Bits and Pieces: Dutch Footie

I've finally done it. I'm shocked, really. I thought I would hit a footie match very early in my time overseas. It's a number of factors that kept me waiting so long to see one. First, I had no idea how hard it was to get a ticket to good matches. I didn't want my first Euro football experience to be some lame second division game. I could have seen ADO Den Haag at some point and they are first division in the Dutch league, but I've heard the fans are rabid for a bad team and wasn't sure I wanted to put myself in the middle of Dutch football riots. Maybe English Premiere League riots, but not Dutch where I can't understand what we are rioting about.

Second, you really need to plan ahead to attend these decent matches. I'm good at spontaneously planning a weekend, but thinking in advance for tickets, etc is not my strong suit.

But still, if you would say to me a year ago that I would see a Cricket test before a football match, I would have said you are crazy.

I learned this over the summer and spent a Sunday scouring the internet for events in Europe that I wanted to attend. I ended up booking a ticket to last night's match in August and almost forgot about it until Wednesday of this week. I booked a ticked for the Dutch National team - World Cup Qualifier! The funny thing is that when I booked the ticket, the Dutch team hadn't qualified. However, they qualified shortly after that, so this game only really meant something to the Hungarians. That didn't stop it from being an excellent night.

I learned something from an English friend of mine...when booking tickets for sporting events, theatre, etc, if you know you won't be doing it very often or at all in the future, book the better seat for a reasonable amount more. It totally changes the experience to be near the goal line on the first level and generally those who have paid more for their tickets are not the hooligans of the stadium. She was proven right. I loved my seat and enjoyed the game that much more because I wasn't in nose bleeds.

Pictures from the match:

Hungarian team warming up

Dutch team warming up!

View from my seat

Just to be sure everyone is clear - Netherlands vs. Hungary

Back of Dutch bear (no idea why a bear)

Marching band to play national anthems

Football pre-match festivities

Marching band coming on the field

Crowd and large flags. More empty seats than I would have expected

Better picture of the flags

Pre-match national anthems

Best picture of the night - streamers shooting off

Dutch National team on the end

Start of the game - keeping eyes on the ball

Corner kick - The Netherlands won 8-1 and 5 of those 9 goals were scored on my end of the field. Incredible reactions from the crowd. Van Persie (Netherlands best player) had a hat trick and in the process became the leading Dutch National scorer of all time. Cool to see. He also added considerably to the scenery. Lekker.

I felt bad for the Hungarians. As A texted me during the game "this isn't even fair". It really wasn't - I couldn't tell if the Dutch were just that good or if the Hungarians were just that bad. Then in the second half when a Hungarian scored on his own goal, I decided they were just that bad. But the Dutch did have some pretty sick goals and I think they are going to be tough in Brazil.

Corner kick - lots of these on my half of the field in the first half.

Representing! My company sponsors the team. I think I could have gotten tickets through our intranet, but it was all in Dutch and very hard to figure out!

Action shot

Seats look empty, but they aren't. The colors worn were either orange or black, which meant that some of the seats didn't look filled. When the wave came through, you quickly realized they were full.