The Netherlands’ top representative in Taiwan is standing by his pick that his country will win the World Cup, bucking the choice of a “psychic” octopus that sees Spain taking the title in South Africa today.
Menno Goedhart, representative of the Netherlands Trade and Investment Office (NTIO), the main Dutch office in Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic ties, said he predicted a Netherlands-Spain final and picked his home country to win their first ever World Cup in an online pool ahead of the finals.
PHOTO: EPA
“It’s an online pool participated in by tens of thousands of soccer fans that requires you to make picks of results of all the 64 games before the tournament,” Goedhart explained.
PHOTO: CNA
The Dutch representative said he was standing by his choice, even though Paul the Octopus, an octopus at a German sea life center, has predicted the opposite.
Paul has gained fame by correctly predicting the result of all six matches played by Germany in this World Cup, and on Friday he took Spain in the final to defeat the Netherlands and Germany to win the third place game against Uruguay.
Undeterred, Goedhart said the Dutch office would be hosting a party at a Taipei bar in the early hours of the morning and all NTIO employees and fans in the Dutch and Taiwanese community were encouraged to go and cheer for the Oranje.
“You don’t need to be a soccer fan to be crazy during the World Cup. Those who go to the party will be allowed to take Monday morning off,” he said.
Goedhart, a dedicated soccer fan who supports Dutch club Feyenoord, said he didn’t watch the Netherlands-Uruguay semi-final, the only match played by his country that he has missed during the tournament, but his mother back in the Netherlands made sure to see it.
“After we beat Uruguay 3-2 and made the final, my mother, a 98-year-old PSV Eindhoven fan, was so excited, she went to the kitchen and started shouting,” he said.
The Uruguay game was the most-watched television program ever in Dutch history and the whole country was jubilant with the win, he said.
Goedhart said he was most worried about the quarter-final encounter against perennial soccer powerhouses Brazil, which the Dutch eventually won 2-1, because the Dutch knew from the outset that they would likely meet Brazil in that game.
“But we have a strong team of course. They didn’t lose for a long time and expected to at least make the second phase of 16 teams. We knew if we beat Brazil, there was a chance to go to the final,” he said.
The diplomat is hoping that this year’s final will reverse his previous two World Cup final heartbreaks, when the Netherlands lost to Germany 2-1 in 1974 and 3-1 to Argentina in extra-time in 1978.
“Both times, we were this close to victory,” he lamented.
Goedhart, who’s retiring next month and has decided to make Tainan his permanent home because of his love for Taiwan, said he played soccer until he was 30.
He started out as a midfielder and later became a defender because he was “stronger and fatter.”
“When I was young, I was not bad, quite frankly, but when I was in university, I started drinking beer with friends and you know what happens after that,” he said.
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