4-0

I've talked about my dislike for football (soccer) several times, so you might be justified in wondering what on earth I was doing at the match between the Netherlands and Macedonia yesterday! Well, for starters, the ticket was given to me for free. Secondly, the atmosphere during a professional game is quite different to the atmosphere during an amateur game. And thirdly, sitting in a stadium filled with thousands of fans is so different (read: loud) compared to sitting in front of the little box at home.

So, last night I found myself sitting on seat 145 in row 12 watching the antics of 22 blokes chasing a ball around the playing field. Around me were thousands of people in weird or weirder get-ups (predominantly orange coloured) shouting, whistling, clapping and in general generating an awful lot of noise! Brilliant.

The first half was dominated by the three goals of 'our' team, the second half by players deciding they were tired and laying down all the time. It got quite annoying. And then, the medics had to come out with their stretcher and one of the Macedonian players was carried off. They had only just deposited him on the side of the field, when the Dutch goalkeeper hit the ball, a teammate and a Macedonian. All at once! So, the medics rushed back in, but this time weren't needed. I was in stitches. Right at the end there was another goal by the Dutch, so the final score was 4 to 0 for the Dutch.

The fans were happy, including the ones on my coach, I was happy and my mood has definitely shifted from down in the dumps to It's Spring!!!