The Even Greater Tokyo Region

A Heartfelt Loss

I has been difficult to speak about it, but I should really cover this. The World Cup was a dream come true for me. Now, I am far from a football hooligan, but this was something I had been looking forward to for a long time. I was telling people when I was in New Zealand in January that the main reason I was going back to Holland was for the World Cup. (They often asked "You know it will be held in South Africa, right?" Cheeky bastards. Little do they know that the true Way-Kah party is in Holland.)

But for me, the point was, this was the best opportunity I would ever get to fulfil my 2-year-long goal of reintegrating into Dutch society. I had a golden opportunity, one that only comes every four years (We don't talk about 2002), to really be Dutch. Every goal we scored, I was happy beyond recognition. And every win Holland came away with, I recognised the magnitude of the opportunity for me. And every day during that one month period, whether watching football, or talking about it with friends or co-workers or random customers, or just looking around and seeing entire sections of city decorated in Oron-yeh like the 11th plague, I really was thankful that I was in Holland. Every win in the knockout phase seemed like a wonderful gift to me, letting the experience go on for even longer. I never imagined that we would really have a chance to win for fear of letting the World Cup turn into a disappointment, but then, we made it to the finals.

So we didn't win. I know I should not be disappointed. We did fantastically to make it this far. But once we made it to the finals, I thought about how wonderful it would be if we actually won. Just how amazing the atmosphere would be. I mean, more than 3/4 of the population watched the finals, and I am sure most of the other 1/4 would have wanted to be there, but someone has to make sure that the planes stay in the air. If we would win, I thought, maybe then I would truly know just what it means to be Dutch.

But we didn't win. And Holland has still yet to win a world cup. My only consolation is that, maybe no-one really knows what it is to be Dutch yet. And in the future, if Holland finally raises that trophy, I too will truly know how much it means to me.


These are some images of the party we had outside our place with a large flatscreen TV and a small grand-stand for the epic Holland vs. Uruguay match.






Actually, I lie. Another consolation is that my other team, New Zealand, was the only team in the entire World Cup who went through the tournament undefeated.