HLM vs. AS Pikine

It may seem surprising, and it certainly is for me, that it took three weeks to make it to my first professional soccer game here in Senegal. I will say to my credit that it was not for lack of trying. The difficulty here is locating any kind of schedule of upcoming matches. The whole time I’ve been here I’ve been scouring the internet, able only to find recaps and write-ups about past domestic matches. Even these were hard to find as most of the attention on Senegalese websites regarding sports focuses on the larger European leagues. My only success game when I started to look through the many papers available at street side kiosks. It is all in French, obviously, so it would be safe to say that trying to get some grasp of the local soccer scene has been one area where my French has been put to use quite often, and what better reward for my translation efforts then being able to watch a game! What proved to be my major breakthrough is a weekly sports paper called Stades le quotien du sport. Unfortunately, it failed to mention an African Champions League match between one of Senegal’s best teams, Jaraaf Dakar, and Gambia’s Port Authority. I had to settle for watching this game on TV, which finished as a 1-1 draw with Jaraaf equalizing in the 88^th minute with an athletically executed bicycle kick. After watching that match I really got my act together and made sure I would not miss any more Senegalese soccer action.

The way it works in Dakar is there is there is a national stadium (Stade Leopold Sedhar Senghor) which is reserved for national contests and only the biggest wrestling matches, a smaller Stade Demba Diop, which hosts some large wrestling matches and most of the local professional games. There are also some smaller stadiums around that are used for less blockbuster wrestling events and Ligue 2 soccer games. Today was my second attempt at Demba Diop, the first being a frustrating and unsuccessful venture over the weekend.

Ali and I had a half hour to get from our class at Universite Cheikh Anta Diop to Stade Demba Diop. We made swiftly for the main avenue, grabbed a bus and made it there for part of the pregame warm-up. Our tickets cost CFA500, about $1, which, as we later found out, granted us access only the endline seating and not those sections along the touchline (which cost double). I tried to keep my expectations low going into the game because, due to the apparent lack of interest in local football, I thought just another midweek league fixture would not have the atmosphere I have fantasized about. Fortunately, upon my arrival, I was blown away. Granted the stadium was nowhere near capacity, the noise of singing and drumming paired with the teams various warm-up routines still gave me the chills and put a huge, inerasable smile on my face. This was what I’ve been waiting for, my first professional football match in Africa. Once the game got underway, the play itself was to some extent what I had anticipated, the defending was lackluster (to say the least) at times and the goalkeeping was very questionable throughout. However, there was no lack of entertainment value. The creativity and athleticism were there, yielding some exciting moments of brilliance, but there were also plenty of disappointing letdowns and unusual decision-making. That having been said, we got to see a great goal from AS Pikine, who dominated most of the game and, if it weren’t for a lack of final composure when on attack, should have been up by a larger margin at half.

That having been said it was a thrilling experience and one I’m sure I will relive many, many times while I’m here. Since the same stadium is used as a venue for almost all the leagues games in Dakar there are games almost every day. The next two evenings there are Ligue 1 games that I will be attending, so many more soccer posts are on the way!