Last week was the end of African Cup of Nations CAN2010 that was held in Angola. I was so lucky to get tickets from a friend who canceled, so i could get to the stadium to watch the final AND the closing ceremony.

Am I a football fan?
Not at all, not a single bit. I did not even know what offside is! It was just one day my husband successfully to convince me to come with him to watch Dutch team playing with ... (see, I even forget now!). Then it changed my mind a bit about this football thingy. Apparently if you are in the stadium watching the game live, it is a whole different experience. I still do not get all the game rules, but I like the screaming part as a football supporter, and this, I do it religiously. :D

But CAN2010 is different. Since 3 years ago when I stepped foot in Luanda for the first time, I knew nothing about Angola, yet I have been hearing that Angola is preparing itself for this event. I heard they are just about to construct the stadiums in four cities. I also then witnessed how some big roads are being constructed and being prepared as well as the airport. Whoever has been to Luanda airport must have agreed that to be in the airport for the first time is quite.. something. It is not like that anymore now, the airport has different face, being hugely renovated and got ready only days before the event was started. Long story short, whether or not somebody likes football, they must have got excited of this event years before it started.

So with very limited experience to be in a football match (which by the way was a good experience), I intended to come to any match where Angola played - provided I could get tickets. One of the many reasons why I was so determined to come to watch was because I would like to be in a stadium where the team who plays i can support wholeheartedly. I could never do this with Indonesian team ("does Indonesia have a football team?", one of my colleague asked), so to direct my blocked patriotism in a football stadium, now that I had a chance, I would like to support Angola, a country where I have been living for 3 years.

First match I went to was Angola vs Malawi in which Angola won 2-0. I went there with my husband and friends. The stadium was surprisingly clean and the crowd was extremely organized. I was very impressed! Everybody was wearing Angola shirts including us non-Angolans, and Angolan party music was played continuously in the speakers. We got the seat far away on the top (the second row), and the crowd over there was very expressive with screaming dancing and all. I loved it, I could express lots of energy too. Haha! This is probably the best match Angola supporters could have, because this is the only match where Angola won.

And then after that there was Angola vs Algeria where we watched in a beach cafe/resto/club nearby. My husband managed to get tickets for this match but we had to give it away to a friend since the traffic was so bad. It was 0-0, not a good game and not a pleasure to watch. And then after that there was Angola vs Ghana. This is the match where the whole country was so much looking forward to, so it was hard to get tickets. I spent watching it in a friend's house. It was a very good game, but a heartbreaking one for Angola supporters as Angola lost 0-1 and that was it for Angola in CAN2010.

And then there is the final match Egypt-Ghana where Egypt established themselves to be the champion of CAN2010. To be honest, at first I was not too excited about going to the stadium, I was not too sure what to expect and who I was going to support. The last part was so confusing I ended up turning up in the stadium with Indonesian shirt belongs to my husband from when he watched a match Indonesia vs Thailand in Jakarta. But after talking to some people, I was convinced to support Ghana, but still with my Indonesian T-shirt. (i know, i know..)

When we actually got there, the stadium was not too full yet. However, just before the 2nd half was about to start, all of a sudden all the seats were occupied. Everybody was wearing Angola T-shirts, and brought anything Angola. It was clear in the beginning they were supporting Ghana. So I was fit with the crowd, yay! Then all of a sudden, Egypt scored a goal in the last minutes before the game ended. And to my surprise, everybody cheered too! :) When the game ended, before the closing ceremony started, everybody cheered again, but this time:  "Angola.. Angola.. Angola.." Haha.. it was fun to be there. I was glad I decided to come!

With all of these going on, I noticed that some people back home has got more interest in knowing about Angola and started to ask me about it. My sister also said that she saw a lot of commercial in cable TV about CAN2010. I was even contacted by BBC radio Indonesia as they would like to know a bit of background about Angola, living here as an Indonesian, and how it is like here before and during the CAN2010. It was only for some very general questions, i made it very clear in the beginning i did not want to talk about socio-economy politic or even worse, about the football. So yes, Angola has received a lot of attention these days. Sadly, the attention to Angola also includes the tragic event that happened to Togo team in Cabinda.

Actually in this posting I wanted to make it short and sweet and did not intend to talk in detail about it as it has passed for a week and you might already see all the news everywhere. I would just like to post some pictures from the whole CAN2010 season, on and off the stadium. So here they are in Gallery.