Two Teams Played but Lightning Killed Only all the Players in One Team

dramatic lightning thundertbolt bolt strike in daylight rural surrounding bad weather dark sky

Bena Tshadi FC

We can’t tell you the exact date when Basanga FC and Bena Tshadi FC challenged each other to a football duel. But we sure can tell you the exact date of the duel. It happened on Sunday, October 25, 1998 and it didn’t end well at all. Poor Bena Tshadi FC!

Basanga FC thought it would trash Bena Tshadi FC. Bena Tshadi FC too felt it would do the same to Basanga. The feeling was mutual. All is well. All will be well. Maybe!

Enjoy the story.

The date was October 25, 1998. A war that will eventually kill at least 5.4 million people was going on in eastern Congo, and the game between the two football teams from Congo’s eastern Province of Kasai was also going on. Each team was determined to prove its soccer prowess by trashing its opponent. The war couldn’t even stop them. Wow! What a level of determination!

The game was going on well. The score was 1-1. The ball was being kicked around and the determined footballers were running around doing their thing. It’s just a football match, you know. Everything is cool. But what the Bena Tshadi team and everyone didn’t know was that one terribly powerful guy called “Lightening” was a member of the Basanga team.

You think “Lightning” is the name of one of the young guys playing in the team? No, you are dead wrong! Sorry. It’s better if you forget about your blooper and read on.

Well, Lightning wasn’t happy with the turn the match was taking and “he” decided to use “his” 1 billion volts energy to help “his” team. It’s a shame if someone with such power is in your team and you didn’t win. Mr. Lightening wasn’t ready to be put to shame. And his refusal to be put to shame was what led to one of the strangest mysteries that ever happened.

How Lightning helped “his” team? “He” did it effortlessly. Lightning’s bolt traveling at around 200,000 mph struck the pitch, killed all the 11 players in the Bena Tshadi team, and injured 30 other people—those 30 might be those who support the Bena Tshadi team; no one knows for sure. Jeez! It’s just a game. Someone please tell Lightening to calm down.

This isn’t the picture of the actual match, but it fits the story. Adding it for aesthetic reasons won’t hurt, you know. (Photo Credit: Dan1s via YouTube)

To clearly show the team “he” belonged too, Mr. Lightning didn’t hurt or kill any player in the Basanga team—the team that hosted the other team struck to death by lightning. Lightning helped “his” team to win the match. Yes, that’s right. The Basanga team won because as terrible as it’s, all the players of Basanga FC left the pitch alive without a bruise. The match ended. It had to end. End of report.

When lightning strikes a place where the soil is sandy, its heat causes the silica in the sand to form craggy glass tubes that “fossilize” the lightning. “fulgurites,” are fossilized lightning. (Photo Credit: marketingland.com via Google)

We aren’t trying to promote anything or encourage you to be superstitious, but we feel we will be holding back some portion of good information if we don’t tell you that rumor has it that the team that won had asked a witch doctor to curse the opposing team. It seems the witch doctor isn’t just a pretty face. He knows his craft. We would have said pun intended but we know you are too smart to be notified of a punny phrase.