Africa Cup of Nations Final
- Annika Graber
- Feb 7, 2022
- 2 min read
So Sunday was one for the books. Senegal made it to the finals of the Africa Cup of Nations, which is basically the World Cup for the continent of Africa. Based on the previous games, we didn't know exactly how the country would react, but we knew it would be huge either way. We decided to go to a restaurant nearby to watch the game. You could literally feel the anticipation in the air. I've never lived in a city where the entire population is unified around one event. The game lasted so long. I am for sure not a soccer expert, but even I could tell that Egypt's goalie was insanely good. I'm pretty sure Senegal took twice as many shots as Egypt but nothing went in. The game ended up going into overtime where nothing happened, so they had to move on to penalty kicks. The best out of 5 wins. The TV next to us was a few seconds ahead to we had warning about what happened. It got to the point that Egypt was behind by one so if Senegal made the final shot they would win... and they did! There wasn't a ton of people in the restaurant but it was pure chaos.
From then on the streets were celebrating literally the whole night home. It was a party on the way home. Then the streets were filled with dancing, cars honking, singing, and any kind of celebration.
Not only was it exciting that they won, but it was the first time they had one this cup. Also their current coach is the first Senegalese coach for the team.
Some scenes from the streets
Today the city is dead. We didn't know any better so we got up per usual (after hardly sleeping since the party lasted all night long). But as we walked to school, there was hardly any traffic at all (normally it's standstill all the way). There were no street vendors, nothing open, etc. I guess it's an unwritten rule that the day after a win is an automatic holiday. Unfortunately, our Wolof teacher still came to work, he jokingly (but not really) told us that only the Americans were working today. The kitchen ladies and the rest of the staff didn't show up either so it was literally just us at the research center. We convinced the director to let us out for the afternoon so now we are just waiting for lunch. The kitchen is closed so we are just waiting for some food to be delivered and then we get to head home! Overall a very exciting day!
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