When living in Ghana, a country crazy about football, where every second guy on the streets is walking around in a fake Barca, ManU or Chelsea jersey, I could not miss the chance of watching a professional match in a stadium. So a friend and I took upon us the three hour journey from our town to the centre of Accra (only about 70 km, but oh, the traffic …) to watch the final of the President’s Cup (essentially the Ghanaian equivalent of the English FA Cup or the German DFB Pokal) in the national stadium.

The country’s most successful club Asante Kotoko from Kumasi was facing off against league winner Berekum Chelsea from Berekum, and after an eventful game had ended in a 2-2 draw extra time was skipped on account of only about a fourth of the bulbs working in the floodlights, and penalty shootouts were commenced right away. Twice the Kotoko keeper caught the ball, twice the referee ordered the penalty to be retaken because in his eyes the keeper had come off the line too early. Boos echoed through the stadium and the Kotoko squat sat down in protest and refused to continue, convinced that the referee’s decision had been wrong, a sentiment I share and that was echoed throughout the national press the following day. Police entered the scene, officials tried to defuse the situation and after a couple of minutes the players continued the match that ended in an 8-7 win for Berekum.

During the match I took the picture above of a Kotoko fan’s reaction to a Berekum goal.

Taken with the Pentax K-r and 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 lens at f/5.6, 1/200th sec. and ISO 400 at 55 mm.