Ghana GOOAAALLLL!! CAN 2008 is here!

My experience with soccer has been limited to watching Sean play during Saturday morning games of his Pee Wee soccer team. Being from New Jersey, with parents from the "Big Apple," well, baseball, I know, I get, and I love it. It is not boring. I am a huge N.Y. Yankees fan; I cried the day Thurman Munson was killed in a plane crash (August 2nd, 1979... and I didn't look the date up). But soccer was an unknown sport to me. The only name I knew was Pele, and that was because he played for the N.J. Cosmos soccer team at the same time that I worked at the N.J. Meadowlands Arena, just before I got fired for setting the concession stand on fire... but that's another story.

Welcome to Ghana football. The Ghana Black Stars are Ghana's football team. And yesterday was the opening game of the African Cup of Nations, which Ghana is proudly hosting. In our brand new Ohene Djan Sports stadium in Accra, the Ghana Black Stars took on the Syli Nationals of Guinea. And with a last minute (really, absolutely last minute) goal by Sulley Muntari, won the opening game with a score of 2 to 1.

Sean, Sly and I sat watching the game on TV in the comfort of our living room, though Sean would gladly have given his left __________ [fill in the blank] to be at the game personally. He and Sly discussed the plays, the players, the coach, the defense, the offense, the stadium, the pitch (which means the field, I found out), the ball, the weather, you name it, it got discussed. I cannot believe how much Sean knows about football and the players and the teams they play for and what have you. I was astounded.

But anyway, for most of the game, I found it fairly boring. The whole first half, Ghana attempted to score and missed a number of times, thanks to a great Guinea goal keeper. Finally, Ghana scored, and the whole stadium went wild. And not only the whole stadium, but the whole country! There was yelling and cheering and car honking that went on and on for about 10 minutes after the first goal. It stopped only when Guinea scored the equalizer.

Then, only moments after Sly and Sean harangued Sulley Muntari in absentia, bemoaning his lethargy and commenting on the coach's lack of vision that he'd leave that tired old player in the game that long, that finally, Sulley blasted his trademark "rocket" shot and scored the winning goal. The noise that erupted from the stadium, from the neighborhood and from this house, was nothing short of a cacophony of ear-splitting sound.

It may sound weird, but it brought goosebumps to my arms and tears to my eyes. Not that I'm such a big fan of soccer, but how could you not love a country that loves it national team so much. I'm not used to that. When the Yankees won the World Series, the excitement and thrill was no where near as all encompassing as Ghana was last night. Maybe cause our next door neighbors were Met fans, and the guy next to them was a displaced Red Sox fanatic. I mean, even if you didn't own a television or have a radio handy, you would absolutely know exactly what was happening in the game, the collective cheering or booing or even sighing was impossible not to hear.

The jubilation was nothing short of awe inspiring. And that was only the first game. If Ghana makes it all the way through to the finals, I'll be investing in a sweater, a box of tissues and ear plugs.

To watch last night's highlights, follow this link http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/SportsArchive/artikel.php?ID=137920

Oh, and if you're interested in watching the other games, you might want to try this link http://tv.africanpath.com/