Senegal vs. Guinea

I found out about this game within a week of arriving in Dakar thanks to a chance purchase of a local sports daily paper called Stades, which has become my lifeline in terms of finding out when and where games are being played. Still, however, the amount of information available is still very frustrating coming from America, where there are numerous reliable sources (online, in print, etc.) for finding out information about matches. Here it seems to be very much up to word of mouth or chance. For instance, we only found out the time of the game when we got our tickets, which ended up being the day before because the places listed in the paper never received there share of tickets to sell. Unreliable, unpredictable, and inconvenient are three words that have come up a lot when trying navigate Dakar, especially in terms of sports, transportation and the local university, which is another story all together.

Since we didn’t know exactly how to get to the stadium we had to ask around and eventually got a bus that took us 45 minutes North were the conductor told us to get off and walk the last bit. To my surprise and delight, the stadium soon came in to view; we had made it and were still early enough to catch some of the warm-up. Even though we were about 40 minutes early, our side of the stadium was packed and we had to settle for seats up higher than I would have like. But, we were at midfield and had a great view of the action, much of which was in the stands. There was a healthy Guinean contingent that started off louder than the local Senegalese supports but gradually got silenced as the game went on. For both sides, though, every clap, fist pump or form of acknowledgement from one of the players sent the respective supporters into an episode of dancing, singing, drumming and clapping. We (seven other American students and I) were having a fantastic time along with everyone else, and the game hadn’t even begun yet.

The game took a while to get into any kind of rhythm because of the usual injuries and stoppages that I’ve become accustomed to here in Senegal. We saw the best of Guinea early when they were pressing hardest and riding whatever momentum they could get. They threatened the Senegal goal on occasion but were never able to put one away. Senegal accepted this initial surge and soon took control of the game with their superior passing, skill, and speed almost all across the field, led by three of their international stars: Mamadou Niang, Moussa Sow, and Papiss Cisse (who, like the whole Senegalese team play in Europe with the exception of one keeper who plays domestically and one who plays in the MLS).

Senegal ended up scoring three nice goals, though they could have added more, and hit the crossbar one occasion from a free kick. The first two were pretty good individual efforts from Cisse and Sow and the third was one of the nicest goals I have ever seen live. I’m debating whether to even try and describe it or not because I’m sure I will not do it justice but I will give it a shot because I’d love to try and relive it myself. It started with a mistake from the Guinea right-back, which gave Senegal the ball on the touch-line about a quarter of the way from the end-line. After some nifty footwork and close one-touch passing the ball was lifted into the air, passed with heads, chest, and a heal before it was crossed to a completely open far post where the right winger buried it on the volley into the roof of the net from about 15 yards out. Even though it was a late third goal in a 3-0 victory, the whole Senegal bench cleared and assembled in the corner for a celebration. It truly was a beautiful goal (dare I say Barcelona-esque). After the game I was in a state of euphoria, despite the somewhat daunting task of trying to find my way back home. All I could think about was Senegal vs. Cameroon in an African Cup of Nations qualifying game on March 26^th. Counting the days.