Amakosi for Life!

When I got back for joburg the other day i was happy to hear that Kirk gave Tumie the go ahead to get tickets to the Vodacom Challenge match. Billed "the clash of Sowetan giants...in PE" the match was between the Kaizer Chiefs and the Orlando Pirates. Both Teams are from Soweto (actually the single township boasts three premiere league clubs while all of the Eastern Cape has not one since the dismantling of the East London Bush Dogs). PE might not have a team but its got fans; People have been going nuts all week flying their colors and talking about it incessantly. The game was held in Telkom Park, an ancient Rugby stadium that seats about 25,000. As early s 4 houors before the match there were live performers, some quite big on the radio, singing and dancing on the field. There were no elaborate stages assembled or special effects, the old fashion little man or woman with a mike dancing his or her ass off o n the field in front of the growing crowd. And the crowd was dancing too. Before the game started it had the feel of a nightclub actually, albeit on with a strange dress-code. Everyone was decked out in black and white or black and yellow. Many had red painted faces (don't know why) and tons of people had enourmous hats and flags. My favorite getup was the black and yellow graduation gown with yellow painted face. Actually its somewhat similar to the costume I wore in the surrealist circus at Bard. Except I had a 5 inch yellow high-top to go along with it.
The style of play was quick and hard-hitting in the first half. I couldn't believe the ref wasn't calling more fouls in the first couple minutes. I remember thinking if they keep this up, the last player standing will be able to dribbble the ball into the net passed all the injured and knocked out players. Before long people did start to get injured but it made for some good grudge match football while it lasted. How does that saying go? When in a Rugby Stadium...
There was one guy on the Pirates who had just been bought from the top club in Zimbabwe, Highlanders FC, the same team that my boss, Kirk, Ethan Zohn, and Methembe Ndlovu played on before founding GRS.
The pirates scored the only goal just before half-time on a nice sideways airborne volley. It was a great goal but for the wrong team. I had chosen sides before the game, randomly I guess, but I bought a big chiefs flag for memorabilia. Once you're Amakosi (chiefs fan), you're Amakosi for life, rain or shine, win or loss.
Some of the coaches were truly formidable fans. One coach in particular, Palesa, who is generally quiet and at times shy, was dancing the whole time, singing louder than I thought she was capable of, and reacting so dramatically to what happened on the pitch that I would have thought they were her kids playing. We all know watching soccer can cause some serious personality shifts, especially in tight-laced parent types. Some of the best cheering for soccer Ive ever seen in the states has been done by loving parents driven mad by the fast paced competitive smash-up of power and skill that is soccer. They just forget their image and their logic and they go for it. "I'm gonna help my kid win in any way possible. If that means screaming at other parents, the refs, or even other kids then so be it." We've all seen this type of fan. Now imagine 25000 of them and imagine instead of screaming haphazardly at whoever they thought was standing between their kid and glory, they were all screaming soccer songs in unison or at nice plays on the field. Yes, I was right in thinking beforehand that a soccer match in Africa would be nothing like a soccer match back in the states. Unfortunately the game was ruined a bit for all of us when, after one of the coaches had left with a panicked and ghostly face, I got a text saying that she just found out her mother died unexpectedly. It was a rough week for GRS as another coach, the translator for Lesotho, Refiloe, just found out that his brother died from AIDS and Titie, though she doesn't even know yet , just got a letter saying that her scholarship is not going to work out for this year because of bogus NCAA technicalities. Im especially upset about Titie's news because I feel guilty for getting her psyched about it and also telling some people about it. At least it came with a promise that if she goes back to school here she can get a free masters at VCU and play soccer on the team for a year but Im a little skeptical of what Tiffany Roberts says now. Granted she's new to the job but It was a mistake to promise that Titie would be able to come with out actually knowing the rules as well as she should have. I still have to give her the email today and Im not looking forward to it one single bit.
Im gonna go finish my book...
thanks for tuning in,
Noah