Guus Bosman

Yesterday I had dinner with Marjolein. We had a great lasagne while watching the soccer game between Germany and Latvia, which had a very pleasant result.

Therefore we were in a very good mood when we went to an Irish pub in the center of Amsterdam. There we would watch the second game of the evening: the Czech Republic vs. the Netherlands. And what a beautiful game it was! Of course, the result was very disappointing: to loose with 2-3 after being ahead with 2-0 is rather painful. But I think it was the most interesting game to watch of the whole tournament till so far; both teams played beautiful soccer. I liked the way Davids was playing.

Everybody around us in the pub was of course very disappointed with the result. Many people believed that the change of Robben was a reason why the match was lost, and as usual the referee was blamed too. I'm not so sure about what caused the defeat, but I must say I was very impressed by the way the Czechs came back in the match. Perhaps they were just the better team. But anyway: a great game to watch.

Yesterday we watched the soccer game between Germany and the Netherlands in the Goethe Institute. I was there with Rene, Suzanne and Noortje, people from the German course I'm doing. Our teacher Sandra and her little son were there too.

The Goethe Institute had invited around 100 people to come and watch the game, and all the tickets had been sold out. There was a large number of TVs and screen throughout the building, as well as in the garden. On the first floor there was a video projection in the main hall.

I had a great evening. Everything was very well organized -- leave that to the Germans! The atmosphere was excellent and we had a lot of fun together. The soccer game was very exciting. Germany scored in the first half, which made half-time a uncomfortable. I think most Dutch fans were quite relieved with the final result, a 1-1 draw!

I took my camera, and there are some pictures online of the Samen kijken experience.

I saw only the last 30 minutes, but what a match tonight... Both teams played very beautiful soccer, and the last ten minutes the end of the game were very surprising and exciting.

I don't frequently watch soccer, outside tournaments like the European Championship, but this was really the game at its best!

All day long there has been a steam train crossing the Spaarne. NedTrain, a train maintance company near the Haarlem station exists 160 years and celebrates it today.

It reminds me of the steam train in Opperdoes, the village where I was born. We used to play a lot around the tracks of this (touristic) train.