Football match in Khartoum (II)

The line up of both teams while listening to the speech being delivered by the Malaysian Ambassador to Sudan.

Played as captain & in a striker position with another Sudanese. Forgotten the timing but a pass came to me on the right side of the field in the middle of the field. Brought the ball up a bit & noticed a white shirt Sudanese running pass on my left. With a calculated pass, it got to the front of him and it was 1 on 1 against the goalie and he scored with me closely behind. So we thought we could hold them now. I gave my all in the 1st half with all the runnings hoping to catch through balls and only had 1 shot at goal later with 1 defender pushing me on the left and another 1 breathing down my neck.

Just 1 minute before the end of the game, I gave chase on a Moroccan, right from (left side) middle of the field to the penalty area. I could say it was a good sprint. That guy was really fast and I still have time to think, should I tackle now or not. Well, I went ahead with the tackle and I caught him flat. The referee came straight to me and I was shown a yellow card. The opponent’s players were asking for a red card as I was the last man. The whole defence collapsed and imagined a striker have to do this job. My M’sian colleague, Nazril, was on top form and he saved the penalty. However, the 1st half ended in 4-1, not in our favour…..hehehe.
A big, almost bald, dry field for us to kick about. Just when the young boy rushed in, the football officials stopped the game indefiniely.....HEHEHEHE!!! just joking.

I opted out for the 2nd half. Too exhausted playing in a hot country even at night. We managed to pull 2 goals back. The opponent knew how to respond too, with 3 more goals. I went in later and helped out at the defence who was totally out. Final score 7-3.

Some of the local Sudanese watching the game. My dear colleague, Meor (in yellow shirt) was adjudged the unofficial best supporter for the night. His comments, in arabic, made the local Sudanese laughed.
The score stood as it is but everyone enjoyed the game. The best has yet to come. As we were giving final handshakes, I thanked the referee too (if you noticed me as no. 9 placing my hand on the referee's shoulder thanking him as shown above). He remembered my face, being the only Chinese on the field. He told me this exact words “I could have given you a red card but because it was a friendly” ………….hehehehhehe….phew!!

Prizes were given away to both teams for their participation. Lots of drama for me on this match day. At the end, we were served with some food. To eat comfortably, I took off my boots/shin pads/socks. Just when I walked away to obtain the prize we received to distribute it, my boots/pads/socks were gone within that 1 minute. Even with my colleagues there, it disappeared into thin air. One of our footballs disappeared too. This is 3rd world country.

One of my colleague consoled me….tomorrow by lunch time, my half day salary would have covered the cost of my lost properties…..hehehehe, true also. Anyway, the boots’ outer skin was coming off already and I did have in mind to get new shin pads next trip back to M’sia.
Came back home by 10.45pm and a few of us took instant noodles. Cleaned up, did my daily devotion and typed this out.
Tags: Journal, Diary, Life, Khartoum, Sports, Football, Soccer