Yalla, yalla, al-Ahly!

I went to my first al-Ahly match last night, with four Americans and seven Egyptians, five of whom were named Mohammed. Al-Ahly is one of Cairo's two club soccer (football, whatever) teams (the other is Zamalek), but is overwhelmingly the more popular of the two. The name "Al-Ahly" means "the family" in Arabic; it shares this moniker with about seven other club teams throughout the Arab world.

We met on campus and milled around for a little while while eating dinner, and then two of the Egyptian guys managed to convince a mini-bus driver to drop us off at the stadium (in Nasr City) and to pick us up after the game ended, for a total of about LE8 round-trip (less than USD1.50). The tickets we got were only LE50, so overall this was an incredibly cheap outing.

When we got to the stadium, I was astonished by the number of armed guards in the area. Now, granted, my time in Cairo has made me very accustomed to heavy police presence - they are literally on every corner in the city, and always heavily armed. This was a new extreme, however; military police in full riot gear had the entrance surrounded in such a way that only one person could pass through at a time. The photo to the left, which I took, shows my friend Erik posing with the police, who were very good natured about the whole situation, but still slightly unnerving en masse.

I've never been to a professional soccer match before, but it was completely unlike any sporting event I've ever attended in the States. We got to the stadium fairly early - about 90 minutes before the game started - but the fans were already out in full force, dressed entirely in red and cheering loudly accompanied by drums, bells and whistles. We selected seats in what turned out to be a fairly calm area of the stadium, but as the seats filled, the enthusiasm built. I found myself up out of my seat for much of the hour leading up to the game, clapping and chanting along to cheers that I only half understood.

One of the Mohammeds who was sitting next to me was translating the cheers for me; most of them refer to individual players and their sporting attributes. Hadary, the al-Ahly goalkeeper, for example, was a big hero after al-Ahly's recent CAF Super Cup victory, and his cheer literally goes "Dance, Hadary, dance!" I was also fascinated by one cheer in which the crowd shouts a bunch of nonsense words, and then "Insha'allah, hanaksiba!" - God willing, we will win. It's one of the biggest contrasts I've noticed between Egypt and the United States; where at home, public prayers or even moments of silence are virtually unheard of in sporting, here it's perfectly normal to invoke the favor of God to get your team to the top.

During the actual match, the fans cheered, but weren't nearly as rowdy as Americans are - and I don't think that was for lack of alcohol, either. Amy explained to me that it's considered rude to put on too much of a cheering show during the actual game, since most of the fans come to actually watch the match. Al-Ahly ended up defeating Libya United 1-0, with the only goal of the game early in the first half. There were a few close calls during the second half (for both teams), which made it that much more exciting. In between the shots, I talked to the Egyptians, and actually was able to make myself understood in Arabic, which was exciting.