Thanks Coates, for all your enthousiasm and your swift anwers to all my really dumb questions.

Thanks Michael, for your patience with me as a non-native speaker, all the language help that was needed and for nonetheless putting me on the frontpage again and again.

Thanks T/S-bloggers for all your wit, the fun and the feeling of being part of something special.

Thanks Lewis, for starting all this.

Thanks everybody at T/S – I’m going to miss you a lot.

Who ever wants to follow me around, I might be found on facebook, twitter and the rest. Also in Dutch, of course.

See you all, it never really ends.

(C) Mathys van Abbe, Mobypicture

In the end the Dutch team became the metaphor for a pale tournament, with hardly any highlights. Hope was cherished for over a month, but it didn’t last after all – justice was done by Spanish goal getter Iniesta and what was left was one big pool of disappointment.

Dutch newspapers this morning don’t focus on the ugly game that was played by their national team, nor on the un-Dutch approach (at moments the fans thought they were watching German, Italian or Argentine players instead), but only on the disappointing grand finale.  There even is some anger against the English referee, although this man obviously could have given the Dutch one or two extra red cards. And of course there is pride. “We fought like lions”, De Telegraaf writes.

In the mean time, the rest of the world (including the non-Spanish part of it) concludes that it would have been much better if the Dutch wouldn’t have reached the finals at all. That won’t stop the Dutch authorities – and fans – from giving their heroes a warm welcome when the return home. An “almost victory”-tour in the canals of Amsterdam will be held on Tuesday, next to a bunch of other celebrations.

1988, the national Dutch soccer team celebrates their European title in the canals of Amsterdam. (C) NOS

Not only in case of a Dutch victory in tonight’s Soccer World Cup Final, the city of Amsterdam is preparing “strong crowd management” for the next couple of days. “When we will become world champions, or even when we lose after a heroic battle, we consider asking non-residents to stay away from the city”, a spokesperson told city newspaper Het Parool.

Amsterdam expects at least 1.5 million visitors in case of a victory. Measures like closing highways or not allowing trains to travel to Central Station will be discussed on Monday morning. Buses and trams will be free of charge, but won’t ride in the city centre. Official celebrations are planned for Tuesday afternoon. In the World Cup scenario a canal tour will be the highlight of the celebrations. The 30+ generation has strong memories of the national team’s canal tour after winning the European Cup in 1988.

The city has already advised car owners not to park their vehicles alongside the canals in any case for the next days. Inhabitants of floating “housboats”, which are found in almost every Amsterdam canal, have already been working on reinforcement of their property. In 1988, many of them were severely damaged by the fans who climbed on every one of them, just to get a glimpse of the national players. “Chances are high that the fans again will use anything, including cars and houseboats, as a platform”, the spokesperson said.

Some smaller bridges will be closed in order to prevent their collapse should the crowds swarm over them. Starting Monday morning, the same “strong crowd management”-measures will be taken as on Queen’s Day. Which means that not only security guards but also speakers and information panels will lead the crowds into the right directions.

UPDATE: Hours before the beginning of the World Cup Final (and even days before an eventual celebration), the mayor of Amsterdam has declared his city “full”. He strongly calls upon all non-residents not to come to Amsterdam anymore today.

Popular newspaper De Telegraaf will publish an extra magazine on saturday. On top of that, the paper will print extra issues in countries like Spain, Italy and France. Editor-in-Chief Sjuul Paradijs says that “the need for information is spectacular. We have to help the Dutch people who are on a vacation outside the Netherlands”, he told press agency ANP.

Free newspaper Metro, which normally doesn’t appear in the weekends, will publish an extra edition on saturday, which will be distributed in public transport. Competitor Sp!ts intends to come with “a spectacular deal” on monday. Editor-in-chief Willem Schouten – who just returned from South Africa where he watched the semifinals – says that the emphasis will be on “all the joy and sadness around the ‘national experience’ of football.”

One big exception is found at the newsroom of the religiously based Reformatorisch Dagblad. This small national paper won’t publish a single word on the Soccer World Cup, or on any professional sport activity.  RD-readers won’t even find the final results in their newspaper. Antoon Stam, secretary of the editorial board, argues that right at the creation of the newspaper the founders have decided to ignore sports, as many games are played on Sundays, a “body cult” is created around it and excessive amounts of money are being paid in transfers of the participating players. ”So we have no sport at all,” Stam told a Volkskrant-reporter.

If the Netherlands wins the World Cup, I will give a BJ to all my followers.

Dutch Porn star Bobbi Eden has promised all her followers oral sex in the case of a Dutch victory in the World Cup 2010. The moment she did this, last tuesday, Bobbi had less than 5,000 followers. Now, two days later, she has 65,000.

Fortunately, Bobbi is not alone. In completing this tiresome  job, she has assured herself of the help of colleagues Vicky Vette, Hybrid and Miss Gabby Quinteros.

UPDATE: we’re one day further and Bobbi has almost welcomed her 100,000th follower. She is still determined to finish her job and has promised to come up with more detailed information on monday.

UPDATE2: The morning of the finals, Bobbi tells her 109,030 followers that “things have gone a little bit out of hand”, but that #teamBJ will do as promised.

Although the Netherlands is undefeated in its last 24 matches (and won all of this year’s World Cup matches), Spain is considered the favorite. The country has been playing the best football of the tournament (maybe equaled only by Germany) and can count on a stable core of Barcelona players on its team.

The fans of both countries have shown themselves confident though. The celebrations after winning the semifinals have been gigantic in Spain as well as in the Netherlands. Lots of extra flights to South Africa have been rapidly arranged, from Madrid as well as from Amsterdam. And the rest of the country will be in front of a TV screen – most likely watching with a lot of friends. It is difficult to imagine, though, that a new TV viewer record will be set. Last Wednesday, when the Netherlands beat Uruguay in the semi-finals, the incredible total of 12.3 million Dutchmen watched the game. This is exactly 75% of the population. Never before has a TV show reached that many people.

How the Dutch watched the semifinals:

Telegraaf, Holland's leading newspaper, proud supporter of the national team

The country has turned orange.

Millions of fans have been celebrating all night.

The day after, orange is still the leading color on the streets.

In the offices, casual friday seems to have turned into orange wednesday.

Hardly a single word in today’s newspapers about the difficult discussions that should lead to a new cabinet.

Any non-orange conversation is rare today.

Morning meetings have been canceled because of lack of participants.

Productivity seems to have reached an all time low.

My colleague Jaap at the office

What will The Netherlands look like if sundays’s finals will be won?

The so called “sober” Dutch seem to have massively left their homes to shout their Hup Holland Hup slogans in millions of variations. The cities look mediterranean with tens of thousands of people outside. In some cities, like The Hague and Rotterdam, police have cleared certain areas in an attempt to keep them safe.

Immediately after the match thousands of people have tried to book a flight to South Africa in an attempt to watch the finals. KLM has decided to charter at least four extra planes.