We were being picked up at 14:30 by the MD, but at 13:00 hrs while I was enjoying a nice Club Sandwich (no tomatoes!) the rain came down with a vengeance! There are two rain seasons in Rwanda and one of them is in March/April. Yeah, lucky me...
And it was pouring! A typical tropical rainstorm with those large raindrops, wind and even a bit of lightning. Surely the game would be cancelled... or not? I called our host to get the confirmation on the cancellation, but to my surprise he told me not to worry "because it was covered". Covered? A covered stadium in Kigali? With a real roof? One that would open and close? No way!
Oh well, I went back upstairs to get my jacket and at the agreed time our colleague picked us up. If you drive the main roads of Kigali it looks very clean and modern. At times I even think it's like driving through an American suburb. On the way to the stadium though, we passed through poorer neighbourhoods and all of a sudden Kigali looked African again. And as we got closer to the stadium, more and more people dressed in blue and white populated the sandy road. It was that typical feeling of pre-game excitement, when fans sing and cheer in anticipation of their teams good performance.
After a 15 minute drive we got to the Stade Regional de Nyamirambo. Yes, the stadium in which the game would be held. As it had rained heavily and there was still some downpour, the area outside the place was one big muddy field. Of course, we were in the car with a member of the Rwandan FA, so we had the privilege of VIP parking. This parking is inside the stadium were you basically park your car behind one of the goals. As a VIP you basically run the risk of getting your wind shield smashed by a shot that missed its intended target (assuming of course that the player intended to score a goal).So, we were now inside the stadium. Well... ehh... stadium? The stadium is a football pitch with a large wall around it. Inside there are two stands on either side of the field. One has about 4 levels of concrete to sit on and the other main stand is about 15 concrete steps high. For those of you from Curaçao, it looked a bit like the old Rif or Suffisant "Stadiums".
And covered? Ha! Of course not. The VIP stand was covered! That's why we were told not to worry. We had V-I-P seats. This means that instead of sitting on the concrete steps we had plastic garden chairs to sit in. There was even a higher level of VIPs with highly ranked politicians and club presidents. They sat on meeting room chairs!
Luckily the pitch was artificial turf (a donation from the FIFA), so the game would not suffer from the rain. The teams lined up to greet the crowd and take the mandatory team photo's. All this time the - uncovered - stand to our left got fuller and fuller with the most fanatic fans of Rayon Sport. The entire game they created a continuous party with African drum beats, songs and even a some tribal dancing. One guy acted as the spiritual leader and kneeled in front of the stands, shaking his body to the rhythm and beating the soil with his hands. Probably calling up the spirits to bless the team and lead them to victory.
The game started and from the first minute it was clear what both teams' objectives were. Rayon went furiously on the attack and the Ethiopians just wanted to waste time. From the very first minute! They were on the ground so often, I almost felt like calling in some UN food droppings to strengthen them a bit.
The locals played very well but just couldn't score. Enough chances, but poor finishing. Half time score therefore was 0-0 and the fans started looking a bit worried. But not our "medicine man"! No, he was still doing is tribal dancing and obviously had faith in the final result.
Second half started and it was a copy of the first half, until the 73th minute. Finally Rayon Sport scored and the stadium erupted! People cheered, yelled and danced! The drums got beaten on more intensely and this is when it happened! Panic with the security! The medicine man had collapsed and lay there motionless on the ground. The Red Cross, who until then had had their hands full with all the suffering Ethiopian players, were rushed to him and (what looked like a real) doctor came from the VIP section to check what was going on. 5 minutes later the boy was carried out of the stadium and the doctor returned, making the well known gesture that the spiritual leader had had a bit too much of the spirits. No, not the ones from the afterlife, but the ones that come in bottles from your local liquor store.
Everybody focused again on the game and some 5 minutes before the end Rayon sport scored their second. It was now 2-0 and that meant that the local heroes had wiped out the poor result from the first match. The Ethiopians looked lost and had to hold on for dear life to make it to the final whistle. They succeeded in that objective. Both matched had now ended in 2-0 victories, meaning that there had to be more action to decide this one. I was ready for the extra 30 minutes, but to my surprise it went straight to penalties.
The penalties turned out to be something from a movie. A Hollywood movie of course. Harar Beer missed their first penalty, but all other went in easily until the very last one of Rayon Sport. The 5th player went up to the penalty spot and if he scored, it would be all over and Kigali could start partying. The crowd held their breath as he ran up to the ball and took the shot...
From then on everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The shot was to the right of the goal keeper, who anticipated well and dove towards the ball. He stopped it with his hands as I heard someone behind me whisper "sh*t!". However, the ball slipped from his hand, went via his legs and slowly rolled on the goal line. It was like a scene from a basketball flick where the winning shot just rolls and rolls on the rim, before falling in.
The ball rolled all the way to the other side of the goal. The goalkeeper saw this, got up and ran after it to stop it from crossing the line. Everybody just stared at the ball praying for it to go in. It was as if time stood still. As the Ethiopian goalkeeper dove towards the ball, it actually decided to cross the goal line at the very end. Everybody looked at the ref... he signalled goal!
The game was over. Rayon Sport qualified for the next round and the party started. People ran on the pitch, the fans went wild, and in the meanwhile the opponents attacked the referee. It took some 20 heavily armed military police to separate the opponents from the officials.
Finally things settled and we could leave the stadium. On our way back it was a party. The street were full of fans cheering and waving with whatever blue and white they had. Scarfs, sheets, flags, towels, anything! As long as it was blue and white. Well, that day we became a bit blue and white too! Go Rayon Sport!
PS: That last penalty sounds to unreal to be true. Luckily after the game I met Eric, the webmaster of the local football federation, who filmed it with his digicam. Check it out! Apologies for the text on the screen, but that is because it was converted with trial software.
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