TOGO v France

The last group game was also one of the most difficult. There are very few Togo fans in London, as my disastrous (but strangely enjoyable) trip to the Africa Bar for their game against South Korea had proved.

This was my last chance: their last World Cup game. One plan was to try the Africa Bar again, hoping there would be more fans there on a Friday night. The other was a bar in Shoreditch, where events were being organised for all the African teams’ games. But we didn’t know if any of London’s few Togo fans would be there.

And then we had a stroke of good fortune, as we were called with a tip-off while we were at the Ukraine game. We were told to meet a man from Togo at Lewisham bus station at 6.00. We didn’t know what his name was, we didn’t know what he looked like, and we didn’t know where Lewisham bus station was.

And the Ukraine game finished just before 5.00 so we faced a mad rush-hour dash from west to south-east London. One of our Ukrainian friends told us which station we needed for the train to Lewisham and off we went, apologising for leaving so early in the celebrations.

We got there shortly after 6.00 and were introduced to our man. He said we were welcome to come and watch the game with him and his friends in their flat. It was all starting to come together. We hopped on a bus to complete our epic journey. I hoped I’d be able to find my way back to the bus stop after the game; I wasn’t sure if my little A-Z stretched this far.

But the flat was right next to the bus stop, and even better, it was above an off-licence. All our bases were covered.

There was over an hour left before kick-off, which gave us plenty time to discuss football while we all ignored Question of Sport (except for What Happened Next?, of course).

We chatted about African football and other football. They agreed that this game was important because it was against former colonial rulers France. I asked if they would be supporting Ghana in the next round. Definitely. I asked if they would be supporting France. They laughed. Maybe. And England? Definitely.

I asked if they had any local rivalries, maybe with Ghana or Benin? No, not really, they said, and told me that Benin have the best football stadium in Africa, but ironically they’re no good at football!

We discussed the controversies surrounding the Togo players’ bonuses, and they mourned the sacking of Nigerian Togo coach Stephen Keshi after he’d got Togo to the World Cup.

We talked about how no-one in Britain seemed to have heard of Togo (or how they think it’s called Toga) and about it being the only country in the World Cup without a UK embassy. They told us that there used to be one but that they closed it down because no-one went there.

One thing they couldn’t agree on was whether they had a chance against France, but they would all dearly love to get the draw that would put them out.

The talking stopped after kick-off. As the game went on at 0-0, which was quite a while, they got more and more optimistic. There were nerves as France came close, and cheers for Togo’s impressive keeper Kossi Agassa.

But when France did take the lead the lads took it with good grace, and there were more rueful smiles when Thierry Henry made it 2-0. They still had cheers for good play from Togo after they were beaten, and seemed pleased with the performance.

We thanked them for their amazing hospitality and I started the long journey home. I’d set out hoping to see all 32 teams with their fans. I’d unexpectedly failed on Tunisia and Serbia & Montenegro, but I’d managed some I’d been more worried about: Costa Rica, Paraguay and now Togo. I decided that 30 out of 32 wasn’t bad.

The group stages over, I now had an opportunity to see more teams twice or more, starting with England again on Sunday. But I was taking Saturday off. I reckoned I’d earned a break.