World Cup
Proud to be Dutch
11/07/10 22:43 Filed in: World Cup
Yes, I know the Oranje lost today to Spain. That
doesn't make me any less proud to be Dutch!
The Netherlands entered its World Cup final game against Spain today with a good game plan and it very nearly worked. Since Spain plays such beautiful football, with impressive passing and ball control skills, the Dutch knew they had to find some way to force the issue. So they played aggressive soccer, putting pressure on the ball at every turn, using a physical game to try to disrupt and, yes, intimidate the opposition.
They knew they were going to give up a lot of free kicks and take a lot of yellow cards but they felt it would be worth it. If the Spanish players started thinking too much about where the next hard tackle was going to come from, rather than focusing moving the ball crisply and efficiently, the Dutch would have most of the job done. It wasn't a pretty strategy but it very nearly worked.
The difference between a win and a loss for the Oranje might just have been the toe of the Spanish goalkeeper, as he barely managed to keep Robben's breakaway shot out of the goal. If Holland scores there, Spain would have had to open the game up a bit and the Dutch might have been able to put one or two more away for the win.
Oh well. Early on in the tournament, I said I hoped Holland would play well and move into the latter stages in the tournament as a tribute to my Mom. They did me proud and I'm sure she's pleased too. The Oranje played hard and played well and we can't ask much more than that.
The Netherlands entered its World Cup final game against Spain today with a good game plan and it very nearly worked. Since Spain plays such beautiful football, with impressive passing and ball control skills, the Dutch knew they had to find some way to force the issue. So they played aggressive soccer, putting pressure on the ball at every turn, using a physical game to try to disrupt and, yes, intimidate the opposition.
They knew they were going to give up a lot of free kicks and take a lot of yellow cards but they felt it would be worth it. If the Spanish players started thinking too much about where the next hard tackle was going to come from, rather than focusing moving the ball crisply and efficiently, the Dutch would have most of the job done. It wasn't a pretty strategy but it very nearly worked.
The difference between a win and a loss for the Oranje might just have been the toe of the Spanish goalkeeper, as he barely managed to keep Robben's breakaway shot out of the goal. If Holland scores there, Spain would have had to open the game up a bit and the Dutch might have been able to put one or two more away for the win.
Oh well. Early on in the tournament, I said I hoped Holland would play well and move into the latter stages in the tournament as a tribute to my Mom. They did me proud and I'm sure she's pleased too. The Oranje played hard and played well and we can't ask much more than that.
Odds and Sods
Heat wave in NB. Hot, humid, air-conditioner-less
province. UGH. Couldn't get much done other than
surviving and keeping as cool as possible.
I did manage to take another look at the synopsis for my novel, The Silent Goodbye, and do a little polishing. Hoorah for me.
I also spent an afternoon in a local pub, with a huge, sweaty crowd, cheering on the brave Dutch soccer team in the World Cup semi-final against Uruguay. Fun times. After they surprised Brazil, it was good to see the Netherlands didn't have a let down against lower-ranked Uruguay. A little scary at the end but still great. Hup Holland! Beat Spain!
And on the reading front, I have finished the 1980s in my journey through Dick Francis. The latter part of that decade produced some great novels, including the matched pair involving Kit Fielding as the protagonist (Break In and Bolt) as well as another of my personal favourites, Hot Money, and the only one of Francis' novels set in Canada, The Edge. The decade ends with Straight, the intriguing story of a jump jockey who finds himself thrust into the shoes of his recently deceased older brother as he tries to resolve the estate and the mysteries it hides.
Break In, Hot Money and Straight are all interesting because they involve Francis exploring family relationships in a new way: Break In deals with a pair of fraternal twins, still sorting out a long-standing feud with another family; in Hot Money, the outcast son of a prolific multi-millionaire takes on the task of figuring out which one of the patriarch's three living ex-wives and numerous off-spring is trying to kill the old man; and Straight offers a soulful exploration of what it means to be brothers.
Tomorrow (Sunday) is golfing, then cheering on the Oranje in the final against Spain. Hup Holland.
I did manage to take another look at the synopsis for my novel, The Silent Goodbye, and do a little polishing. Hoorah for me.
I also spent an afternoon in a local pub, with a huge, sweaty crowd, cheering on the brave Dutch soccer team in the World Cup semi-final against Uruguay. Fun times. After they surprised Brazil, it was good to see the Netherlands didn't have a let down against lower-ranked Uruguay. A little scary at the end but still great. Hup Holland! Beat Spain!
And on the reading front, I have finished the 1980s in my journey through Dick Francis. The latter part of that decade produced some great novels, including the matched pair involving Kit Fielding as the protagonist (Break In and Bolt) as well as another of my personal favourites, Hot Money, and the only one of Francis' novels set in Canada, The Edge. The decade ends with Straight, the intriguing story of a jump jockey who finds himself thrust into the shoes of his recently deceased older brother as he tries to resolve the estate and the mysteries it hides.
Break In, Hot Money and Straight are all interesting because they involve Francis exploring family relationships in a new way: Break In deals with a pair of fraternal twins, still sorting out a long-standing feud with another family; in Hot Money, the outcast son of a prolific multi-millionaire takes on the task of figuring out which one of the patriarch's three living ex-wives and numerous off-spring is trying to kill the old man; and Straight offers a soulful exploration of what it means to be brothers.
Tomorrow (Sunday) is golfing, then cheering on the Oranje in the final against Spain. Hup Holland.
Going Dutch
24/06/10 21:30 Filed in: World Cup
I'm sitting at the computer, sipping a tall gin and
tonic, toasting another win by the Netherlands at the
World Cup and thinking about my Mom. She would have
loved this: the Dutch as one of the favourites,
performing with verve and vigour, winning games in
style.
She also would have loved the fact that just about every game has been available to watch, either on television with the CBC or through the CBC website, over the web. I can picture her, sitting there in her flat at Yorkville Place in Dundas, Ontario, watching game after game on TV, cheering on the Oranje when they played, looking forward to talking to her kids about the results.
This afternoon, when the CBC showed the Japan game on its television network, she'd be at her little bubble iMac instead, watching the live streaming broadcast of the Netherlands and its victory over the Cameroon.
She loved her Dutch heritage, my mother. It became more and more noticeable as the years passed. We'd be watching anything, talking about any subject, and if a Dutch name floated across the conversation (like hockey great Joe Nieuwyndyk, for example), she'd smile at me and say, "Do you think he's Dutch?" or, better still, "That's a Dutchman". She gloried in the fabulous Dutch speed skating teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s and she followed World Cup tournaments over the years with more passion than she let on.
She's been gone for almost fifteen months now and, I admit, the loss is a little less raw, a little more bearable. As so many people promised, I'm now more able to remember the happy times, the fun times, the laughter we shared, and I'm less focused on those terrible last few months. I'm happy to be finally in this place.
And, for some ridiculous reason, I have a feeling the Dutch are going to do very well at the World Cup this year. It just seems right. And I hope my mother is loving every minute of it.
She also would have loved the fact that just about every game has been available to watch, either on television with the CBC or through the CBC website, over the web. I can picture her, sitting there in her flat at Yorkville Place in Dundas, Ontario, watching game after game on TV, cheering on the Oranje when they played, looking forward to talking to her kids about the results.
This afternoon, when the CBC showed the Japan game on its television network, she'd be at her little bubble iMac instead, watching the live streaming broadcast of the Netherlands and its victory over the Cameroon.
She loved her Dutch heritage, my mother. It became more and more noticeable as the years passed. We'd be watching anything, talking about any subject, and if a Dutch name floated across the conversation (like hockey great Joe Nieuwyndyk, for example), she'd smile at me and say, "Do you think he's Dutch?" or, better still, "That's a Dutchman". She gloried in the fabulous Dutch speed skating teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s and she followed World Cup tournaments over the years with more passion than she let on.
She's been gone for almost fifteen months now and, I admit, the loss is a little less raw, a little more bearable. As so many people promised, I'm now more able to remember the happy times, the fun times, the laughter we shared, and I'm less focused on those terrible last few months. I'm happy to be finally in this place.
And, for some ridiculous reason, I have a feeling the Dutch are going to do very well at the World Cup this year. It just seems right. And I hope my mother is loving every minute of it.