obriensineurope: Dinner and a show

From Australia, in Spring, Syl thought it would be a great idea to go to the soccer in Dordrecht. She contacted her Uncle Gerard, who obliged with tickets to a game and invited us to dinner as well.

We assemble at Gerard and Joyce's for dinner. It is 4 degrees and sleeting. Inside is warm and cosy.

We are welcomed with strong cold beers from the 'back door' fridge and rood wijn. Lekker. Avigail and Gerard arrive. We feast on I think six dishes and rice and bread. There is tandoori chicken, prawns in coriander, chicken curry, beef vindaloo, two vegetable curries...two bain marie have been set up to contain this grote buffet, which would feed at least 20 people. We total 8. We do our very best, going back to the table three or more times each. We are stuffed. We have no detectable impact on the buffet.

It feels like it is time to lie back and hibernate. But no, we race out into the dark for the game. The freezing weather has deteriorated significantly. We press on.

We are going to watch the local Dordrecht team at Dordrecht stadium. They are playing Graafschap in the eerste divisie. Dordrecht leads the comp, Graafschap are sixth. As we walk into the stadium, bus loads of Graafschap supporters are unloading, yahooing and pissing in the car park.

The game opens with Sinterklaas and a handful of swarte piets standing midfield as the teams run on. We are fooled by this quaint, benign spectacle. There is a sudden series of explosions from the rowdy Graafschap camp and the field erupts in red flares and acrid smoke that sweeps over the players. Welcome to football in the Netherlands!

The game is of a terrific standard, but FC Dordrecht are off their game. The first goal is to the noisy barbarians from Doetinchem in the east. Dordrecht supporters respond by jeering the Graafschap goalie and drinking vast quantities of beer. In fact, they respond to all developments by drinking vast quantities of beer.

Fortunately, the home team rallies with a spectacular goal to level going into half time. But it will be the last goal of the night - despite going into time on, the game is drawn. For sixth ranked Graafschap this is as good as a victory and they pack jeering and chanting into buses home. Dordrecht police, out in force in cars, bikes and bicycles, escort this unruly caravan of ruffians to the city limits.