The Even Greater Tokyo Region

SP AR TA

Whoops. Wrong PictureMy reintegration with Holland reached a new high point last week when I went to a football game. Yes, look at me being all European and refusing to call it "soccer". It is already working.

The most famous football club in Rotterdam is Feyenoord. It is famous for a mixture of good reasons (a winning history) and bad reasons (hooliganism). However, the football club closest to where I was born is famous for neither of these reasons. The club is called Sparta, and it is the oldest professional club in Holland. Yes, it is a storied history. They are currently sitting comfortably in the top 15 in the top division.

But try telling that to the 1/3 filled to capacity 11,000 seat stadium. "The Castle". Everyone was so jovial. Or at least the beer was making them that way. The stadium was filled with middle-aged men drinking coffee and/or beer, and jovial music composed before music was invented. I must have been out-of-place, as I was the only one in our group of 15 who got a pat-down. "aren't you lucky?". No, no I wasn't. He only touched my head.

The players came onto the field, with little children. You see this on TV often, but I don't know, are the kids disappointed when they get chosen to come out with a losing team? I guess you can just lie to the kids. That is always a good solution, and it is good fun. Then everybody stood to song the age-old Sparta anthem, with the rousing lyrics:

"S-P
A-R
T-A"

Yes, 100 years before Snoop Doggy Dog and Sesame Street were spelling things out in their lyrics, Sparta Rotterdam was already doing it. Take that. As soon as the song finished, the whistle blew and the game started.

You know, apart from the semi-professional basketball games I went to in New Zealand and Japan, I have never been to a pro-sport live. Not even rugby or cricket. For someone who likes sport as much as me, it was quite surpising. I guess I wanted my first time to be special.

I wouldn't consider myself a football fan, but I do like watching it. If there is an international tournament on, I will watch until my eyes bleed. So I do appreciate top-quality football. Sparta was also okay. It really is different watching live than on TV. first of all, the field looked nearly square from our perspective behind the goal. And you can't hear them kicking the ball. I still wonder how they do that on TV, because you can hear every single pass despite the rowdy crowds. Do they have a microphone in the ball? Or is there someone in the studio who pushes sound effect buttons? It is a mystery to me.


This is the Sparta team. I just wanted to show them in their uniforms, because I was watching the game, and it all seemed so familiar somehow. I kept finding myself thinking, "found him", "found him", "there he is", and so on.Okay, that was a poor joke. I'm sorry.

But it it turned out to be a very exiting game.

I was only close enough to take semi-decent photos at our end, but Sparta definitely had the team swagger at the start. In the first half, Sparta got a free kick just outside the box. It broke the wall, and dribbled into the net.


The villagers rejoyced, and everybody spontaneously burst into song: the Sparta anthem. Oh, football fans have such a likeable culture when they aren't fighting each other and vandalising stuff.

At half-time, everybody stood up. I'm not sure why, but what the hell, I'm reintegrating. The 2nd half was more of the same, scoring a 2nd goal off a breakaway.
Then the other team brought on a substitution. I looked at him, and knew he was trouble. It is amazing in football how much a team can have a swagger. They were definitely swaggerig now. Within 15 minutes, he headered in a goal, making the last half hour tense.

It was a jovial ending to the night too. Unfortunately, this was a cup-match, and did not count towards the season charts. So, for the moment, Sparta is still comfortably in the top 15. And my reintegration is nearly complete.