Watching Foodball in The Gambia

It probably goes without saying that the World Cup has been huge in The Gambia.  Every boy here is a football fan (soccer to you Americans. My question is why is US football named football, they really don't use their feet on the ball that much)  When I was in Soma I watched the US Game in a video club, which are where most Gambians gather to watch football.  It was an interesting experience.  The Argentina/Nigeria game was on one television and the US/Germany game was on the other.

Unfortunately the sound was only on for the Argentina/Nigeria game. The US game was video only. Argentina scored the first goal in either game and several of the men leaped to their feet and cheered.  I asked someone why they were cheering for Argentina and they said that Christian Reynaldo played for Real Madrid and Real Madrid had many fans in The Gambia.  So I thought the fans were favoring Argentina. Then Nigeria scored and the room erupted.  Obviously, the Africa pull was much stronger than the club soccer loyalties.

I will confess that I ended up spending more time watching the Argentina game.  The camera work was better on that network and sound does make a big difference.  The US lost but was able to advance to the next round so it was okay.  Below is a different view of the video club so you can get the whole picture. We paid 5 dalasi to get in and 2 dalasi for a bag of water.  Can the cineplexes in the states compete with that.

If it looks to you like it might have been hot inside, it was.