ELECTRIFYING ATMOSPHERE, BARREN MATCH (PAGE 29, DEC 18)

THE atmosphere was electrifying; the spectators hysterical but the match itself was drippy. No wonder the outcome was a barren draw.
Even though I went to the Badenova Stadium with a colleague to witness an anticipated competitive premier league match between the home side, SC Freiburg and FC Koln at the weekend, the passionate supporters of the two uninspiring teams ended up entertaining me.
They were there in their thousands and in the chilly weather stood on their feet, drumming, cheering, jumping and waving their respective flags to urge their teams on to a victory that never came. The stadium was earlier set ablaze upon the arrival of the teams on the green turf. The spectators gleefully screamed the names of their beloved players as these blared out of the loud speakers.
And at the dying embers of the lacklustre match, it became a shouting duel between the partisan Freiburg crowd and the marginal visiting supporters at both ends of the posts. As was to be expected, the home side eventually won the competition.
The buzz on the match began on Friday night with the arrival of the supporters of the visiting team into Freiburg. And by the following Saturday morning, almost everybody was spotting the paraphernalia of the two teams, which coincidentally is red and white.
Vehicles and trams were packed with both sexes of old and young supporters heading to the stadium. And by 3:30 pm (kick-off) local time, the 25,000 capacity stadium was full.
The contrast was sharp. A premier league match involving my home team, Real Tamale United (RTU) back in Tamale, Ghana does not receive such patronage. Only a few supporters turn up to watch matches at the 21,000 capacity plush stadium. They usually prefer to stay back and pay paltry fees to watch English Premiership matches which have become popular in Ghana, following the exploits of some celebrated Ghanaian players such as Michael Essien. They describe the local matches as lacking quality.
The Freiburg-Koln match did not live up to my expectation either, but their raucous supporters won my admiration for their display of loyalty and adoration for their respective teams.
Never mind that players upfront for the home team were particularly disappointing as they kept on fumbling and dancing around the ball as if they had never directed a ball into the net. Have they?
The vociferous supporters won the day for me after all. And as I walked out of the stadium with numb feet in the frigid temperature of about two degrees, I said to myself, “what a match!”