Bend it like Ahmed

Had a good weekend... Thursday after work me and Cowboy Ricky joined talked a couple of co-workers, Hossam and Hany, into taking us to a football match in Suez. We met them across the street from the Stadium and parked the cars. Hany brought his dad, who has a few connections around Suez due to him being the manager of the local motor vehicles department. So we found the nearest security guard at the gate, told him how it was going to be, then got escorted in. We took our seats in the general seated stadium, in the midst of the Egyptian throng looking for a key win in the viciously competitive national professional league. It was a good game, the visitors went up 1-0, but Suez tied it up before half-time. But Suez couldn't fend of the attack and went down 2-1 in the second half. But the crowd got behind the team and encouraged their players to press for more. After a sustained attack in the opposing end for a solid 3 minutes the visitors cleared the ball... one of their forwards looked like he was going to collect a loose ball but it was blatantly offside. But the linesmen missed it, didn't call offside, which left the opposing player to go in alone and score an insurance marker... all of this with under 5 minutes left to play. Needless to say the Suez team was hysterical, only to be out-done by their fans. Bottles, garbage, cans, and rocks rained down onto the field, aimed in the general direction of the overwhelmed linesman.

At this point our hosts (Hossam & Hany) encouraged us to leave a little early and beat the crowd... We concurred.

It was fun though... lots of chanting and cheering... the players all get down and pray after they score or make a good save, which is funny the first time you see it...

Thursday evening consisted of the weekly poker game with the boys. Oh yeah, and Friday I shot a 90 in a golf tournament. How do you go from shooting a 78 to a 90? I guess I'll keep practicing.