Soccer fever swept Spain and the Netherlands yesterday as fans desperate to taste World Cup success for the first time painted the streets red and orange.
Euro 2008 champions Spain are favorites to lift the trophy for the first time in tonight’s clash at Johannesburg’s Soccer City stadium, but the Dutch, twice defeated finalists, are confident they can win.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Throughout the Netherlands entire streets are lined with orange flags and some homes have been covered with plastic sheets in the national color.
PHOTO: EPA
Flags prematurely declaring the Netherlands, ranked fourth in the world, this year’s soccer World Cup champions are selling like hot cakes. Sales of televisions, barbecue sets and orange accessories were expected to reach a peak yesterday, according to a spokeswoman for the Dutch retailers federation, Yvonne Fernhout.
In The Hague, animal protection services have urged people not to blow too hard on their vuvuzela horns during the match to avoid terrorizing their pets.
Dutch brewer Heineken said it had put production on hold across the country to allow workers to watch the match. Police are pleading with fans to behave long enough for them to watch the match, while Dutch airline KLM said it would keep its pilots updated on all the crucial moments of the match.
Giant television screens are being installed in several cities. The biggest gatherings of supporters today are expected in Amsterdam, where up to 50,000 watched the semi-final against Uruguay in the Museum Square and in Rotterdam.
Authorities are planning a boat parade in Amsterdam if the Dutch win, with 1 million people expected to turn out.
In Madrid, the players will be feted in a parade in an open-top bus even if their team, ranked second in the world, comes up short.
At least 150,000 fans of La Roja (the Reds) are expected to cram Madrid’s main Paseo de Castellana avenue this evening to witness Spain’s first-ever appearance in a World Cup final on giant screens in a “fan park.”
Municipal workers have draped flags over the Cibeles and Neptune fountains, where fans of Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid celebrate their victories.
Spain’s Mahou beer company has launched an Internet campaign for July 11 to be named a national holiday if Spain lift the World Cup, and the supermarket chain Carrefour is offering 25 percent reductions on television sets.
Even in Catalonia, a region with its own distinct culture and language and which has traditionally been disdainful of the Spanish national team, there was growing enthusiasm.
Authorities in the Catalan capital of Barcelona agreed for the first time during the tournament to set up a giant outdoor screen for the match.
However, the Spanish soccer fever rankles with some.
“We have ended up with more Spanish flags than senyeras [the yellow and red-striped Catalan flag] flying from balconies and all over the place,” an upset Catalan regional government chief, leftist separatist Josep Lluis Carod-Rovira, complained on his blog.
Center-right daily El Mundo picked up on the issue on Friday, saying that “Catalan nationalists are worried about the pull of the national side” on people in the region.
El Mundo, a vociferous opponent of Catalan nationalism, rejoiced in so many people “coming out of the cupboard” to support the Spanish — who include many players from Catalan giants Barcelona — as they prepare to take on the Dutch.
The paper said 74 percent of viewers in the region had watched the semi-final win over Germany — without speculating how many might actually have supported the Germans.
Catalans have in the past been reticent about backing the Spanish side. They have their own “national” selection, but it plays only friendly internationals.
One pundit predicting a win for the Spanish is the feted octopus Paul, who became a World Cup sensation by correctly predicting the outcome of all six of Germany’s World Cup games from his aquarium home in western Germany.
However, the Dutch are not too dismayed as Pauline, a female octopus in the Netherlands, forecast a win for the Netherlands, albeit in her first attempt at clairvoyancy.
Also See: 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP: PREVIEW: ‘Oranje,’ ‘Roja’ face off at Soccer City
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique