Dakar, Senegal – The silence came before kickoff. Not from fear but anticipation, a nation holding its breath.Across Dakar, radios crackled from open windows. Men gathered shoulder to shoulder in cafes, their eyes fixed on flickering television screens. Families crowded into living rooms. Friends leaned over phones, tea growing cold as conversation gave way to concentration.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe city’s usual rhythm horns, its markets, its arguments, its laughter – did not disappear. It simply yielded to something larger.Senegal were in the first knockout round of the World Cup, playing against Belgium.On the 25th-minute mark of the game, the boy from the suburbs of Dakar, Habib Diarra, delivered the nation from its anxiety, sweeping a loose ball beyond the Belgian goalkeeper: 1-0 to Senegal.Eight thousand kilometres away from the game in Seattle, the United States, Dakar became the stadium. The celebrations only grew after Senegal scored a second goal early in the second half. Confidence turned into complacency. Five minutes from full-time, car horns blared and firecrackers echoed through the night. Victory was near.But the celebrations came too early.Belgium scored once. Then again. All in the space of five minutes, completing an astonishing comeback. And then, in the final minutes of extra-time, Senegal gave away a penalty: 3-2 to Belgium.Problem is preparationA day later, the silence remains.Not quite mourning, but more di …
