Holland 6-0 Northern Ireland
Amsterdam ArenA
02/06/12
att: 50,000
A lot of orange
With the season over (well in most places) and the euros not yet upon us we reach the stage where national teams make their final preperations ahead of the summer. The Netherlands final warm up game was against Northern Ireland at the ArenA so we decided to male the train journey up to Amsterdam in order to watch the game.
Arriving in good time we found somewhere for dinner outside the ground before making our way in. We were on the top tier behind the goal and were relieved that, unlike the away end, have escalators taking us up. I was suprised with how small the concourse is but the ground was as I remembered it. My last 9aand only) visit was for an Amsterdam Admirals game in the now disbanded NFL europe. The ArenA consists of two, relatively steep, rings of seating and has a capacity of 52,960 and cost €96.000.000 having been opened in 1996. It features a fully closing roof and is built upon a large car park. Since I was last there the area surrounding the ground has been developed so that, instead of wasteland, you feel you are closer to the city than you actually are. Similar developments would definately improve the area around new-built british grounds. I do believe the compactness of these buildings is the main reason. There is also a station built to serve the area (seen in picture 3) but this can get cramped after games.
The fans at Dutch games are worth the admission. They sing along to the songs in the build up to kick off, with flags being handed out. Everyone wears orange which just adds to the spectacle and barely 5 minutes into the games they start mexican waves! The result was to be expected. Northern Irelands starting line up consisted of a player from Walsall playing up front, while the Dutch had Van persie. The Irish gave their all but ultimately the quality of the Dutch shone through. The free kick from Sneijder for their second goal was evidence of this. There were around 700 fans from Northern Ireland at their game and they were a good laugh aswell, joining in with the celebrations and dancing after Holland scored, I really wish they could have been rewarded with a goal.
Overall a decent evening with a decent game.
Arriving in good time we found somewhere for dinner outside the ground before making our way in. We were on the top tier behind the goal and were relieved that, unlike the away end, have escalators taking us up. I was suprised with how small the concourse is but the ground was as I remembered it. My last 9aand only) visit was for an Amsterdam Admirals game in the now disbanded NFL europe. The ArenA consists of two, relatively steep, rings of seating and has a capacity of 52,960 and cost €96.000.000 having been opened in 1996. It features a fully closing roof and is built upon a large car park. Since I was last there the area surrounding the ground has been developed so that, instead of wasteland, you feel you are closer to the city than you actually are. Similar developments would definately improve the area around new-built british grounds. I do believe the compactness of these buildings is the main reason. There is also a station built to serve the area (seen in picture 3) but this can get cramped after games.
The fans at Dutch games are worth the admission. They sing along to the songs in the build up to kick off, with flags being handed out. Everyone wears orange which just adds to the spectacle and barely 5 minutes into the games they start mexican waves! The result was to be expected. Northern Irelands starting line up consisted of a player from Walsall playing up front, while the Dutch had Van persie. The Irish gave their all but ultimately the quality of the Dutch shone through. The free kick from Sneijder for their second goal was evidence of this. There were around 700 fans from Northern Ireland at their game and they were a good laugh aswell, joining in with the celebrations and dancing after Holland scored, I really wish they could have been rewarded with a goal.
Overall a decent evening with a decent game.