Game Drie

Seen in a local Coffee & Company - a Vuvuzelatte. Or might I suggest the Mochannoying?

Tonight we watched a comfortable Dutch team, already assured of a spot in the quarter-finals, from a comfortable Dutch couch in a comfortable Dutch neighborhood.

The difference between a sports-focused house party in Amsterdam and one in, say, North America is very little as it turns out:

• Beer - Grolsch instead of Budweiser (by the way, a joke in the local Heineken circles? What do sex on the beach and Budweiser have in common? They're both f***ing close to water).
• TV - same, 30-50" (sorry, not in a metric mood today) flat-screen, high-def. I'm not sure if we need to see up player's nostrils, but overall it's a fine way to see the game.
• Snacks - chips and sausage slices with mustard. Less elaborate than in North America - here, it's about the beer.
• Jokes - equally sophmoric on both sides of the pond, with better behaviour when females are present.

So what to report? The appearance of dangerous winger Arjen Robben just in time for the knockout rounds, Robin van Persie finally finding his footing, and all positive signs heading into the Slovakia match on Monday.

Given that there was nothing on the line for the Oranje, I was able to focus on other things tonight and in the past few days. Some thoughts and photos below.

• Spain has La Furia Roja, the Italians the Azzurri, and Germany the Mannschaft. The Aussies? Love their heart, but they will never win a thing so long as they stick with the colossally lame "Socceroos" as a team name.

• The celebrated Dutch lack of formality can be taken a little too far at times. Here's a look at one of the country's leading prime-time sports analysts as seen last week. Dude.

• At halftime of many football games, millions of Dutch viewers tune into Oranje Karaoke on the local TMF music video station, a sing-along to classic popular sing-along songs. Also with some dubious fashion choices, as this famous Nederlander shows.

Dutch Liberace?

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