ACTUALITE |
11.06.2002
Senegal celebrates undreamed-of World Cup advancement
DAKAR
People ran joyously through the streets of Dakar on Tuesday after Senegal`s tie with Uruguay lifted it into the second round of the nation`s first World Cup.
``This truly is history!`` yelled Amenda Diaw, shimmying in a turban and dress of Senegal`s red, green and yellow flag as she moved through the city center.
Ecstatic, cheering crowds danced on Dakar`s Atlantic Ocean beaches, where Senegal authorities set up giant-screen televisions to show the game from Suwon, South Korea.
Men, women and children ran full-tilt through the city streets to join crowds growing by the ocean, in the old colonial center of town and before the white, gated mansion of President Abdoulaye Wade.
Crowds waited for the white-haired president to come onto the mansion`s green lawn with a soccer ball, as he had after the stunning upset over France in the World Cup`s first game.
With horns honking, battered old cars careened through the city, passengers precariously waving fists in the air and the Senegalese flag behind them.
Billboards that sprang up throughout the capital in past weeks heralded the West African nation`s undreamed-of success. ``Senegal is winning!`` the billboards cried.
Street sellers made overnight fortunes in red, green and yellow pom-pons and T-shirts, snapped up and worn by all.
Fading grafitti showed how faint hope had been just weeks ago -- ``Senegal wins, God willing.``
Tuesday, hopes were only of more success.
``Now we have to go to the final eight,`` cried one celebrating man, Pape Fall, in a country full of them. ``We must.``
|
|
Hits: 1 | Source:Yahoo | |
|
|
|
|
| |