‘Dutch Lion’ and orange prominent all over during soccer cup

Public support for national team

AMSTERDAM- ‘Soccer Madness’ dominates life in the Netherlands during the European Championships in Portugal. Orange is the colour of choice all over, from clothing and other, often outlandish, garb, to hundreds of commercial products and other tie-ins. The Dutch Lion roars.

The Dutch really show their colour these days. At home, in pubs and other venues where games are tele-vised, in public and anywhere a splash of orange could brighten up things.

Emigrants are congregating at homes and pubs as well, as long as there is a (big screen) television, good company and some ‘refreshments’. The compatriots abroad perhaps are even more vocal than ever and showing orange and red-white-and-blue with a fervor not always felt in regular life. Regional differences from ‘the old country’, even if they had existed, disappear in a national show of solidarity, joy (when ‘Hol-land’ wins) and commiseration at a loss.