Charles Nyende
27 January 2008
Accra, Ghana — Today I want to take you through I typical day for me in Accra. Okay, this one was not exactly typical because I decided to crawl out of my base in the capital city and travel to Sekondi by road to watch, in my estimation, the best football team in Africa, Cote d'Ivoire tackle Reinhard Fabisch-coached Benin.
I had actually been debating how to travel to Sekondi, the third biggest city in Ghana some four hours outside Accra - taxi was expensive and I would need to team up with other colleagues to share costs, or risk it with public transport. Warnings to carefully watch your bag and your pockets while in public places deterred me.
The local organizing committee saved the day when, for the first time in the tournament they announced they will now be offering transport to other cities.
We were told the bus would leave the Ohene Djen Stadium at 8 am. We left at 9.33 am. For the first 30 minutes we slowly made our way through the dense Accra traffic. Unlike Nairobi, Accra does not have a CBD but is spread out in one big city centre.
Traffic finally thinned out as we hit the main highway from Accra to the twin city of Sekondi-Takoradi. The road was in excellent condition, smooth and marked all the way. Was I envious. The route is busy with tracks and other traffic and of course itinerant traders mostly selling food stuff.
My attention was captured by the soothing, all-green scenery of tropical coastline vegetation. The road at some point runs parallel to the shore and I could see fishermen under the glare of the shimmering ocean going about their business as they have been doing for centuries.
Arriving in Sekondi at 1.27 pm, there was no time, or option to do a tour of the twin cities because no journalist wanted to take chances. Gaining access to the stadium has been a regular ordeal and you need to start your attempt early.
Accreditation is not enough to get you through. A match ticket is mandatory. Trouble is, many times you do not know who is issuing the tickets or are told the tickets are finished. The Sekondi Stadium is a magnificent, new 20,000 capacity stadium.
It takes me two hours of queuing, cajoling, begging and bitterly protesting before I finally get the precious ticket. Others were not so lucky. Inside the stadium the cacophony was overpowering. Nigerians with their trumpets, Ivorians with their drums and chanting, non-stop drumming from the Benin and Mali supporters.
But it was worth the trip to see possibly, the new African Champions as they routed Benin 4-1.
Les Ecureuils gave there best with Stephane Sessognon of Le Mans and Razak Omotyossi of Helsingborg offering resistance but the class of the Ivorians was just too much.
After several close calls Cote d'Ivoire finally broke the deadlock in the 40th minute when Didier Drogba was put through, and running after the ball in that situation, there was only going to be one outcome for the big Chelsea forward.
Yaya Toure made it two three minutes later sliding home the ball after Salomon Kalou had weaved his magic on the dead end touch line.
Abdul Kadir Keita made it three in the 52nd minute after capitalising on a defensive blunder.
Drogba turned provider 10 minutes later lobbing the ball for Aruna Dindane to head home.
Benin pulled on back through Razaka late in the game but Cote d'Ivoire were well into cruise control and it will take a lot to bring them down.
Every one in the stadium stood appreciate the performance. Many at the press box dashed to the media centre to grab the few available work stations and file their match report. I stood to go look for my transport back to Accra. On this day Cote d'Ivoire had the luxury of looking back at a match well worn while I had the luxury of filing my story the next day.
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