Holland may have lost the World Cup Soccer, but that’s not how the 800.000 people perceived it when they gave our National Soccer Team a heroes welcome this Tuesday. As I wrote before, the national team that won the European Soccer Cup back in 1988 received the same kind of welcome. To be honest: it gave me – and many of my fellow countrymen some closure. It also showed that we backed up our team, no matter what. And like in 1988 it also gave us some unique footage of literally hundred thousands of crazy Orange fans celebrating 🙂 As […]
National trauma number three
Normally three times is a charm, but for Holland it has become more like a curse: again we failed to win the Holy Grail of Soccer, the World Cup. After ’74, ’78, now 2010 goes into the Dutch history books as the third national soccer trauma. We all knew it was going to be a tough match against Spain – the ruling European Soccer Champions – but nothing in this world could have prepared us for this match. Until the final, the tournament went very well for Holland: our National team won 14 straight games, counting the qualifying matches and […]
D-Day for Dutch soccer team
Today is the chance for the Dutch national soccer team to write soccer history (in more than one way) by becoming the World Soccer Champions for the first time in Dutch history. In order to get this privilege we need to defeat the current European Soccer Champions: Spain. And that is going to be a very difficult task. It has been 32 (!) years since we played in the World Cup finals. We lost in 1978 (against Argentina) and our whole nation is eager to see us all win the World Cup this time, for the first time. Although everyone is […]
Holland vs Spain!
Now that Spain has beaten Germany (shocking!) 1:0 we will play against Spain in the 2010 World Soccer Championship. Whoever wins: there is going to be a new World Champion Soccer as neither country has ever won the world cup before. Everyone in Holland would have loved it if we had to play against Germany (revenge for 1974 when they beat us), but Spain it is. No doubt it’s going to be a historical match. Is 2010 the year in which we finally win the World Cup for the first time in our history? Holland has had it’s best tournament […]
Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated by the Orange Fever!
There is no escape. If you live in Holland you will get caught by the “Orange Fever” that currently sweeps our country. It happens every year on Queens Day, but even more so during any national or international sporting event that involves fellow Dutchmen. May it be soccer, cycling or – our national pride – skating. The phenomenon manifests itself very visually as people start wearing orange clothing, like T-shirts, hats, shawls etc.. Some people even paint their hair orange and decorate walls, rooms. Even whole houses and or the streets are adorned with orange beams. What most people do […]