinho with his cartoon character features and his fellow Red Devil Tévez, famous for his facial scars. The comic beampole striker Peter Crouch just missed out on the medals, while Ronaldo Nazario occupied the fifth spot even though (or maybe because) of his recently grown curls.
"Our survey show that money can't buy you looks," said Carl Christensen, spokesperson of thepeoplesclub.com, in an interview to the Daily Star. "But money sure does help an ordinary guy get a good-looking girl. You have to look no further than Peter Crouch and Abbey Clancy."
He is certainly right about that, since 20% of the surveyed women claimed they wouldn't mind dating the ugly guys from the list, because their star status and their attractive bank accounts more than adequately compensate for any aesthetic shortcomings.
Top ten
The top-20 includes no less than seven Manchester United players, which speaks about the local character of the survey more than the guys' true status on the beauty market.
1 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)
2 Ronaldinho (Barcelona)
3 Carlos Tévez (Manchester United)
4 Peter Crouch (Liverpool)
5 Ronaldo Nazario Lima (Milan)
6 Luke Chadwick (Manchester United)
7 Robbie Fowler (Cardiff)
8 Darren Fletcher (Manchester United)
9 Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United)
10 Ruud Van Nistelrooy (Real Madrid)
Torres best looking, say the men
Probably inspired by the PeoplesClub's poll, the satirical website Chicken Dinner tried to find out about the best looking players in England. So they asked their male, presumably mostly heterosexual readers. The most popular with 35% of the votes turned out to be Liverpool's Fernando Torres, called El nino (The Boy).
"Torres is prettier than my last girlfriend," said one of the participants.
The Brazilian Kaká won a notable 9th place even though he does not even play in England.
"I voted for him because Milan kicked out Manchester United from the Champions' League," explained a City supporter.
The most attractive players
1 Fernando Torres (Liverpool)
2 Jermaine Jenas (Tottenham)
3 Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn)
4 David James (Portsmouth)
5 Theo Walcott (Arsenal)
6 Nani (Manchester United)
7 Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea)
8 Shaun Wright-Phillips (Chelsea)
9 Kaká (Milan)
10 Jeremy Aliadiere (Middlesbrough)
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Friday, February 1, 2008
Just 51 Ten Minutes
Not too long ago, sexy Korean pop sensation Lee Hyo-ri famously sang “just one ten minutes”. The sultry songstress suggested that she could score with any man within that period of time. After Wednesday's defeat at the hands of Chile, South Korea’s footballers would have to sing "just 51 ten minutes" as the national team’s scoring drought stretches to almost biblical proportions.
Lee’s song was probably top of the charts when the Taeguk Warriors last hit the back of the net. While 90,000 Indonesians were present when Kim Jung-woo scored in Jakarta last July, there was only a select group of Korean witnesses. Soon, they could be sporting t-shirts that read “I saw Korea score.”
It won’t be t-shirt weather on Wednesday night when Turkmenistan comes to Seoul for the hosts’ first game of the 2010 World Cup qualification campaign. It certainly wasn’t last week either when Chile coolly won 1-0 at a three-quarters empty Seoul World Cup Stadium in Huh Jung-moo’s first game back as coach. A young and inexperienced team, freezing weather and Korea's Olympic handball play-off with Japan had contrived to keep the fans away.
The exhibition display, described as ‘toothless’ by most TV news stations, did little to warm those present . After 506 minutes of goalless football, there is little to be happy about as a Korean fan though Huh has promised a better performance on Wednesday.
He could be right as Park Ji-sung, one of the few Koreans more famous than the ubiquitous Lee Hyo-ri, returns home to take control of the situation. Park was absent from the Asian Cup through injury, as was Tottenham’s Lee Young-pyo and Seol Ki-hyeon of Fulham, but now all three are fully fit and ready to go. There should be a full house despite the fact that Seoul almost empties during festivities that celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Despite the lack of action in front of goal, the consolation is that Korea still managed to finish third at the Asian Cup and that the real action starts now. Failure to defeat a fairly physical, but rather limited, Turkmenistan team (ranked 128 in the world by FIFA, Korea are 41st) would put real pressure not only on the team but also the coach.
At this moment, few care if the next goal comes from a Christiano Ronaldo-style super shot or if it hits the backside of captain Kim Nam-il and rolls over the line. Three points are what is needed if the Year of the Mouse is to start on a positive note.
Also positive is the fact that the other two teams in the group are hardly Asia’s finest. It could have been much worse for Korea. Australia was drawn with China, Asian champions Iraq and Asian Games winners Qatar. Korea has, as well as the Turkmen, only North Korea and Jordan to worry about.
After Wednesday night, the next game in the group, from which the top two progress to the final round of qualification, sees South Korea make the short trip to Pyongyang in March. That will certainly be an interesting trip both in football, and other, terms. It will be a much more comfortable trip for the Taeguk Warriors if they have three points under their belt.
Whether that happens or not depends on Wednesday. Three years ago in the middle of the Lunar New Year holiday, Korea faced Kuwait in Seoul in another World Cup qualifier. Lee Young-pyo got the ball rolling that night, another sub-zero encounter, before a spectacular volley from Lee Dong-gook settled the encounter.
The latter Lee is still banned from the national team after late-night drinking sessions at the Asian Cup but even he may raise a glass back in England if Korea’s first steps on the road to South Africa in 2010 turn out to be firm and steady.
Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile
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