The streets were completely deserted yesterday as the nation was glued to the screen to watch Oranje's first match. I thought it was a good match for the most part- especially compared to the way the other favored teams opened up (England missing a dozen chances to score and winning on an own goal...). The first match is often nerve-wracking for highly ranked teams. Serbia-Montenegro (only the keeper is actually from Montenegro who just voted to seperate this year) is a good team and Holland looked to be confident and encouraged after Robin van Persie set up Arjan Robben's well-executed goal. My neighbor's comments ranged from a shrugging "1-0, we'll take it..", to immediate complaints about various mistakes on the field and how poorly Ruud Van Nistelrooij played.
Typical.
Football is the world's most popular sport for a lot of reasons- its a simple game with less than a dozen rules (I'm looking at you cricket) that can be played almost anywhere with almost no equipment or paraphernalia. It's fostered an amazing diversity of styles that astonish me as an American sports fan- especially the idea of 'artistic' vs. 'results-oriented' football. Several nations (Brazil, Italy) have a style of play completely designed to make the game 'beautiful' and frown on teams that will simply do anything to score at the cost of elegant play. It sounds weird, and perhaps boring, and it sometimes is; but after you see enough matches and talk to enough fans you begin to believe in this 'higher' level of performance. Its not to say these teams aren't competitive, but there is something incredible when all the elements come together at a match for a real performance- the crowds, the drama, teamwork in the face of extravagantly inflated contracts.
The World Cup has some distinct advantages over other international sporting events; it's not a bunch of games like the Olympics-- it's an entire month of a single event with 2 to 4 matches a day for the first 2 weeks. So far, this World Cup already has it all- for this new fan. Now if the American team shows up this afternoon... I"m gonna have to bust out the big flag...
1200 EST ---USA v. Czech Republic
Thanks to David for the photo of the big fans below---
3 comments:
Don't forget how ridiculously in-shape those players are - gotta admire the stamina. If only they could crash into each other like in hockey . . .
Good photo of the fans : )
But they do crash into each other! LOVE World Cup, and am getting into arguments with Rollie over the remote. His comment when we tried to get him to watch the England Match at a local pub - "Me no like soccer."
The Netherlands game was great. US match? Not so great. Will be watching your blog with interest to see what you have to say about watching it there. We are enjoying have something to do during the day here! Actually off to eat lunch and watch as much as children will allow today. Love the pics!
As far as crashing into each other- there is a terrible aspect of soccer(football) called 'diving' where players (too often) fall and pretend to be injured. It's shameful and attracts no new fans and repels old purists. Anyway, after watching for three years you realise that man, is it a brutal physical game- and fun to watch.
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