Scoooooooore!

Well, tonight is the night!  The night that decides it.

Whether Egypt will go to the world cup for soccer (football as it's called here).

The game only started 5 minutes ago but there has been excitement going on all day in this country.  People driving around honking their horns in a particular pattern, guys walking down the streets banging on drums, and people getting together in the streets to talk and shout with much animation.  Even fireworks going off.

Just now, Egypt made the first goal of the game and the WHOLE neighborhood erupted in cheers.

I expect the next few hours will be similar, with cheers happening every time we are even close to making a goal.

It's somehow exciting, even if I'm not watching the game.  I guess there is a feeling in the air.

They are playing against Algeria.  Which wouldn't seem like a big deal except I guess the Algerian players are shall we say, slightly um, crazy.

There is a building in Algeria where some Egyptians live and they are being held hostage there.  No kidding.  And this is because of soccer.  I don't know the whole story but it's quite insane.

The Algerians demanded some kind of special protection on the bus here in Egypt because they said they were afraid of what they Egyptian team might do to them (???) but last time Algeria was here, they were the ones who started all sorts of trouble, throwing things at reporters from the bus and what not.

If you ask me, all this craziness over soccer is... well, I don't know what it is.  I do know that I don't understand it.

I'd like to say it's like this only in countries that aren't first world countries, but I know the UK and some other places go crazy for soccer as well. 

Maybe because they don't have as many sports as the US does?  I mean... soccer is the major sport in many countries, while in the US I would consider baseball and football the major sports.  Along with basketball I suppose, though I'm not certain about that.

Also, that's not to say that people in the US don't ever get crazy about their sports games.  We've all seen the pictures of the fans who paint themselves up in team colors and put their teams flags all over their cars, etc.

It just doesn't seem to reach the fevered pitch that it does for many countries when it comes to soccer.

For all it's worth, I hope Egypt wins tonight.