The other excitement today was the world cup game between the US and Algeria. Those of you who know your geography will know that Algeria and Morocco are neighbors. Now there is some animosity between Algeria and Morocco over certain political issues (see the western Sahara), but in general the Moroccans tend to support the Algerian soccer team in the world cup.
In addition the Moroccans will generally support any African team in the world cup as they would like to see them do well, especially this year as the world cup is in Africa for the first time in the tournaments history. So needless to say it was a fun environment when the US and Algeria clashed this afternoon. A bunch of students and I went to a local cafe to watch the game and the atmosphere was crazy. The Moroccans were constantly cheering against the US and for Algeria and they got particularly loud as the end of the game neared and the US was looking like they would be unable to win and advance in the tournament. Luckily though fate intervened and the US scored in stoppage time (the last couple minutes of a game) to win the match. the Americans of course went crazy and the Moroccans had to endure our prolonged cheering and chants of U-S-A, U-S-A! Most of them were very nice and congratulated us on the victory (remember at least it was not "their" team that lost).
Landon Donovan after scoring the winning goal for the US
Also funny to note is that towards the end of the game the director of our school showed up at the cafe and exclaimed "So this is where all the students are!". Class was technically in session during the game but there were basically no students at school as most of us choose to play hooky in order to watch the second half of the game. Once the game was over like a good student I quickly made my way back to school in order to catch the last hour of my afternoon class.
In addition the Moroccans will generally support any African team in the world cup as they would like to see them do well, especially this year as the world cup is in Africa for the first time in the tournaments history. So needless to say it was a fun environment when the US and Algeria clashed this afternoon. A bunch of students and I went to a local cafe to watch the game and the atmosphere was crazy. The Moroccans were constantly cheering against the US and for Algeria and they got particularly loud as the end of the game neared and the US was looking like they would be unable to win and advance in the tournament. Luckily though fate intervened and the US scored in stoppage time (the last couple minutes of a game) to win the match. the Americans of course went crazy and the Moroccans had to endure our prolonged cheering and chants of U-S-A, U-S-A! Most of them were very nice and congratulated us on the victory (remember at least it was not "their" team that lost).
Landon Donovan after scoring the winning goal for the USAlso funny to note is that towards the end of the game the director of our school showed up at the cafe and exclaimed "So this is where all the students are!". Class was technically in session during the game but there were basically no students at school as most of us choose to play hooky in order to watch the second half of the game. Once the game was over like a good student I quickly made my way back to school in order to catch the last hour of my afternoon class.
Thus all in all it has been a crazy and full day of events here in Morocco between translating and world cup drama. At this point I am basically a bit past half-way done with my classes here in Morocco which is hard to believe. Time sure does fly!
1 comment:
I watched that game - GO USA! Did you see the fan in the crowd that had the "YES WE CAN" sign? I thought it was a funny tie to the political race from 2 years ago. Glad you got to see the game too!
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