Oranje! Pregame

Seen in and around town today...

Oranje! preparing for the event

I never thought I'd cheer "orange" again, but eight years after graduating from Syracuse U, my host country has made it to the World Cup finals!

The morning is still blissfully quiet, and finally the heat wave has cooled, but it won't be long before we start hearing the vuvuzela's* as Holland does some last minute preparing. Most of the houses and buildings are covered in orange. Some had little sprinklings of it as the World Cup was getting started a month ago today, but they've been steadily adding to it as Oranje continued to advance.

It's been 32 years since the Netherlands have had a chance at winning the cup. The first time they made it this far ended in a loss against Germany, so we'd all been hoping Germany would make it again, but sadly no luck. Would have made for a more exciting game and a chance at revenge for the Dutch.

Other events have been shifting their schedules after Oranje made it to the finals and once it was clear that the country had gone oranje gek (orange crazy). In the semi-finals match, this country of 16.5 million had no less than 12.3 million watching! Among those not watching will be residents of the Dutch bible belt. (I had not idea NL also had a bible belt...the things you learn thanks to football)

We still have nine hours to go, I'll soon be getting out my orange T, purchased originally for the Koninginnedag celebrations (so far the best Dutch party I've ever been to) and will probably hop on the bike and take a few pictures of the orange "ivy" covering most homes.

Of course I am hoping this will turn into the other best Dutch party I've ever been to. Predictions are being made by parakeets and octopi, but I've heard that no team that's ever lost the first game of the matches (hello Spain) has ever won the World Cup. Oranje hasn't lost a match yet.

We'll be watching the game from one of two places, both outdoors: the site of Blaak Market or in front of the Stadhuis (city hall), both marked in the map below. Our local cinema is showing the game in 3D with English commentary but I can't imagine it being as fun as the outdoor screens and forget about getting tickets this late.



View World Cup Finale in a larger map

Enjoy the game!!!


*vuvuzela: those annoying horns that have resulted in job loss and cause that swarm-of-bees like drone that put my husband to sleep in front of the TV