The Democratic Republic of Congo got 68 minutes — about three-quarters of a match — of joy.
Seven minutes into their game against England on Wednesday, the Leopards scored, and Kinshasa, the capital, erupted.
At gathering spots called “fan zones,” where Leopard supporters could follow the game on big screens, legions of people screamed, twirled scarves and jumped up and down. On Kinshasa’s notoriously clogged roads, radio hosts went berserk over car radios and a cacophony of honking, which usually signals impatience, was instead celebratory.
Cheers rang out over the hazy Congo River, where a few fishermen steered large canoes past teeming watch parties. It felt as if most of the roughly 20 million Kinois, as people from Kinshasa are known, were attending these parties, which including the fan zones numbered into the thousands, by some estimates. And judging by the traffic, the rest of them were trying to get somewhere to watch the historic game, which was being broadcast from Atlanta, Ga.
“Angleterre aza maîtrisable,” read one roadside billboard — England is beatable. And it felt that way, for more than an hour into the match. The Kinois — famed across the continent for their love of a party — relaxed, ordered more Mützig beers, and celebrated each impressive play by their team, savoring the elation of being in the lead.
“The English are angry,” said a patron at one of Kinshasa’s fan zones, an outdoor site, about the size of a basketball court that is used for sports and parties. The fan zone, called Village 243, was ringed by stalls selling beer, sodas and a few hopeful bottles of champagne. “They’re playing angrily,” the patron added.
The last time Congo played in a World Cup, 52 years ago, the country was called Zaire, and it lost in the first round without scoring a single goal. The team was so thoroughly trounced by Yugoslavia (9-0) that the ruling dictator at the time, Mobutu Sese Seko, threatened not to let the team back into the country.
“We were amateurs,” said Dieudonné Mwape, who played on the 1974 World Cup team. Mr. Mwape, who was allowed home in 1974 after all, watched the first half of Wednesday’s game at his neighbor’s house in Kinshasa, because he had had a power outage. He watched the second half at home.
Today’s national team, he said, were in a completely different position when compared with the 1974 squad. The modern squad is “used to playing in good clubs in Europe, they have good training and the necessary means,” he said.
Africa is the world’s youngest continent, and only one person we could find inside Village 243 was alive for the 1974 World Cup — though she didn’t watch it. “Only a few people had TVs back then,” said the woman, Valentine Kinzeya, 63, in between running drinks to spectators in her section of the fan zone.
Jean-Marc Mandala, 60, said that in his home province, Bandundu, nobody had televisions, so they followed games on the radio. Back in 1974, Mr. Mandala said: “Everyone was just happy we were in it.” He was hurrying home at half time of the latest game, trying to beat traffic.
For Congo in 2026, getting to the knockout stage of the tournament was amazing, he said: “It’s already a joy.”
The team’s success capped a historic group stage for Africa, which saw an unprecedented nine of its 10 representatives reach the knockout rounds, where heavyweights like the Netherlands have already been sent home.
The huge screen in Village 243, named after the international telephone code to reach Congo, blinked off and on — it was running off a laptop. People held their red plastic chairs aloft, moving between screens depending on which was working.
Then, a little more than an hour into the game, England scored.
“Why did you leave him alone?” one disgruntled spectator said, addressing Congo’s defenders. “If you keep leaving Harry Kane alone, they’ll get a second goal!”
Then Mr. Kane, England’s captain, did just that. A heavy silence hung over the fan zone, a rare sound in Kinshasa. It became clear that Congo was unlikely to pull ahead again.
But then someone blasted a horn. Applause began to burst out. The mood lightened again and whiskey glasses were topped up. They might have lost 2-1, but Kinshasa was still Kinshasa.
“In any case, we’re still going to celebrate,” said one fan, stubbing out a cigarette.
Justin Makangara contributed reporting.
