This article might sound humorous, but thats how i intended it to be. Our future generations would remember this very day, Saturday 26th January, 2013. This day would be forever etched in our memories as the very day that during a football match between Togo and Algeria at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium at the 29th African Cup of Nations in South Africa, whiles Togo lead by a lone goal, the goalpost just gave in and it had to be fixed. This was a rare sight to behold., as the match was put on hold for more than ten minutes. This happened at the 87th minute as the Algerians made all attempts to equalize so as to avoid an early exit from the tournament. The referee signaled to the technical men to come unto the pitch to fix this problem and about a “Thousand” of them quickly run unto the pitch and lo and behold it took another seven minutes for them to rectify the problem with the goalpost. But the commentators were very quick to point out the fact that this was not the first time such an incident had happened, and during the FIFA World Cup 1994 held in the USA, a similar incident happened, so Africans should not be embarrassed about this unfortunate incident. But one can not avoid laughing aloud when this incident happened as all the players and match officials were baffled not knowing the next line of action to take. If this had happened in Ghana, a committee would have been set up to investigate the whole incident. Members on this committee would be seen grinning from ear to ear as they would get the opportunity to make some money out of this unfortunate situation, but this is South Africa. Togo went on to win the match by a two goal margin and the Algerians found themselves ready to pack bags and baggage after their last match against the Ivory Coast. We all know that this issue about the goalpost would be the topic on most of the airwaves and on the internet sports websites for a long time to come, even this would linger on after the tournament. But, hey Africans love their football, and i know that by now some people would be alluding to some sort of “African Magic” or “African Electronics” to the dislodged goalpost. Football is the game and we should expect anything from such a wonderful and beautiful game. And the game ended on a victorious note for Togo with the Algerians licking their wounds, end of story.
ourghanablog 