After having trailed all over town, to watch The Netherlands play undefeated soccer and watch them advance in the World Cup order, getting more charged and more excited with every game won, the day for the trophy was here. Sunday, July 11th, Dutch Supporters came together at the Intercontinental Hotel, filing in well ahead of time, to watch this final match.
Intercontinental’s General Manager (happily biased toward orange!), and NTBA board member, Raymond Vermolen, set up an enormous screen and turned his hotel lobby into open hospitality space to welcome all supporters – and a sprinkling of Spain supporters ventured in among the large Dutch group that greeted each other confidently, happily, in proud anticipation of the outcome, sporting everything and anything in the now famous orange color.
Our eyes fixed on the screen, outcries and applause and sighs of anxiety welled up continuously from the confident-looking orange masses. We sat and stood, paced and shared comments, the Heineken flowed, humor spread, bitterballen circulated and the mood was tense but so very hopeful. The promise of a big after party with the entire group was in the air.
The game went into overtime and still no goal – the crowd became quieter, eager and impatient now, intent on every move on the field. And when the letdown came, and the Spanish team won through a very fast and very unexpected goal, the orange crowd stood stunned. Silenced at once, and bewildered at this outcome.
The absolute and immediate end to an afternoon of unity, shared excitement and confident hope – all together this in such a great environment, which offered everything at hand for a continuation of a real celebration. The disappointment was deeply felt, and easily shared with fellow supporters left and right of each of us.
But at a moment like this, there was still the comfort of a group of people connected by the same sentiment, comforting and hugging eachother in this outcome, shaking hands when saying goodbye, and commiserating - we remained united in knowing we had had a great run!
THANK YOU!