Oranje Fever
- 12 Jun 06, 10:19 AM
LEIPZIG - The Dutch fans in our hotel are nursing a few sore heads this morning after their team's win over Serbia and Montenegro. I was at the Zentralstadion for the match - my first ever World Cup game. It was an experience I'll never forget, but more on that later.
After the game, I managed to speak to the former East German goalkeeper Renee Muller who kept goal for Lok Leipzig for 20 years. He was overjoyed that this day had arrived for the people of Leipzig, the East German city that was in the former German Democratic Republic.
Those his age had been through so much struggle when the city was locked behind the Iron Curtain. The World Cup is an expression of freedom, the coming together of different nations and that has an added relevance here in the former Eastern Germany. He also talked about how much the teams in the East have struggled since reunification.
Back in 1990, so many footballers hurdled the collapsed border, making their Western debuts in the Bundesliga immediately. Their salaries leapt up, and GDR clubs accustomed to state subsidies seemed unprepared for the economic challenges of the transfer market and player contract negotiations. Clubs in the West swooped fast.
Bayer Leverkusen signed up two of the GDR's stars, striker Ulf Kirsten and defender Olaf Thon, soon internationals for the united Germany. A few years later, a youngster called Michael Ballack, born in Karl Marx Stadt, GDR, would join Leverkusen and go onto captain his country.
The east has a rich football history. Teams like Dynamo Dresden, Magdeburg, Dynamo Berlin, Lokomotiv Leipzig, were the heavyweights of the former German Democratic Republic. Magdeburg won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1974, Leipzig reached their final less than 20 years ago and Carl Zeiss Jena were runners-up in 1981. Since reunifcation they have struggled.
Energie Cottbus will be the only former GDR club in the Bundesliga's first division next season. In the past campaign, there was none. Berlin has a leading Bundesliga team, Hertha, but they are from the west of the city.
But Renee's hope here is that perhaps the money and interest generated by the World Cup will enable some change and investment in this part of Germany.
After last night's game there was a mile-long street party raging in the centre of town, where we filmed some links for the Match of the Day highlights show, for both sets of fans though it was the Dutch who were out in force.
One of their pop groups belted out some hits on the main stage while everyone sang and danced. Orange scarves were draped around the statue of JS Bach in the main square and the party apparently continued into the small hours.
The party had begun before kick off - when I'd entered the stadium, I'd been deafened by a wall of sound and my eyes dazzled by a wall of orange. The stadium was full and it was 80% Dutch, the impact all the greater cos their fans tend not to wear replica shirts but simply dress all in orange.
Next up, were off to Berlin.
Comments Post your comment
Olaf Thon is West German - he played in the 1990 World Cup team, the player you should have mentioned who went to play for Leverkusen with Ulf Kirsten is ANDREAS THOM who was a striker with Dynamo Berlin. He also played for Celtic.
Rene Muller also only has one (E).
Complain about this post
Good work Celina, a class act indeed.
You are developing a large male fan base in yorkshire, for profesional reasons of course.
Holland were impressive and in Robben and Van Persie, look to have good width and balance.
I am an admirer of Dutch football (who isn't?) and predict that Dirk Kuijt will have a strong tournament.
He looks much sharper and fitter than Van Nistlerooy and will put his chances away. Would like to see him in the premiership.
Good luck Holland, hope they stay in the competition as it is much richer with them and the orange army in it.
Complain about this post
i've been a supporter of the orange since marco van basten was on the other side of the line. so this win as well as the performance of robben acts like a solid shot of hope directly to the blood stream.
while looking at the game, i was thinking that the dutch never come with much of a fancy uniform. it's usually a plainish shirt with solid orange. when you said that the effect of see all the orange clad supporters was strong, i thought to myself... "OH! THAT"S THE TRICK BEHIND THE UNIFORM!" even if you have on a replica shirt you'd fit right into the effect! cool.
i wish the orange much luck. not too much though, because i'm from trinidad... in other words, i'm a soca warrior.
my ultimate final... trinidad & tobago vs. netherlands.
the result from that would have me celebrating either way!
Complain about this post
Who says the Dutch are penny-pinching? The orange 'uniform' does not only appear at football matches. It's standard dress at any Dutch event from the Queen's Birthday (now THAT really hurts your eyes!) to pop concerts. As long as it's orange - everything from boiler suits, scarves and t-shirts to afro wigs and silly hats. It beats the old 'I've got nothing to wear' winge and saves the Dutch a fortune on replica kits or designer casuals!!
Complain about this post
You are obviously a woman of talent and erudition!
So…when you get to Berlin, could you do me a favour?
I have spent two week-long holidays in Berlin in the last two years.
On the first, I visited the Soviet War memorial in Treptow park, took some photographs but not enough notes!
Within the memorial are 16 cenotaphs, each with a frieze and an inscription in German and Russian.
I blithely assumed that on my return to the UK I could just look on the Internet and find out which Soviet Socialist Republic each cenotaph is dedicated to.
But the info isn't there: and no reference will cite more than 15 SSRs as existing at any moment in the 1940s (though you can find different lists of 15).
On my second visit last November, in sub-zero temperatures and snow, I was distracted by my attempt to retrace several kilometres of the route of the Wall whilst developing frostbite.
I know it's a forlorn request: but how about you nipping out to Treptow on the S-Bahn, getting the required info and posting it up?!?!
Tretow is actually a very pleasant excursion. A nice park with that enormous memorial (featuring marble taken from the Reich Chancellery); a few drinks by the river and then a water-taxi back to the Lustgarten or Charlottenburg.
Excellent places to visit when in Berlin are the towns associated with the Prussian Royal palaces: Charlottenburg, Potsdam and Kopenick. Kopenick might be fun since the centenary of ‘Der Hauptman von Kopenick’ is almost upon us (I think).
Two more sombre but enlightening places to visit are: the Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand (The German Resistance Memorial) in the former Bendlerblock, behind Potsdamer Platz, in whose courtyard Von Stauffenberg was shot; and the Gedenkstatte Plotzensee (featuring those meat hooks) where many victims of a horribly corrupted system of ‘justice’ perished.
Sorry to have gone on for so long. Enjoy Berlin: it is the most fantastic city!
Complain about this post
Thanks Celina Hinchcliffe for your informative article.
This is really something amazing to see the fans take a rally after their team wins, even staying in a foreign country.
Football has some attraction that can re-unite two rival groups in the same point. Some former players like Runee Muller can realize how it works. Here, I want to indicate that those teams who have a long history of their football are now struggling for their existence.
Complain about this post
Another really good post on the dutch team is on this blog www.peoplesgame.blogspot.com.
Complain about this post
The blog above is a really excellent post.
Neal Saferstein
Complain about this post
Michael Ballack was born in Görlitz, a town on the German-Polish border.
And it's Lokomotive Leipzig.
Complain about this post
Michael Ballack was born in Görlitz, a town near the German-Polish border.
Complain about this post