Not American football, as in the real football that the rest of the world refers to. Anyways, I visited my friend Teresa in Nkokonjeru recently and as I was walking to her house I heard a HUGE uproar of voices shouting, yelling, and cheering. When I got to her house I looked out over a hill and saw a football game going on at a nearby field. The sun was almost setting so I was not sure that the noise was in reference to the end of the game, but I hurried over to see if I could catch any of the game. Luckily, I was able to see about 20 minutes of the game. Although I have seen bits of other games when I was training in Luweero, I was not able to fully take in the atmosphere of a high school football game here in Uganda. Wow, that is my first impression. There are an amazing amount of differences than in the United States, or at least from my memory of playing soccer in high school in upstate NY. The major differences stem from the crowd and method of play. The audience here is ridiculous, in a positive and negative way. In a positive light, they are very loyal and very encouraging of their players. Like they will jog around the field holding branches and holding a school flag while yelling to represent their school. Also, the amount of people who support their teams is amazing, I think I saw at least 2-300 people at this 'friendly' match in this village. And when their team scores it's like everyone at the field just won the lottery--they go INSANE. As in people rush the field to scream, cheer, shake the players hands and have a mini party--right in the middle of the game. This is where I thought people go a little overboard and if I was the referee I would want to put a stop to some of these actions because of the delay of game because it took a good couple minutes after the 3 goals that I saw to collect and restart the game. When I played if we didn't start after about 20 seconds it was thought of as a delay of game and we would be penalized, let alone be chastised for unsportsman-like conduct. Also, the fans stand ON the field during the game or at least the side line (which I couldn't see because it was dusk and the kids played on a half dirt half overgrown field) and in my opinion interfered with the game. The crowd not only stands on the side lines, but the majority hovers around and in the goal and goal line. Again, as a referee I would not allow this interference and complete lack of appropriateness, but the ref I saw had a hard enough time keeping control of the players let alone the audience. Now about the style of play in Uganda. It is the stereotypical developing world style of play, as in the individuals have great ball skills, speed, and agility, but do not know how to play together as a team or control the ball by passing it around the field. The players mostly rely on their strength and speed but tend to bunch a lot and lack a lot of technical and strategic skills that come with quality coaching. Also, just in my opinion, and maybe just at this game, but I think these boys were being so dramatic and weak. If they were pushed at all or there was a questionable handball they would all stop and put up there hands and look at the ref for a call, while the other team took control of the ball. Many of the players would play dirty as well, complain when they got a call, but also when someone was just being a little aggressive the opponent would complain or fall instead of being strong and holding his ground. Then I got to see penalty kicks because apparently they don't do overtime when there is a tie or they don't keep it as a draw. Well, actually, I didn't get to SEE anything because all 2-300 people surrounded the goal and even into and around the penalty box. Therefore, just from the cheers I know that the red team won. Anyways, it was overall a great experience to see the passion and love of a game that in America I deem as overlooked.
