As Orange fever rises with every goal scored in the Dutch team’s Euro 2008 campaign, lawyers, housewives and school kids become crazed wig-wearing fans adorning their homes, bikes and even their pets in the national color.
Normally sedate suburban streets have been transformed into massive canvasses for row upon row of tiny, orange, fluttering flags. Window sills sport orange flowers — real and fake — and figurines with wild orange hair ahead of today’s quarter-final against Russia.
Many a home and office window displays a banner with the words: “Hup (Go) Holland,” and at least one fan has gone to the extent of draping his whole house in orange, a newspaper photograph showed.
PHOTO: EPA
Cars, bicycles and pet dogs are used to display the Dutch sense of soccer patriotism with flags, banners, miniature balls and unwitting four-legged fans dressed up in human-sized orange T-shirts.
And then there are the hats. Hats in the form of road traffic cones. Hats in the form of huge cheese wedges. Tall hats that come with drum sticks and can be used as musical instruments.
“It is a small country, with not so much to be proud of,” said Ruud Stokvis, sport psychologist at the Mulier Institute in the southern city of Hertogenbosch. “This is something that attracts the attention of the rest of the world. People are showing their Dutchness.”
While the Dutch are well-known for the intensity of their support, Stokvis says it is the numbers that are more astounding.
“In the Netherlands, we have more people interested in football, more soccer players in relation to our population, than probably any other country in Europe,” Stokvis said.
He said about one million people out of a population of 16 million, more than 6 percent, were active in soccer.
“Because of that, there is great involvement in what our soccer players are doing,” he said.
Retailers are certainly not complaining.
The Dutch are spending millions of euros of their hard-earned cash on such non-essentials as face paint and hooters.
Among the most popular is a T-shirt with the face of a benign-looking lion on the front, until a special flap is lifted to transform it into a roaring wild animal complete with sharp fangs.
One supermarket chain is presenting its customers with a small plastic toy lion with brush-able hair with every purchase over 15 euros. The lion is Holland’s national symbol.
An optometry chain has reported a surge in demand for its orange-framed glasses — both play and prescription.
Last week, tens of thousands of Dutch fans descended on the Swiss town of Bern for their team’s 4-1 thumping of France, despite many of them not having a ticket.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Dutch fan Nick Withag, one of the ticketless.
As churches open their doors to the soccer faithful, showing matches on big screens, and additional outdoor viewing areas are set aside around the country, the Dutch hospitality industry has warned that staff who call in sick can expect a check-up visit at home.
And for those further afield, broadcaster Radio Nederland announced it has bought extra frequencies to broadcast today’s quarter-final all around the world.,
The Greek basketball league finals between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos were suspended by the government on Monday following on-court scuffles involving rival security teams. The best-of-five series is at 1-1. The third game, scheduled for today, has been postponed. The owners of both clubs were summoned to meet with the country’s sports minister. They “will be asked to provide explicit guarantees that this situation will be brought to an end. If not, this year’s championship will be definitively canceled,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said. “There can be no tolerance for such pathological phenomena of violence and delinquency.” In online posts, the owners of Panathinaikos and
‘DREAM’: The 5-0 victory was PSG’s first Champions League title, and the biggest final win by any team in the 70-year history of the top-flight European competition Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League for the first time as Luis Enrique’s brilliant young side outclassed Inter on Saturday in the most one-sided final ever with teenager Desire Doue scoring twice in an astonishing 5-0 victory. Doue supplied the pass for Achraf Hakimi to give PSG an early lead and the 19-year-old went from provider to finisher as his deflected shot doubled the advantage in the 20th minute. Doue scored again just after the hour mark, ending any doubt about the outcome before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ran away to get the fourth and substitute Senny Mayulu, another teenager, made it five. Inter were
Ryan Yarbrough picked up a dazzling World Series ring from his time with the Los Angeles Dodgers last season. Then he went out and beat them. The New York Yankees starter on Sunday pitched one-run ball over six innings, struck out a season-high five and blanked the Dodgers’ top four hitters in a 7-3 win. “I feel like I’m in a really good place right now and really trying to continue that,” Yarbrough said. “I’m having a lot of fun.” The 33-year-old left-hander made 44 relief appearances between the Dodgers and Blue Jays last season. The Dodgers designated him for assignment on July
The Crusaders yesterday produced a clinical performance in difficult conditions to beat the Queensland Reds 32-12 and claim home advantage in next week’s Super Rugby semi-finals. Lock Scott Barrett and prop Tamaiti Williams scored first-half tries to reward an outstanding performance from the Crusaders’ forwards in wet, slippery conditions and bitterly cold temperatures. Scrumhalf Noah Hotham defied the conditions in the second half to score a superb solo try and, after kicking a conversion and penalty to make the score 22-0 at the hour mark, flyhalf Rivez Reihana scored a try which took the game beyond the Reds. “Typical Christchurch weather, cold, wet
RSS