The Dutch national soccer team played its second-to-last warm-up match for the World Cup, yesterday evening.  They won in convincing fashion and, as usual, appear to be one of the top teams headed into the international competition.  I missed out on the Dutch celebration of the last World Cup while traveling in the United States -- so I'm really enjoying the opportunity to experience it a bit this year.  The Dutch go crazy for their national soccer team.  The whole country is painted orange -- streamers, flags, shirts, hats, store window-displays, everything...  Just about every television commercial for the last month has tied into the World Cup theme (even the commercials shown during the breaks in the chick flicks!).  And, of course, there's the beauty of high-quality international soccer competition as well, which I can appreciate, even though I've never really been able to get into professional soccer that much.  It's going to be awesome.

And even though the Americans are fielding a pretty decent team this year, too, which I also look forward to following -- I feel compelled to declare it right now, before the competition actually gets started:  this American boy is going to be cheering for Dutch Orange, even if it ever comes down to direct confrontation with American Red-White-and-Blue.

As odd and unnatural as this may seem, I think it's actually the right thing to do.  Maybe even the American thing to do, in my situation!  Here's the reason why.  First of all, the Dutch care about their soccer team way more than the Americans care about their soccer team; and honestly, why should big ol' America's moderate enjoyment of World Cup success be allowed to overshadow the extreme euphoria that would come from Dutch success in the World Cup?  It just seems like the decent human thing to do, to let other countries have their way in a competition like this (whereas basketball, for instance, would be an entirely different matter).  Secondly, it's just fun to jump on the local bandwagon.  I know this after many years of trying to cheer for teams from afar:  it's just nice to be getting excited about the same things that every one else gets excited about, at the same time that they're getting excited about it.  It's a kind of acclimation, inculturation, and identification with the locals.  When in Amsterdam, do as the Amsterdammers do?  Maybe it's not a valid way of living life for most things, but for soccer I think it is :-)

Finally, I've just observed a very special set of similarities between Dutch people with their national soccer team and Ohio people with their various sports teams.  Of course, there's the obvious similarity in colors -- Dutch Orange much like BGSU Falcon Orange, or Cleveland Browns Orange, or old-school Cleveland Cavaliers Orange.  But more than that, it's a mentality, a culture.  Both Dutch sports fans and Ohio sports fans seem to suffer from a sort of cursed losing streak, when it comes to the "Big Game."  We can put out some of the best teams year after year, and yet we never manage to win the whole thing.  Great players, great teams, great odds of success... but when it comes to actual championships, we come up short.  Ohio teams (particularly Cleveland teams) have not won a major sports championship in over half a century.  And similarly, the Dutch have put out some amazing teams through the years -- but they are yet to win the World Cup.  It's kind of sad, but also kind of fun to observe this similar sense of fatalistic frustration in these two (otherwise very diverse) fan bases.

So yes, I feel that it's my duty -- as both an Amsterdammer and an Ohioan -- to cheer for Oranje in this year's World Cup.  Hup Holland, Hup!