Football In Jamaica

Watching a football game on television seemed like the easiest thing in the world before I experience my second game in three years, at the Effortville Football Club in Clarendon on September 29th, 2010. However, watching the game itself is far more complicated than it appears. Firstly the matter of supporters, whereas support comes for both playing team, this helps to heighten the vibes and atmosphere created in the stadium. There's nothing like a little rivalry to increase the enjoyment of the football game.

Expletives

The first half of the game was evenly contested, though thirsting for a goal the tension that existed could be cut with a knife. Before we knew it, the whistle sounded and it was half time. The mini stadium then erupted with chatter and loud music from the sound system. Almost every spectator had an expert opinion on what was to be done to break the dead lock and secured a win. The chatter got louder and its ambiance was enhanced by the expletives of some supporters, the air was murky from huge puffs of smoke coming from ganja spiffs. As the DJ started to play about his seventh popular dancehall track, the fifteen minutes of dancing (sometimes explicit) was halted by the high pitch sound of the whistle. Screams and shout of encouragement rang out as the players took their place on the opposite side of the field. The tempo of the second half picked up and the players become more physical and intense. The sweaty and now untidily prayers were now becoming more vocal and more desperate. This game was fitting up to become a cracker. Undoubtedly this game only needed one final component for it to explode. This came through when Oneke Ford from Sporting Central Academy opened the scoring in the sixty ninth minute of the match. This sent the crowded ballistic as the home team (Humble Lions) supporter boosted them to score an equalizer. 

Victory

The quality of play and the intensity of the game improved significantly as time seem to have stopped in the last twenty minutes of the football game, which seemed like eternity to come off the referee’s clock. Just when there was about two minutes left in the game and everyone was facing the fact that the home team was about to plunge to a defeat shared brilliance and skill by Jermaine Christian from Humble Lion ensured a share of the points when he left two defenders for dead and rocketed his shot into the back of the net from sixteen yards out. This goal breathed life into the game that was petering out to a draw one nil victory to the visitors. The next three minutes of the game (one minute of regular time and two minutes of time added on) was an exchange of superb football skills with individual players trying to strike up a winner for their respective teams.  

This was all in vein as the final whistle came with a roar from all supporters as they were

appreciative of a superb contest. Both player and spectators alike bounce off each other's fist as the tension and tempers deflated as the reality of the score line settled in. The music of the DJ tarted booming through the speakers. The dancing started again as spectators quickly filtered out of the stands. Undoubtedly this was a good day out for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it.   

 landeker