Semi-Finals

NED v URU

This was an intense match. If I were in the habit of biting my fingernails the fingers in my mouth would have been devoid of them. I attempted to get into Tonic, packed as could be (my own fault for running laaaaate), ran across the street to the Playwright Restaurant (ALSO full), and was told I could make a left, then a right, and I'd find a place to watch. The name of this place was Hurley's Saloon, and while it lacked the packed crowds and atmosphere of the previous two joints it was one of the more social experiences I'd had going solo. A couple of Dutch kids sat between an older couple and myself, and while I didn't so much speak with them (I don't even think they were old enough to drink! Who drinks iced tea at a football match!) I did chat with the male part of an Australian couple who hated Uruguay. No skin off my nose, we were in battle against them anyway. After half time a Swiss man sat next to me and asked how the first half went, I regaled the tale of van Bronckhorst scoring a magnificent goal 18 mins in, and the unfortunate circumstance of Forlan scoring a goal to tie the match at half time. It seemed an easy shot to block, we all saw it coming a mile away, but there wasn't enough defense. The swiss gentleman bought me a beer (and it wasn't my first by that point). I got pretty drunk, too drunk for my liking at 4 in the afternoon. And then Sneijder saved us at the 70th minute, and then we got a terrific third goal from Robben not three minutes later, and thank goodness for that because Uruguay got ANOTHER goal when Pareira scored in the 90th bloody minute into overtime, and the ball was trapped near the Dutch goal and we all held our breath that they wouldn't get another shot in. And they didn't. And all is right with the world. And Holland is in the finals! And we are moments away from a battle between Germany and Spain to find out who will go up against Holland in the final match on Sunday. Either team, I feel, will be an interesting match to watch. Both are powerhouses of football, neither have won the cup before, and both have an extensive history with The Netherlands that the final game is sure to be excellent. Of course, I want Spain to kick Germany's butt, because I think Holland will stand a better chance against them, but in my heart of hearts I do like Germany...can't help it. Maybe it's cause centuries and centuries ago my ancestors were German. Wir sind alle Deutschen! But I'm not so invested in any particular team for this game, because whoever wins I'll be rooting against on Sunday anyway. Hup Holland Hup!

Hup Holland Hup!

Way to go Netherlands!

I still can't believe we beat bloody Brazil! How did that happen! I watched the whole thing, glued to my seat, Tonic was so packed there was a large crowd outside watching on the street, and they stopped letting people in. We headed to Playwright Restaurant across the street instead, quickly filled with oranje fans inside.

Brilliant game. It looked hopeless, that the Dutch lambs had gone off to the Brazilian slaughterhouse, what with Brazil scoring a mere 10 minutes in after an offside first attempt. I was so anxious, I ordered a beer at 10:30 in the morning to soften the blows I was so sure would come. It just seemed that the Dutch were pussyfooting around, waiting for their team members to join only to have the Brazilians surround them instead like hornets. Why wouldn't they just kick the ball already! And then the second half started, and Sneijder kicked magnificently from across the field, and thanks to a little headbutt from Brazil's Melo (who would later get a red card from stepping on Robben), the Dutch tied 1-1 to cheers and thunderous applause. And then Sneijder headbutted in a second goal thanks to good corner kick from Robben. Holy shit! None of us could believe it! The sounds in the pub were deafening, the atmosphere electric. And we held it. We held our lead for the next 25 minutes, no matter how much Maicon and Kaká tried to get past.

And then it ended, and everyone was cheering whenever they saw another person dressed in orange, Dutch everywhere, it was wonderful. Outside of Tonic was insane and spectacular. Such a crowd of orange, a couple dressed in Brazilian colors passed and everyone booed in good fun (the couple smiled even), cars and trucks honked, some with people wearing orange inside, and everybody cheered. People would pour out of the bar still and everyone would hoot and holler again, an abrupt rendition of olé broke out, there were even vuvuzelas. So surreal. I still can't believe we beat Brazil. Who the hell beats BRAZIL?! (The Netherlands, THAT's who!)

More World Cuppery (quick rundown)

Alright. I'm going to make one big quick post about a few of this past weeks bout of games.

New Zealand - All White is All Right!
First off, NZL v SVK. Winston Reid of New Zealand made a spectacular play in the last 30 seconds of the game to tie with Slovakia. Absolutely brilliant. And then they tied again with Italy (Italy is just not doing so well this time round). It was a great game, the Italians completely bombed though, but the best player (aside Reid) was New Zealand's goalie, Mark Paston. He blocked every shot like a pro. The only one he missed was Italy's penalty kick (he unfortunately dived the opposite direction...but that ball was too quick to have been caught had he dove toward the ball anyway). Honestly though, if it weren't for that penalty kick New Zealand would have absolutely won that game. The Italians looked completely crestfallen, and the New Zealanders celebrated by taking their shirts off a la Winston Reid of the first game.

Switzerland
Spain was totally off this game as well. The online rumor mill says it's the goalie's fault, that he was "distracted" by his bombshell of a girlfriend who was reporting from the sidelines (yeah, blame the women folk! How ridiculous is it that these girlfriends and ex-girlfriends keep getting blamed for their boys' failure!) Anyway, Switzerland scored 1 against Spain, and who saw that coming! (Go Shweiz!) Unfortunately they lost today to Chile, and were playing a player short due to Valon Behrami getting an unnecessary red car.

France
France LOST to Mexico. WTF. The European teams are all off this year; England, France, Spain, Italy...they're just losing it left and right! Anyway. Big story about France of course is that Nicolas Anelka has been expelled from the French football team by the French Football Federation because he refused to publicly apologize after some heated words to coach Raymond Domenech, who nearly lost his job in 2008, and is lucky to be coaching at the cup. This was supposed to be a private conversation confined to the team members and their coach, but word leaked, newspapers exploded, and there you have it. And NOW, the entire French time is refusing to train in solidarity for Anelka wrongfully being banished from playing. And THIS has lead to their liaison officer, Jean-Louis Valentin, to storm off in a huff and resign. France implodes!

Germany
Then somehow Deutschland lost to Serbia, after their brilliant last game against Australia in which they lived up to the name of Arian by pummeling 4 goals into the Aussie net.

England
England is just disappointing. Tied 0-0 with Algeria, totally dull. They did have the decency to switch Green out of the game at least. Then some fan got past all the security and broke into the team's locker room only to be chastised by David Beckham (hah), and was later arrested by South African police (hahah). Props to the riled up fan.

USA
UGH. UGH UGHUGH. Good news is, Koman Coulibaly, the referee that made the awful disgusting calls in the game against Slovenia, won't be allowed to ref anymore except from the sidelines. Serves the schmuck right. There was no offside, USA had that third goal in the bag, if anything should have been called it should have been a penalty kick for the US seeing as how nearly every American player was being held by their shirts or in a bear grip by the Slovenians. Absolute outrage. They deserve to get to the round of 16 over England for sure (sorry Britain, no hard feelings, but there you have it).

NETHERLANDS
Ok. I love Japan, don't get me wrong, but I'm rooting for my nationality here all the way baby. (I'm sure my Dutch uncle got a kick out of this game, he HATES Japan). The Japanese definitely kept the Dutch on their toes, and we're damn lucky they kept missing all those goals. I ended up going to Kells Irish Pub for this one in downtown Portland, and while it was at 4:30 am west coast time I was thankfully still on east coast time, and actually got to wake up later than I had woken up for the NED v DEN game on Monday (yay not relying on the subway to get places!). I definitely picked the right pub to go to for this one, as all the fans inside were dressed in Oranje, and there were even some actual Dutchmen (who knew they lived out here!) And they had tea, and breakfast, and beer, and it was a lot less crowded than Tonic in New York, but that was to be expected. What I'm concerned about, is that the next game against Cameroon happens at the same exact time as the JPN v DEN game, I have to figure out what game they'll be broadcasting at each of the pubs, which I intend to do Wednesday when I go down for the GER v GHA game. Or I could wake up early again and head down for MEX v URU, which should be very interesting, and absolutely for the USA v ALG game, which is at the same time as the ENG v SVN game, which also totally sucks, because I want to watch them aaaaaalll and how can I if they're happening at the same tiiiiime. They should have just added three extra days to the cup instead of squeezing in all these games like this. So annoying.

Portugal
Hate. Still bitter from the last world cup. They got 7 goals in against North Korea. SEVEN FREAKIN' GOALS. They weren't even cheering anymore by the seventh it was so passé. I just hope the North Koreans aren't put to death for having lost so terribly. I can't wait for Portugal to be pummeled by Brazil. That's going to be spectacular.

Brazil
Some brilliant plays, but I was rooting for Côte d'Ivoire (sorry to say). And they're probably going to be battling the Dutch in the quarter finals, which freaks me out. Scary scary!

Nederland v Denmark

Well, going to the "Dutch Soccer House" was better than I expected. Three floors completely packed with Oranje fans (and a few Danish fans in the lions den decked in red), from the classy (business suit, orange tie) to the ridiculous (baby all in orange complete with an orange joker's hat). The game itself was slow in the first half, but it felt less so being surrounded by hundreds of Nederland fans cheering, and clapping, and at times breaking out in song. I managed to get one of the last seats in the place, real nosebleeder, had to crane my neck the entire time. And then some bloke joined me at my table, he had obviously been dragged by his (much) younger girlfriend there, as he didn't even watch the game, just sat there playing solitaire on his iPhone (why on earth you would go to watch a football game and then play solitaire the entire time is beyond me). OK. I may have been on my phone too, but it was for research purposes on the game, and to take pictures of the crowd. So totes legit.

And then at minute 46, right after half time, Poulson of Denmark head-butted the ball into his own goal. Point for Nederland! He did have a very good sense of humor about it, was laughing at himself right after it happened, unlike Britain's Green, who likes to take to fetal position (poor guy, apparently some hot model breaking his heart is the "reason" he fumbled. Riiiiiight. Blame the ladies!). And then at minute 85 Eljero Elia goes for the goal, and just as it registered that the ball bounced against the post Dirk Kuyt comes in out of nowhere between two Danes and slide kicks the ball right into the Danish goal. Beautiful shot.

Anyway. It was lovely being surrounded by so many Dutchmen, even though I'm not fluent and can only understand some of the language, it pulls at my heartstrings to hear it spoken.

Some really poor quality photos I took on my phone:

FIFA 2010 England v USA

And, in the words of Kevin, "England can eat a dick." That was one of the most beautiful goals I've seen. And more beautiful still because we could all poke fun at the Brit in the room (probably better I didn't go to that bar full o' Brits! I could NOT stop laughing!)

Such beauty is happenstance!

Of course, the real game that I'm looking forward to plays tomorrow at 7:30 am, Dutch v Danes. Dutch Soccer House (aka Tonic @ Times Square) is the place to be for any Oranje/Flying Dutchmen fan (also: they're serving breakfast!). But I don't know if I should start drinking that early...although the idea of having vodka & orange juice is rather tempting...(it's ORANGE! I'm being a patriot, here!) The two other matches (Nederland v Japan, Nederland v Cameroon) will take place while I'm out of the city, and I highly doubt there will be any sort of Dutch gathering out in Oregon (aside from me, my father, and a case of beer). And so, I have every intention of waking up bright and early tomorrow, putting on all the orange (Oranje) I've got, and heading out to Times Square to watch the game to my heart's content with fellow nationals. Hup, Holland, hup!