Dear friends, you all know that thing will get pretty hot very soon!! Before you know it, we are cheering, dancing, yelling, singing, celebrating, cursing, screaming and crying together. We will stand shoulder to shoulder and will sing hand in hand ( comrades). We will experience our wins and our losses together and even though it’s only virtual, only via this cyberhangspotforcooloranjefans, I think it’s cool if we would get to know one another a little bit… I mean would you jump into someone arms crying, without being introduced properly?
Right!
My name is Jan. A typical Dutch boys’ name. But I live in Australia now, where Jan is a…well…girls name. I grew up in Hendrik Ido Ambacht, close to Rotterdam. A Feyenoord town. Many Feyenoord players lived in our village. I played my football at ASWH – currently Hoofdklasse amateurs – and spent my weekends in De Kuip. I worked in marketing and sales in Holland and Europe before we immigrated to Australia. Why? Why not! Climate, space, lifestyle…
I’m married, have two daughters (who love football) and two labradors who love footballs. I live near Byron Bay on the east coast of Australia. I am in business and apart from football and writing, my hobbies are reading, watching movies, acting, playing the guitar, cooking (and eating) and playing sports (tennis, football, baseball).
The first tournament I watched in Oz was the EC 2004. I lived in Western Australia then and there was no coverage in tv. A friend of a friend in Oz taped the games of the commercial cable channel – not available in WA – and mailed it to us. We’d watch the games two days after they were played. But we watched them in the evening at least… I still remember the game against Czech Republic… Robben played great! Until Dick Advocaat…well…you remember.
I could watch the WC2006 live, early in the morning, after we moved to the East Coast. Which is when I found this site and not much later was asked to join as moderator.
Football background: Limited, was a talented but lazy left-footer, have had interesting connections to football (via players, managers, businesses)
Favorite clubs: Many… Feyenoord is in my blood, but I respect Ajax. Barcelona, Arsenal, Liverpool, AC Milan. But Oranje tops the list!
Fave players: Again, too many to mention: Cruyff, Van Hanegem, Nees, Van Basten, Bergkamp, Litmanen, Mario Been, Hoddle, Eder, Zico, Overath, Antognoni, Paulo Rossi, Richard Witschge, Edgar Davids, Gary Lineker, David Ginola
Fave players of our current Oranje: Raf van der Vaart, Mark van Bommel, Robin van Persie, Tim Krul
Fave moment of Oranje: The Van Basten goal in 1988, which I witnessed in the stands, behind the goal…
Sympathy for other nations: I do like Spain and have a soft spot for Italy and England. I truly wish Belgium will get their axto together for once!!
Bold predictions: Spain won’t survive the first round. Germany will but will be knocked out in the first knock out. Sweden will get far this tournament
How I watch Oranje: It’s bloody 4 am in the morning in the freezing cold here, so I watch with uggboots on and a blanket around me eating muesli and yoghurt where anywhere else in the world they party with beer and bitterballen :-(. Oh, and I’m obviously doing live webcasts for us all 🙂
One thing no one knows about me: Oh dear… Something secret…? Ok, I made my money in ICT and I currently blog like crazy but I’m actually the biggest computer illiterate you’ll find, hahaha…..
Anyhow, here’s a pic of me presenting a Johan Cruyff boot to the world… The guy next to me is actually the legendary no. 14
