The road to South Africa starts here.

It is 2 years and 4 months until the opening game of the next World Cup in South Africa and one of the first qualifying games was played in Nassau yesterday. The contest was the Bahamas Vs British Virgin Islands for the privilege of meeting Jamaica in the next round. Anyone who knows football/soccer knows this is an occasion not to be taken lightly and so we decided to go along for the historic event.

Our preparations included applying some sun lotion, getting there early to beat the crowds and ensuring we had some vitals to munch on to keep the excitement at bay. As we drove to the game through typical Nassau traffic we came across our favorite peanut seller at a set of traffic lights. These guys stand by the lights and wander up and down the cars selling bags of peanuts for a dollar. We were first to the lights so knew we had plenty of time for the purchase and called over our man. “Do you have change for a $20?” Lisa asked. “Sure man” – at this he threw our bag of nuts in the window and proceeded to pull out an array of “singles”. He seemed to have as many pockets as our change: yep, 19! Every few seconds he would throw another greenback in the window while the lights changed.



I don’t know if it was really worth the $1 to him with no other sales at this stop but he seemed to be happy enough. As we careened off ahead of other irate drivers we could still hear “our man”, “You guys from England? I was brought up in Brixton”. From Brixton to Nassau selling peanuts – that must be quite a story.

Anyway on to the match. It was quite a formal affair with teams being led out by local dignitaries, a VIP box and national anthems (the BVI anthem is God Save the Queen). Although the crowd was not like Hampden Park – there was around 1000 there – they were enthusiastic and noisy (a Junkanoo band even showed up). The game was torrid with the Bahamas playing with a strong wind in their favor in the first half. Although they had most of the pressure they could not get the opening strike. So no goals meant the teams retired for their half time cup of tea knowing that the wind would be telling in the second period. Surprisingly the Bahamas took the lead at the start of the second half and actually looked comfortable. But BVI upped their game and got an equaliser with 20 minutes to go. BVI had a giant captain and for the rest of the game he would swing his leg to cannon the ball towards goal from all distances and angles. Fortunately for the home side there was no more scoring and we need to wait for the return leg to decide the outcome. You see, these contests are settled home and away only in this case both legs will be played in Nassau as the BVI pitch (I guess they only have one) is being dug up at present. So everyone retired to local hostelries to discuss the game and await final counter of Sunday.



This game marked the beauty of football. Here in a far flung corner was the first embrionic steps to World Cup glory. The fans, players and officials were all ready to enjoy the "beautiful game" ....and they did, although I don't think the Bahamas will play in a World Cup final.......but you never know.