Football in Zanzibar

I have several fond memories of watching soccer (football matches).  Watching Pele live playing for Santos doing a bicycle kick that slammed into the crossbar; sitting through a US-Jamaica game with Len in the pouring rain; waking up at 3am to watch the US beat Mexico in Phil’s basement; watching Germany come from two down to beat Holland while recovering from being sick as a dog when I was in Germany in 1976.  Well, I have a new memory to add.

For those who don’t know (how could you not?), the European Cup started this past weekend.  Well, last Saturday I walked a friend back to her guesthouse because it was dark.  On the way back to my hotel I ran into a bunch of guys watching a game on a TV.  Denmark was beating Holland 1-0 (a HUGE upset in the making).  I had to stop and watch the last 20+ minutes of the game.  Lots of friendly banter about who I favor, who scored, what wasn’t working for Holland.  Mixed moans and cheers whenever a Dutch shot went wide.  Disbelief when it ended 1-0.  

I immediately rushed back to my hotel room to catch the Germany-Portugal match on cable only to find out that, yes the room had cable, but not the right channel so the game was not on.

I’m glad I stopped to watch the game when I did.  It’s one of my better experiences from Zanzibar.  Watching the beautiful game in the streets of Zanzibar with a bunch of locals, what a memory!