oh, oh Oranje

Well I am starting to fully understand the trauma that is being a Dutch football supporter :-(

After bowing out Saturday night from the Euro 2008 tournament in dismal fashion, against the young, dynamic Russian team of Guus Hiddink, yesterday may as well have been a day of national mourning. There were not many words spoken in our house, those who had spent careful days (even weeks) decorating everything orange were out in force tearing it all down, and hoards of journalists and Dutch sports lovers were quietly slipping away from Basel. What a horror journey back that must have been - 7 hours in the car/train, with a raging hangover AND the memories of the terrible game of the night before!

Just a recap for those of you who don't follow football! Holland were placed in the so called "Group of Death" for the 3 game group phase of the tournament. With the prospect of facing Italy (the reigning world champions), France (the runners up to the world champions), and Romania (the winners of the group leading up to Euro 2008) there was not much hope that Holland would even survive through to the next round.

BUT all that changed after 3 fabulous, inspiring victories against:
Italy 3-0
France 4-1
Romania 2-0
The Dutch team were playing as a team like they had never (at least for the last 20 years!) played before. They were attacking, confident and creative AND they had the best gnome of the tournament playing up front and scoring beautiful goals (Wesley Snijder). After 3 victories and the maximum 9 points, there was no stopping "us". "We" were well on the way to becoming guaranteed European Champions.

Ha, apparently that's where I was mistaken. Just when you think nothing can go wrong, everything does with Dutch football. The quarter final against Russia on Saturday night was horrible, and not even a shadow of the previous 3 games :-( Who knows what went wrong - maybe the insight of the Dutch master Guus Hiddink into the playing style of Dutch teams, maybe overconfidence, maybe the trauma of the death of a player's newborn baby daughter just two days before the game, maybe a combination of all of the above - whatever it was, "we" lost 3-1 after extra time!!!!

And Guus Hiddink has been reassured by the newly installed Russian President himself that if he is no longer welcome in NL, he can take up Russian citizenship immediately.

Bring on the World Cup 2010 !!!!

Alli xxx

Well, against all hope AND expectation ...

... the Netherlands whooped the asses off Italy (the reigning world champions no less) last night in their opening game of Euro 2008 !!! :-) The final score was 3-0 but (according to the Italians themselves!) could have been at least 5-0

Italy is in mourning today, but here in NL everyone is in one big party mood! We (Jeroen, Piet and I) watched the game here at home last night in shock and amazement, and at the conclusion of the game the surrounding neighbourhood was alight to fireworks and the blasting of car horns :-) It was as though the Dutch had already won the championship! And just to put it into perspective, it is the first time since the 1978 World Cup finals that NL has beaten Italy!! So it is BIG news.

This was the scene here in the centre of Nijmegen last night. Lets just hope they can take their winning form into the game on Friday aganst France.

And for something totally different - my boss just got back today from a week long trip to Hong Kong (Hello Kitty paradise!), and bought these fun goodies back for me :-))

Alli xxx