Soccer really sucks, doesn't it?

[Barnabas]

Octopus Paul

BTW, the Octopus is English, not German. It just lives in a German Aquarium

[Cort Haus]

drake: it's time for world cup statistical analysis, later stages edition.

european teams in the semi-finals: 3 out of 4 (75%)

european teams in the final: 2 out of 2 (100%)

"- and it's all gone quite over there."

[Cort Haus]

Can something truly be a sport if the ****ing Dutch are good at it?

Can something truly be a sport if no-one else cares about it? That's the question you should be asking.

[Hueij]

In 1940 you took care of yourselves for all of 5 days.

Yep. Small country with WW1 weaponry holds out for 5 days against the German Blitz, three days more than the Germans reckoned with. We capitulated after the Germans bombed Rotterdam (over 1500 people died) and threathend to bomb other cities.

[Hueij]

Come on... how many penalty you guys missed against Italy last time ? It IS a running joke...

Still best of luck !

That wasn't in the finals.

[Al B. Sure!]

Hueij:

I have always been puzzled by your country. It's interchangeably called The Netherlands and Holland (two names is weird enough) yet the people are called Dutch. The republic is part of a greater Kingdom of the Netherlands which is somehow separate. And the country has two capitals, at Amsterdam and The Hague. Why so much unusual stuff?

[Hueij]

Hueij:

I have always been puzzled by your country. It's interchangeably called The Netherlands and Holland (two names is weird enough) yet the people are called Dutch. The republic is part of a greater Kingdom of the Netherlands which is somehow separate. And the country has two capitals, at Amsterdam and The Hague. Why so much unusual stuff?

I don't know what you mean with "The republic is part of a greater Kingdom of the Netherlands which is somehow separate." Way back then (better times, French and American revolution) we decided that "we, the People" didn't need a monarch because we could make our own decisions. So we had the "Republic of the Seven Provinces." Kind of like the "United States of America." But somehow (it's a long story...) we slipped back into a monarchy.

The name of our country is The Netherlands. We have two provinces, Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland, that were the backbone of our country during our Golden Age (the 17th century) and the name Holland somehow stuck. Don't know why. But during a footbal match is easier to shout "Holland" than it is to shout "The Netherlands"

We don't have two capitals, like every other country we have only one, Amsterdam. It's just that our government resides in The Hague. It's just another 16th century thing.

About being called Dutch in English, I have no idea. "Dutch" sounding like our word for German ("Duits") makes me wonder though. In our national anthem there is a frase about our German blood. "Ben ik van Dietschen bloed." William of Orange (the guy that started the independance war against Spain) was German, maybe that has something to do with it

[Al B. Sure!]

Yeah how did having an elected Stadtholder turn into a monarchy? So the Dutch don't call themselves Dutch? What do you call yourself?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Hollandaise

[Hueij]

Hollandaise

Well, because our country is called Nederland we call ourselves Nederlanders

[Cort Haus]

Hup Holland!

[RGBVideo]

lulz red card in the final

maybe you should've substituted players with yellow cards, eh coachie?

edit: whaddya know? someone scored after a few minutes. looks like spain just won.

[Barnabas]

CONGRATS SPAIN!!!

[Wernazuma III]

About being called Dutch in English, I have no idea. "Dutch" sounding like our word for German ("Duits") makes me wonder though. In our national anthem there is a frase about our German blood. "Ben ik van Dietschen bloed." William of Orange (the guy that started the independance war against Spain) was German, maybe that has something to do with it

You're right, Dutch and "Deutsch" is actually the same word.
Both come back from the Frnkish Empire, when the populace was divided between people who spoke "walahisce" - i.e. some romance-language - and "diutisce" - i.e. some Germanic tongue. Interestingly enough, "welsh" really is related to "walahisce" somehow, even though Gaelic is not a romance language in the narrower sense

[Cort Haus]

The best team won. I hate them, though.