Getting to know Ugandan football

It’s a whole different ball game here… Maybe my African friends in the US can attest to this, or maybe I’m just wildly offending them…if so- sorry!!!! :) You know who you are, and you know I think you are some of the (if not THE) most talented players I know!

Back to the task at hand. Last Saturday we headed to Nelson Mandela Stadium on the outskirts of Kampala to see Uganda take on Angola in the first of 2 qualifying matches for the African Nations Cup in 2012. I assumed this would be a heated match and we would be in for a good night of action…Well, we certainly were, but it was mostly in the stands to be honest! We had an awesome time and I can only imagine now what the World Cup was like… the vuvuzelas, the chants, drums, the water bottles being thrown every other minute (and who knows what else!). It was great fun and even the rainstorm during first half didn’t dampen anyone’s spirit while we all cheered on the Cranes.

Ballers as they are known here (I giggle every time…) are in incredible shape, yet most professional athletes are. These guys are fast though, like…really fast. They can kick the ball really hard, too…but sometimes it seemed like we were watching tennis rather than soccer!! I realize I’m no pro here, but it seemed the caliber should be a bit higher for this level, you know? The strategy of clustering the ball and running straight up and down the middle, that, in America, we try to get out of our kids heads seems to be the strategy of choice here. No one makes runs of any kind, no one really challenges the ball. Ah-ha!! I can hear you say (or at least you, Dad……..) this is where WE come in, Soccer Without Borders. We want to get these young players to think creatively and pro actively. To actually make those overlapping runs and create plays. It’ll be a challenge, but I know we are up for it.

In the end, Uganda came up 3-0. Good times for all. As soon as we squeezed, literally, our way out of the turnstile – others chose the climb on top of another method – we saw the boda (vespa) drivers pulling up all these nice plants outside the stadium!! I asked my friend Jasiri what on Earth they were doing and he told me that’s how to celebrate! You wave these plants around. You stick them in wherever they’ll stick and you run the streets screaming and chanting and cheering. It was crazy. And so awesome.