We had an all-Oranje weekend, and it was a wonderful experience. We marched with the Dutch Army. We (sort of) sang with them. We (sort of) danced with them -- "links, rechts" (translated: left, right).
We found the now-famous double-decked Orange bus, and climbed aboard.
We rooted really hard for the Netherlands' soccer team. Because that's what I've done since I was about 5 years old ... and that's 74 years ago.
The World Cup of soccer at "Dallas Stadium" -- forgive us, Cowboys -- was a blast.
It was an all-orange outing. Yes, we wore orange shirts. Some of us also wore orange shorts.
The Dutch flag is red-white-and-blue -- horizontally -- but the national color is orange because the royal family dates to The House of Orange.
I have been an American citizen for 66 years; I was 8 when we left Holland late in 1955 as immigrants to the U.S. But I've always loved my original country -- a small but beautiful and progressive place (beautiful in many ways).
This we've known forever, and it certainly was reaffirmed this weekend: The Netherlands has the greatest sports fans in the world. These people devoutly follow their soccer team (and their speed skaters, and every other sport).
And they party like no else. They might not win the soccer game -- or the World Cup tournament -- but they are the World Champions of Partying.
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My World Cup adventure began Saturday afternoon at Fort Worth Central Station. As I arrived for the train ride to Dallas, I saw a man sitting and wearing a bright orange shirt, and holding an orange hat. The shirt had a black KNVB logo (the KNVB is the Dutch soccer organization).
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| John and Erica Ven Berg |
John Van Berg was headed to Dallas, and his wife Erica soon walked up, wearing the same type shirt but also orange tennis shoes, carrying an orange bag with a "Holland" logo ... and her fingernails were painted orange.
They live in Abbenes, a village not far from Schiphol, the Amsterdam airport (John was an air freight worker).
They raised four sons -- "very expensive and hard for Erica," said John -- and have five grandchildren. Now retired, with the kids grown, they have time to travel and following the Dutch national team is what they do.
They are among the select group that have season tickets to the Dutch games through the KNVB. In a deal cut with FIFA, the international soccer organization (which makes millions), they paid only $60 per game for the World Cup games here.
Only $60 (we paid four times that much), and they are prepared to make it to eight games if the Dutch go all the way, including a possible game in Mexico. However far the Dutch team falls short, their ticket costs will be refunded.
Their first trip to America, and they were staying in Fort Worth. But they will rent a car and drive to Houston, and then to Kansas City for the Dutch team's second and third Group F qualifiers.
John estimated some 5,000 Dutch fans have made the trip from Holland to the USA this month. The majority are set to go the distance. Figure that maybe 15,000 Dutch more supporters (many with ties to the country) will join them at this World Cup.
One recent memory stands out for John; the European qualifying game in Dortmund, Germany, two years ago. "There were 130,000 Dutch fans in town," he said. "It was a little dangerous in the streets. We didn't get into those crowds [and the famed Dutch march]. We took the metro straight to the stadium."
But they were ready to join the crowd here. And if you've seen the videos on Facebook, etc., and TV, you know that an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 were in the march to the stadium here Sunday. Read on.
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I took the train to EBJ Union Station in downtown Dallas, and Jason picked me up. Coming in, he and the boys had spotted the Orange bus across a nearby highway. It was in a huge parking lot, and we went right there.
The bus has become a Dutch soccer symbol, the organizing point for the now routine marches at major international (men and women's) games.
It is stored in Breda, a town in the southern part of the Netherlands. I am familiar with Breda; on a family vacation there in October 1953, it is where I saw a television for the first time. Dad and I went in a restaurant, and on the TV that day was a Holland vs. Belgium soccer match (our biggest rival then). Holland won the game 1-0; it was played in Rotterdam.
The ownership group has taken the Orange Bus to 10 major tournament in a couple of decades, including men's World Cups in Germany, South Africa, Qatar and Brazil, and the European Championships every four years.
Some of that requires shipping the bus by boat, and the group more recently has received sponsorship for those costs. The boat this time was shipped from Holland to Galveston, and then driven to Houston last week. Many of the owners flew from Schiphol to Houston.
The journey to Dallas included a stop at Buc-ee's in Madisonville, where as always it had admirers from all over.
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| Galina Visser |
"People are so friendly and so helpful," she said. "And it's all so huge -- huge cars, huge trucks, huge highways."
We were allowed to step into the bus, which -- surprise -- has a bar on the lower level and we climbed the narrow stairs to the upper deck (to pose for photos, of course).
Also met Ben Schalks, 67, a retired hotel
worker who lives in Noordwijk, a scenic spot on the North Sea coast in the South Holland province. He's a talkative, friendly sort who is typically soccer-nuts and is taking in his fifth World Cup. He and I traded details of some of the Dutch team's historic World Cup games.
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| Ben Schalks knows voetbal |
He remembered that in Qatar, "the bus only was allowed to go around the stadium, either going left or right" (appropriate for the now Dutch dance craze).
Observed Ben: "Dutch fans are better at celebrating than our team is at playing voetbal sometimes."
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Then, onto the FanFest at the Fair Park area in Dallas (think Texas State Fair). A wide-spread setup, with three huge screens to view the games, an amphitheater setting and a huge berm, and people/fans representing and wearing the colors of so many of the countries.
The prevalent color this day was Brazil's bright yellow and green. But when Morocco scored first, we realized it, too, had a good share of supporters. Still, it was much louder when Brazil -- always the one of the favorites -- hit the equalizing goal. Both teams' fans danced and chanted throughout the match.
We met a young man, Joshua Voshurt, only 22, from Mijdrecht, an assistant manager in a restaurant making his first journey to the U.S. He flew from London to Dallas "all on my own" and his impression of this country was "an amazing place."
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| Daniel Oordt, the orange suit man (and march leader) |
Coming through the crowds, he was stopped repeatedly for handshakes and photos. Just last week he was featured in People magazine. Originally from Leiden, the neat university town near The Hague, he now lives in Tampa, Florida, but he hasn't missed a Dutch international soccer game in 11 years, and wearing his orange suit (orange everything), he's the unofficial head cheerleader.
But the day's last stop was the highlight -- the Dutch pep rally. Maybe 500-750 orange-clad fans -- waving orange flags -- dancing, jumping, singing (almost all of it in Dutch), led by two excitable deejays.
Almost of the people knew all of the songs, no matter what age, what shape. We'd seen this before; Bea and I were on vacation in Amsterdam (and Zaandam) when Willem-Alexander became the King on April 30, 2013. What a day of celebration that was. But this singing and dancing was much the same.
Of course, I was clueless about the songs. (Good chance my mother would have known some.)
And what I learned quickly was that the "links, rechts" dance number was not for me (although I had practices). Too fast, too much movement for this old not-trim body. Had to be careful to keep from being trampled. Left, right; left, right .. forget it.
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So many orange shirts, Dutch soccer teams shirts of all sorts (with the names of many of the great Dutch players), orange flags, the national flag (we brought one) ... all just a reminder that -- as we like to hear -- if you ain't Dutch, you ain't much.
We met Americans -- with Dutch family backgrounds -- from all over. The young man sitting next to me during the game was from Los Angeles; his grandparents had been immigrants from Rotterdam. Met Dutch people from The Hague, Groningen and Den Bosch and, of course, Amsterdam (all of them are Ajax fans).
Met several Dutch natives now living in the Dallas area, and we saw a Facebook video featuring Henk's Deli -- off Northwest Highway in Dallas -- which we've visited often. It was the host for, surprise, a Dutch fans' party.
Listening to conversations around The Bus and various places near the stadium, I tried to make out what the Dutch people were saying. I can pick up words here and there; sometimes if they speak slowly, I almost can understand what they're saying.
But I forgot how to speak Dutch a long time ago. Know a lot of words, some small phrases. Putting together a sentence isn't happening. My sister, only 4 when we came to the U.S., knows more Dutch than me.
Even my parents, still fluent in Dutch, after a few years in America spoke English at home and thought in English. But Dad still perused the Dutch newspapers online.
I did realize that at my age I have outlasted many Dutch fans. When I asked some if they knew these names -- Abe Lenstra, Kees Broekman and Wim Van Est (the country's superstar athletes of the early 1950s) -- there was very little recognition. Only Lenstra, our best striker in voetbal for more than a decade, but only because there is a stadium named for him.
Also found supporters of each of the top three teams in Holland -- reigning PSV (Eindhoven), Feyenoord (Rotterdam) and Ajax (Amsterdam, my favorite team since about 1952).
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Sunday morning began with a nice hard rainfall. Still raining as we drove to the stadium area; we avoided the $60, $80 and $100 parking areas to find a spot on a street a good mile (maybe two) from Globe Life Field.
So, a good walk past the new baseball stadium to the left-field side of the old baseball stadium (now Choctaw Stadium) where the Orange Bus was parked.
The music, the dancing and the singing had started, and there were a few hundred people there. They kept coming ... and coming ... and coming.
Doing the "links, rechts" dance was a bit tedious. Some of us avoided it.
By the time the bus began to roll toward "Dallas Stadium," it was estimated that at least 15,000 people were walking (marching). If you've seen the overhead photos or videos, it is an awesome sight.
We stopped to enter Texas Live, where it was busy with TV screens (and food and drinks) available in multiple spots. Left the grandsons there, with a group that had come with us.
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About the game: A slow-paced, deliberate first half. A game of chess on the pitch. Both teams played conservatively, rarely speeding up, few scoring chances. The second half was terrific; both teams attacking frequently, playing to open spaces, and the four goals were met with thunderous reactions.
The attendance was listed at 69,285 -- short of the capacity (70,649) in the stadium readjusted for soccer.
There were large patches of orange-clad fans in the stadium. But there might have been even more blue-shirted Japanese fans. And they were just as enthusiastic as the Dutch, maybe more.
Seemed to us that the response to the Japanese goals was much louder than when Holland scored.
The Japanese rhythmic clapping was impressive; their incessant drum banging and chanting -- they never stopped -- honestly, was annoying.
We thought they were chanting Let It Go. But my Dutch/Canadian cousin -- also named Van Thyn -- informed me today that the chant was Vamos Nippon ("Let's Go Japan").
And the blue bags many Japanese fans were waving, they used at game's end -- a fine tradition -- to pick up stadium trash. They were happy to do it.
They were happier than the Dutch fans with the game's final 2-2 tie. It was a letdown for us, with Japan scoring the tying goal with about eight minutes remaining. It wasn't a loss, but it didn't feel good.
It was the first time in the Dutch's World Cup history (some glorious, far too much heartbreak) that we gave up the lead twice in a game. We have been a world power program since 1974 (so, 52 years).
It makes this Saturday's game with Sweden -- in Houston -- an almost "must-win" outing if we hope to advance out of Group F to the final 32.
So as the Japanese picked up trash, many Dutch fans were headed back to party some more.
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Personally, our weekend was a gift from our son. Yes, a birthday/Father's Day present, and maybe payback for the 11 years Beatrice and I followed him through his soccer-playing days.
Thought of how much Bea would have supported us, and thought of my Dad, who took me to my first games in Amsterdam in the early 1950s.
In 1994, Dad and I saw the Dutch play two World Cup games in Orlando (a loss and a victory); the first game his seat was right behind the Netherlands' bench. He loved it. He was 75 then, younger than I am now.
So this was a family experience again. But in a greater sense, it was also my Dutch family. Proud to be an American, but love my Dutch heritage.
I always will be an Oranje fan, and winning the World Cup would be a dream come true. Short of that, where's the party? Links or rechts.
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| Here we are on the bus: One old fat guy, with grandsons Jacob and Kaden, son Jason, and friend Drew Stewart. |
A video:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1MFuaegxUL/
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