Go Mambas!!!

Oh boy! What an experience! The entire last week the hotel staff, taxi drivers, bar tenders and anybody that looks remotely Mozambican (and male) has been talking about one thing and one thing only: the big Mozambique vs. Senegal football clash to be played in the weekend.

Both countries find themselves in the same qualification poule for the African Nations Cup for which the finals are next January in Ghana. Senegal was leading the group with 7 out of 4 and the Mambas where joint second with 5 out of 4. And now the hugely favourite Senegal came to town. To my hotel, to be more precise. Oh well, one year you find yourself in the company of Messi and then you find yourself surrounded by half of the African premiership players.

Now the Mambas, as the national team is affectionately named (..after the Black Mamba snake that is...), had never really done anything in football. Yes, the best Portuguese player of all time, Eusebio, is originally from here, but everyone knows him as a Portuguese player. You know, like that other Portuguese guy Deco!

So this Sunday would be the start of a glorious era. The era of the Mambas! And yes, I was going to be part of it! Two colleagues agreed to join and after some (re-)searching we managed to buy tickets. The ticket set us back some 1.50 euros but you only live once, heh?

Off to the game we went. The stadium is some 20 minutes outside Maputo. On your way you pass 'villages' constructed on top of what looked like garbage, but that didn't stop the residents to wave Mozambican flags and shouting "Mambas! Mambas!".

What we encountered there is hard to describe. I have seen many live football matches, but never one like this. The stadium doors opened at 11:00 whilst the kick-off time is at 15:00. And yes, by 12:30 the 25.000 capacity stadium is full. Still, that doesn't imply that everybody is inside. No sir! Still 2 hours left to stack people in there. Yes, including us.

By the time we were inside there was just no place to sit or stand. After some wrestling we found ourselves sitting on the asphalt cycling track around the pitch. Around us some 35.000, mostly drunk, Mozambican supporters. Because what else can you do from 11:00 onwards than drink very cheap warm red wine from a cardboard box? (like juice containers)

What happened around is pure craziness. People drunk, people singing, people peeing, people undressing (they were playing a song titled "Tira ropa" meaning 'Take off your clothes'), people fighting, people fainting, people shouting, people dancing... We sat there looking around us in total amazement. And yes, we were the only non-locals which meant we basically could not keep a low profile.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot! The game! The Mambas fought and fought really hard. They were actually better and missed at least 3 clear opportunities to go ahead. I cannot even imagine what the people would have been like if the Mambas scored! Well they didn't and neither did Senegal. The end result being that Mozambique will need to beat Tanzania away in September and pray for some favourable (but unlikely) results in other matches.

Like the Dutch national coach of Mozambique said after the game: "You can't win them all...". As if, they always do!

PS: More pics of this game and of Maputo can be found soon on my website http://maputo.lopezramirez.net