Oranje Fever

There is no sporting event like the showcase events of football which can make me spend sleepless nights to catch the action. And Euro 2008 is right now catching my fancy in a big way. All the more so since the team i've always had a soft spot for, Holland, are finally living up to their billing of total football.
Football is a beautiful game, they say. It's also a pretty simple game. The fervour of the supporters around the world can probably not be expected by any other sport. And the Oranj team of this Euro are epitomising the beautiful game like never before(at least since i started watching). I remember rooting for an excellent Dutch team, which had the likes of Bergkamp, Kluivert, the De Boers, Davids etc, back in the world cup of '98. This was probably the last tournament where they looked like they would be deserving winners. But they had a heartbreaking loss on penalties to Brazil in the semi's.
If that was heartbreaking, fans of Oranj were in for more heartbreak in Euro 2000, which was on home soil. They thrashed the Yugoslavs in the quarters, and looked heads on for the final. That is, until they came into the great wall of Italy in the semis. Italy had a player sent off, and Holland had 2 penalties in normal time, both of which they missed. By the time the penalty shootout came, there was an air of inevitability around their defeat. Finally they scored hardly a penalty in the shooutout.
After that, i was a neutral for sometime. Right until Hollands first match against the world champs Italy in this Euro. They virtually thrashed them, with a wonderful display of passing game and counter attacking strikes. If we thought that was the best they can be, nobody told them. I am writing this the day after their match against the other world cup finalists, France. Whew!! I have never been so captivated by a teams performance in a match in a long time. If Italy had no answers, france were rendered virtually invalid by the Dutch. France did not play badly. But like the commentators said, Holland were playing football from another planet. The score was 4-1 to Holland, with all 3 strikes of theirs in the second half being good enough for goal of the tournament. My love affair with the Dutch Football team just reached fever pitch.
I dont know if they can carry this on for the length of the tournament, but i do know that if the Dutch do get eliminated on the way, it will not just be the Dutch citizens who will shed a tear.

In that way alone, they have already left a mark on this tournament.