It's the final of the all round University soccer games in my country and the final match between the University of science and technology Lagos state and the Federal government University of science and technology Anambra was held in Lagos as it has been fixed from day one.
I was so happy that I will be one of the fans to cheer my institution up. I told a friend of mine Agati who is also a die hard fan about the match.
“It is free tickets for all the students so far that you are with your student identity card”, I said and Agati replied,” I will not miss the match for anything in the world “ he said firmly then knowing well that Agati likes doing things in excessive manner , I warned him and said , “ Agati are you aware that the match will be held in the Lagos state barracks, Ojo”?
He said he was aware that it doesn't matter and I hinted to him about his overreacting and over responsive behavior. I said “ Agati , military officers will be all over everywhere so you better be well behaved”. He just shrugged it off and said that nothing will happen. He is a bonafide student of the University of Science and Technology Lagos and all will be well then we slept on the eve of the match day.
The day is here and we quickly freshen up and off we were on our way to meet up for the kick off which Is 11’o'clock am. Getting there , we were earlier and we decided to sit at the back of the goal post. We sat quietly and interacted with others before the players arrived. Forty five minutes later , the players entered the pitch, did fifteen minutes of exercise and left.
Agati was just restless , he kept shouting the name of his favorite soccer player" Thompson "and kept screaming. I warned him again , pointing at the army motto which states, “ fear God , respect Soldiers” as it was written almost everywhere to put us to awareness of where we are. Agati yelled at me that I was a coward and could put a pill in my pants if any of the soldiers caught me in one way or the other and I made it clear to him that I will never misbehave to the extent that soldiers will get hold of me.
Now it is kick off time as the players line up , while the referee talks to both team captains , they select the goal post and the match kicks off as soon as possible. The match was so intense that I could not talk but to watch how interesting it went as both teams kept attacking and attacking each other.
As the match gets to 36 minutes , Jade Thompson , the attacking striker of my institution hit a left strike towards the Conner side of the goal post and my school is one goal ahead. This was the first time I uttered something out of my mouth since the beginning of the match and” it is a goal" screamed heavily that I almost lost my voice and on the other hand Agati was uncontrollably wild and was running to and from behind the goal post and he was cautioned by a senior officer who understands that he was heavily joyous.
The match continued and it ended University of science and technology Lagos one and University of science and technology Anambra zero. Agati was blatantly arguing with some fans from Anambra, telling them they are leaving Lagos with three nile and lambasting them that it is just a start.
The second half started and the University of Science and Technology Anambra equalized immediately with a header from a striker they called” Agali”. I know it won't be an easy ride for my school even if we are to win as the away team prepared and matched my school in all aspects. The unbelievable happened at 83 minutes when Agali was brought down by Wilson “the no Nonsense “ as we used to call him and it was a penalty kick. Agali again pleased” Akile” , our goal keeper to the other side of the net and we were now losing. This was were Agati get lost and was shouting “ Ojoro !! , Ojoro!!” Which means robbery. The anger of Agati rose to prime at 89 minute when Jade Thompson this time was brought down and the referee “wave play on”. Agati left my side all of a sudden running up and down at the back of the net shouting “ We no go gree ooo we no go gree , for our house , we no go gree” which means we will not take this outrageous robbery here in our home town and before we know it all , two military officers walked up to Agati and asked him to go back to his sit and as Agati left , he called them morons telling them they are being robbed at home and they can't do anything. One of the soldiers grabbed Agati by his waist and before we knew what was happening, an equalizer came in at the 92 minutes by the same Jade Thompson who took two defender out to score a wonderful equalizer.
Agati on the other hand was told to do frog jump and he regretted not holding his emotion seeing now that the equalizer came in due time. Did you know that we won the match on extra time late, won by Jade Thompson who owned the day , collected the best player of the tournament and highest goal scorer as well but Agati did frog jumped throughout what remained of the match and couldn't walk for two days after the match.
When he was complaining of pains on his leg in the hostel , I laughed at him and told him that he feared God but couldn't respect Soldiers and that got him into the hot soup.