Eshin Direct

Well, the Euro 2004 tournament has certainly gotten off to a spectacular start. England got itself robbed of a victory by the French and the Dutch clawed themselves back to a draw with their match against the Germans. Despite the fact that England won 3-0 against Switzerland this morning, I’m slightly worried that I’m supporting two of the weaker teams in the whole tournament. England’s performance last night won them through but there still seemed to be some issues that need to be worked out, especially since the Swiss did an admirable job with one man down (they deserved the red card for all those dives they took). Anyway, I have faith that my teams will prevail although I hope one doesn’t so that they don’t face each other at all in tournament.

I watched the Netherlands vs. Germany match in Delaney’s down in Wan Chai. There did seem to be more Dutch supporters than German ones. But then again, it’s easier to spot our orange colours over the dull black and white of Germany. I had to be careful that the flag I was carrying wasn’t mistaken for a French flag, as that would have been a big no-no.

An interesting incident had happened during the second half of the match in Delaney’s. The place was full of interested observers, a handful of Dutchmen and a sprinkling of Germans. Some Irish holiday makers had decided to come and watch the match, and rather amusingly, they started singing a mixture of Irish folk songs, football songs and the like. It was an interesting addition to the match commentary.

Anyway, these two English guys come in and start off some of their own chants. Some of the Dutch players play for English clubs so the English affectionately have their own chants for the players. It’s all rather amusing since they are busy supporting the Dutch. Only it isn’t really.

A bystander innocently asks who they are supporting. Their reasons? Anything but Germany. And then the usual tirade of WW2 and 1966 references. Don’t get me wrong, I, myself, like to bring up these references to bygone days and wave them in the face of our Germanic neighbours. And you won’t ever catch me cheering on Germany ever. It just ain’t going to happen.

But the difference with my poor tasting jokes, and these two lads’ condemnation of Germany, was in the emotion behind it. These guys were spoiling for a confrontation and hopefully a fight. Quintessentially, they were the notorious “hooligans” that England apparently only creates (which is crap, for the record, since many other nations have even worse track records). But these guys were with their expectation of trouble by any means or reasoning possible. The Irish group nearly gave them that when they started shouting “allez les blues” and various other French homages. This only spurred them on to sing England chants.

Somewhere in all that was a Netherlands vs. Germany match.

For those of you who don’t know, the Netherlands was trailing much of the match behind a German 1-0 lead. At the rate that we were playing, we were lucky to get an equalizer in. So when they drew with Germany, it was a victory of sorts even if it wasn’t total. Interestingly enough, these two English dudes start critizing us for a “lack of passion”. Rationale? “They invaded your country, why aren’t you much more passionate?”

Errr. Right-o. Well, as to why we weren’t more passionate, it is simple. It wasn’t a victory. It was a draw. No reason to celebrate with a parade.

As to why Dutch people might not hate Germans for invading their country and holding as much as a grudge over it than, say, English people do, is a little more complicated. Well, aside from the fact that it happened nearly 60 years ago and this was only a football game…

Dutch people do remember the war and we shed enough of our own blood during that conflict to last a lifetime. What Americans and British fail to understand sometimes is the terror of being occupied, and the quiet fight that goes along with that. Granted Britain had its fair share of terror from the nightly raids by the Luftwaffe but it was most likely a different terror and fear that the occupied nations experienced. What with famine, secret police, regular executions.

Aside from hanging and lynching the collaborators amongst our own citizenry, for much of Western Europe, vengeance was never expressed except that Germany was completely destroyed in it’s defeat. My point is that mainland Europe was the battlefield. The most horrific atrocities and destruction were performed, witnessed and scarred into the psyche there. Not Britain. Not America.

So I would imagine that the overriding sentiment, after witnessing the carnage on home soil, many nations sought to rebuild. For Britain, the mindset is coming more from the luxury of never having been invaded and occupied by the Germans. With their victory over their enemies, they can look down with contempt on those that threatened them. It also helps they are on an island. Mainland Europeans did not have the luxury of winning a clean victory. They were defeated.

Tags: nationalism, politics, war, world war 2