Oranje crushed

Football fever has of coursed gripped the nations of Switzerland and Austria for nearly three weeks now, along with the rest of Europe. CH and Austria just feel it more because they are hosting the Cup. The Opening game was in Basel (main CH host city), many rounds were played also in Zurich, Geneva and Bern; and in Austria, Vienna (main Austrian host city), Salzburg, Innsbruck, and Klagenfurt (no, I've never heard of it either). Now that we've reached the semi-finals, Basel will host one (tonight) and Vienna will host the other (tomorrow night); then (yay!!) Vienna will host the Final on Sunday. Whew.

It should be stated right up front that both Switzerland and Austria fell out of contention before the quarterfinals. England were also knocked out before the Cup, so they haven't a dog in this race...which must be killing them since they are all utter football fanatics. It seems, though, that they sort of adopted Holland as their favourite (my guess being that it's one of the few Euro countries England have no historical beef with...and vice versa), and certainly Switzerland caught Holland fever. They have been on fire for most of the tournament, and they have been winning all their games handily and with style and flair. Scott is also a big Holland fan, donning his orange Holland jersey to watch the matches. Ah, bless. :-) (Secretly, I believe it's because he loves Amsterdam and he loves the colour orange...but he's also becoming a bit of a football fan anyhow, so who knows? He already has Holland hats and shirts, and a Holland label on the bike trailer for the dogs.)

Anyhoo, last Saturday was a big quarterfinal match, Holland vs Russia. Holland were the easy favorites, Russia the underdogs. Basel ranneth o'er with Dutch fans -- over 100,000 of them. The entire city was orange. Please see for yourself...

First, we have "The Hammering Man," a very tall (note the life-sized people walking near the base) sculpture of...a hammering man. "Since the end of August 1989 this giant with a height of 13.5 metres and a weight of 8 tons has been swinging his hammer in the steady rhythm of a man's breathing. According to [American artist] Jonathan Borofsky, at his location on the Aeschenplatz he is intended to serve as a symbol «for all of us who are working together to make our environment on this planet safe and worth living in»."

In celebration of the Oranje, he was wrapped all in orange, head to toe. Festive, is he not?

Across the street from The Hammering Man, in the park where we walk our dogs, many Dutch had simply found a place to sleep by grabbing a spot on the grass.


Later on Saturday, it became clear just how full of Dutch the town was. Here's a picture of just one of the squares in town (there were several other places fully packed full of Oranje fans).


The Dutch fans were having a great time, just partying like mad all Friday and Saturday, in preparation for their big match on Saturday night. They are not obnoxious or scary football drunks, like, say, the English -- they are just wild and crazy and fun. They did pee everywhere, but with that much beer, that was sort of inevitable. But they didn't fight or commit crimes or intimidate the locals. Mostly, they just wore a lot of orange and drank a lot of beer. There were a lot of orange rubber faux-wooden shoes, which I just found amusing.


Nice, huh?

So there were a LOT of drunk and happy Dutch fans. Until the end of the match, which they lost. Russia beat them 3-1. SO much sadness. So many cheery orange-dressed Dutch people walking around like a funeral procession. Woe was them. It was sad just to watch them. But they didn't fight and they didn't riot, they were just sad. And then they were okay again. Being Dutch seems fairly straightforward, to be honest.

Tonight will be the last game in Basel -- yay! But it's Germany vs Turkey, so there should be a big crowd, and it's a longtime rivalry. Aside from the all-night horn honking (which is how they celebrate a win here), let's hope they just want to turn in early on a weeknight. I know I do.