Ghana is a country as crazy about football (soccer to linguistic revisionists) as Canada is about hockey. Now Ghana hasn’t lacked success in the football world. They have been African champions as well as under-17 world champions on a few occasions, but to the shock of this newfound football fan they had never made it to the world cup.

This is a source of embarrassment, anger and shame for the average Ghanaian football fan. Luckily for Ghanaians this year they finally looked like they might make it.

The Black Stars, named after the shipping line Marcus Garvey started to help Africans living in the Americas return to the mother land, had positioned themselves in second place in their pool with 3 games remaining. Only 2 points (a win) stood between them and first place South Africa. With a game in South Africa Ghana, had a change, but winning on the road in Africa is considered something akin to a miracle. But somehow Ghana conjured some magic that Saturday afternoon winning 2-0 in front of a hostile crowd.

The stage was now set for September 4th. Ghana was playing a match against Uganda and the day before our neighbours from Burkina Faso had defeated South Africa – a win would guarantee Ghana their first entry into the World Cup.

I couldn’t miss out and decided to take a trip to Kumasi to watch the match in person. After surviving at least one attempt to pick my pocket, a lot of pushing and a fair amount of yelling we finally made our way into the stadium, none worse for wear. Or so it seemed - a few steps after making it through the gate I felt a drip on my leg. In all of the pushing two plastic bags (the normal form that you carry water in Ghana) of water had burst in my backpack. My camera got it the worst and wasn’t up and running again until more than 4 hours later (more than half way through the match).

With two hours still remaining before the match Kwaku Poku and I wandered looking for some prime seats. Little did we know the two spots left on the stairway were the last chance we would have for seats of any sort. Kwaku Poku ended up hanging off a fence in the corner of the stadium and I carried a large stone into the standing room area to get a few inches above the crowd.

The match started out with a flurry of action, both teams getting scoring chances in the early minutes, but it was clear from the outset that Ghana was on a mission and in control and it was only 10 minutes into the match that Ghana put one into the Uganda net. The crowd went wild, I’ve been to football matches before but I had never seen anything like this – even the armed police and army personnel were jumping up and down and hugging each other, Ghana was on the verge of something amazing and everybody could feel it.

The nail in the coffin came only five minutes later when Michael Essien drove a ball into the back of the Uganda net. The match was over with few exciting point and a lot of sloppy play filling the last 75 minutes.

But as the match ended nobody cared as the Black Stars players all fell to the ground and fans rushed the field. After a few minutes of watching and finally a call from a police officer to jump the fence and join the celebration on the field, I joined what had to be one of the biggest parties in this country’s history. Everyone was dancing and celebrating with the exception of the team captain for the Black Stars who was weeping as he was carried around the field on the shoulders of the fans. He knew the magnitude of what they had accomplished and there was no holding back the pride and joy in this moment.

I’m not normally one to place much importance in sports as a focal point of national pride. But looking at the passion and the pure joy of the players and fans, of everybody in Ghana in fact, after the match, I could see just how much this meant to Ghana. It’s not necessarily just football, for a lot of people this match and making it to the world cup is symbolic of the progress Ghana is making as a national and the place they now see their country taking in the world. In any case Sunday September 4th was biggest celebration Ghana has seen in a long time.