Column: always revolves around the ball

After January and February, I had the idea that it was going “spring”, but I was disappointed. March didn’t look like spring scenes and I suddenly had to scrape ice or snow off the car windows again. And if there was no ice or snow for a while, the wind would blow hard again and the rain would beat around my ears. ‘Mars wags his tail’. Despite the climate problem, these sayings do not deviate from their content.

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This of course already started in the 1974 World Cup final, Netherlands-Germany. “Did we fall for it after all” said journalist Herman Kuiphof after “we” lost 1-2, a remark that is etched in the memory of many of us… what can I say, it’s etched!

Or years later, May 29, 1985.

We were ready for the final of the European Cup match 1, Liverpool-Juventus. I had just left military service, so I was back home in the parental nest. We had closed the curtains because of the evening sun which was still present and we looked forward to a nice game of football.

It was a very strange, bizarre evening.

Before our eyes unfolded the tragic “Heysel disaster”. Thirty-nine people were killed and hundreds were injured. You could say a traumatic experience. The panic in the bleachers, the fear and helplessness on the faces of young and old, the aid workers running, my father and I repeatedly show each other’s horror.

And the game continued after that…

Much less dramatic and ultimately just uncomfortable from a sporting point of view, the final of the World Cup on July 11, 2010, in South Africa, Netherlands-Spain. Again I sat next to my dad because it was in the middle of summer vacation and I was vacationing there. It was our third time in the World Cup final, so expectations were high.

Because three times is a charm!

Well, that was also a disappointment, especially because the keeper’s big toe managed to touch Arjen Robben’s not-so-smooth ball. We were a poorer illusion again and when the Spaniards hoisted the Cup the television was already off. Because even if our Orange plays sparkling and innovative, we don’t win the World Cup with it. At most a European Championship, but I watched this final in The Hague.

And yes, we won!

Anyway, last Sunday I sat next to Pa again and we were looking forward to Ajax-Feyenoord, the main course of this football Sunday. But first we took on a starter, FC Groningen – Heerenveen. When we launched it, we were amazed by the pleasant taste after all the FC supporters showed their love for the club with scarves which they held above their heads.

No matter the position! they sang in unison.

Beautiful. I sat down and Dad put a bowl of TV pastilles on the table, those little two-tone salmiak treats of yesteryear. It also took me back in time when I bought these sweets as a little boy. I didn’t know they were called that, I wonder if there were televisions back then! Anyway, Groningen started well but ended spectacularly. We stared at him in awe and saw the disbelief of everyone in the stands except for a few goons as they managed to draw attention to themselves again.

Maybe an IQ test or a VOF statement is a way to keep idiots out of stadiums?

“And maybe all these mind-blowing things that people think they need to live as human beings. It saves the water board a lot of work filtering this waste from the groundwater.” Saying this to my father, I stuffed another handful of TV pellets, after which I felt a pang of nausea for a moment.

And then came the main course!

My father and I are Ajax fans, as are our boys. My brother and his son are for Feyenoord, so it’s always nice to rub shoulders with them, we do them more often than them, but everyone understands that. My brother’s son was already teasing my dad via WhatsApp, but we laughed it off. But we lost that laugh as the game progressed and it got quieter and quieter in the living room.

A few hours later we were back in Harlingen.

My brother was there too because we had agreed on parking. I had the garage (of toys) in my car that my father made exactly 63 years ago for him, his first son. After all the grandchildren had played with it, it was now the turn of the great-grandchildren.

Brother was extremely cheerful but restrained. I doubted: are all these losses at my parents due to a conspiracy or is Feyenoord just playing much better football at the moment?

My mind has become attached to the latter and well, “they” can still win!