Hell no BrianC... The Worldcup is about football. And everybody can fill in the experience as they please. Simple fact is that someone that really feels 'connected' to his team (club or national side, not relevant here) does not dance with the supporters of the country that just eliminated your squad in the SEMIFINAL of the WC. At that very moment... Dutch girls cry, Dutch boys are furious. I was. My friends were. The first one that passed me wearing a Brasillian flag got a good kick in the ass. But he apologised, and so did I (why the hell should he apologize anyway?). He can't help it, ofcourse. I mean... I felt like killing every Brasilian on the planet... but I know it would be better to go home and sleep. So I did. But if you really have this feeling of pride... you do NOT dance with them. Because you are in no mood to dance. You are in a mood to kill. This is something different from 'normal' hooliganism which has a competitive element. This is about pure frustration and anger. Boys don't cry... so what do they do? If you don't have that feeling.... Why the hell watch the game? If you don't feel the need to cry/curse/demolish/whatever.... you don't feel the need to scream and shout for a goal... the need to climb trees and go crazy on the streets when your team scores. You see what I mean? I simply don't understand these people. I don't support my country like I support my team, visiting matches throughout the country and Europe. I don't visit their matches, but at a WC or EC I am swept off my feet by 'the feeling' best described as fear of losing... making every step towards winning a reason to party... and the closer you get to that ultimate victory the closer you get to total ecstacy... unmatched by any drug in the world (and I've done some). Never in my life will I forget May 24th 1995. Patrick Kluiverts goal.... I was 15. Never in my life have I screamed like that. I don't believe in God but I remember praying to God on the toilet for 15 minutes.... if you are there.... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.... let us win. PLEASE.... PLEASE... Man... just think about those 6 or 7 minutes... my heart starts pumping like mad... I know I will never experience that feeling in my life again. That was my first great Ajax victory. even greater than UEFA Cup in 1992. This is something I dreamt of all my (15 year old life)... I never expected my club to ever perform on that level.... and I still can't believe they did. I also realize not many people get to feel what I felt that night. Too bad, I really mean that. So much for trying to describe an undescribeable feeling Man what a long story! The reason many club supporters don't go to Oranje (I'm talking about the more fanatic fans here) is the fact that the average Oranje supporter does not know about the supporter culture like there is at the clubs. And the club supporters don't like the Orange style support. They find it gruwesome. What ruudboy said about rivalry between supporters is the reason that their is hardly any hooliganism around Dutch national sides' matches. The hoolies try and in 88 and 90 there was a group of hooligans that travelled to EC and WC. But as always trouble among the different clubs ran pretty high. So every now and then some hooligans travel with people from their own club, but they don't arrange to team up with hoolies from other teams. There are just certain rivalries that will never be put aside (Ajax/feyenoord, Ajax/utrecht, Twente/feyenoord... Ajax is hated by almost all, although some of this is because a lot of weak-assed clubs do nothing but kiss feyenoord ass all day). I think I'm gonna take a little rest now.
I never said I feel like dancing when my team loses. When the US got knocked out by Germany this summer I didn't even move for a few hours I was so devastated. I'm as fanatical as anyone about the national team but I can't say I felt like killing every German on the planet. That might be some sort of anger problem... _________________ Isn't there some sort of an alliance between NAC's firm and someone else? I know I heard about it just can't remember who.
No it's not an anger problem. It's a passion problem. It's about being so unbelievably focussed on a team, match, tournament that when it's all over like that you go mental. Or you cry. I think it's because you lose all sense of reality because you are so focussed on that one match and when it's lost there is some kind of emptyness.... I don't know. Hard to explain. If it was an anger problem.... man do we have a lot of people with anger problems. After being defeated by Italy in 2000 there were riots all over the country. It's just about not being able to deal with your loss, your frustration. Like McEnroe (boy do I love that guy. They should make a 2 hour movie of him, just showing him going crazy... hahaha) the NAC firm is allied with the Lokeren firm from Belgium. Last season they got their ass kicked by a combination of FC Groningen and Beerschot (who are also allied, Beerschot also from Belgium) at a NAC - Beerschot (actual name GBA) friendly.
Well I can relate there. From the Old Firm (Celtic-Gers) and Milan games I've been to I definitely felt like killing someone. There's plenty of incidents to get mixed up in because there's so much passion. This just can't happen at Revs games (my local team in MLS). There isn't any REAL rivalry or deep hatred among fans. With the national team and the WC it's about meeting people and having a good time (outside the stadium.) When we play qualifiers against Jamaica for example, I hang out with them instead of US fans in funny hats and costumes tailgaiting. If you think the Oranje support is disgusting check out the majority of Sam's Army. The game comes first of course and like I said earlier if we lost I wouldn't be in a party mood for days.
Oh, about NAC, I swear that I heard they are friendly with another Dutch firm other than Lokeren in Belgium. I'll search for the link.
NAC is not allied to another Dutch firm. There are no allies. Groningen and feyenoord usually get along, so do PSV and Twente (the result of a fight two years ago... they respected each other so much for putting up a good clean fight that they get along quite well). Ahhhhhhhhh wait a minute!!! I know what you mean! You mean de Graafschap! That's a different story! Their firms are not allied. Their is a friendship between their fans, but I never heard of Graafschap hooligans (as far as there are any) assisting the NAC firm. This is what an alliance means. It had something to do with a NAC player that died in a car accident. After the de Graafschap match (I believe De Graafschap avoided relegation in that match) NAC fans started singing songs about their deceased player. De Graafschap fans came onto the pitch and went to the NAC fans and started singing along.
Wow, interesting story. I'm looking around now and still can't find it. It was a photo of a NAC fan holding a belt and walking calmly towards the away fans. The match didn't involve NAC but the caption said there was an alliance between NAC and whoever the home team was. This particular guy was from Breda. I've seen the photo a few places. Maybe it rings a bell?
That's one the things I loved about living near Amsterdam: how much pure passion everyone felt about Ajax. My mom was stationed w/ the USAF at Soesterburg before it closed. I was only like 5 years old and I can remember EVERYONE talking about the game. I don't think I understood much Dutch but I understood enough to know what was going on and why everyone was so excited. It just make you feel absolutely ecstatic about Ajax, seeing everyone so ecstatic.
BrianC that was the Roda - Ajax match. The 'big guy with belt' was a KV Mechelen hooli. Roda's NSC has some kind of alliance with them. They also have one with Aachen of Germany. I remember that particular match quite well as it was quite rumourous from the beginning till the end.