voetball

Getting tickets to soccer games in Amsterdam is less straightforward than getting baseball tickets in the US, but neither is it as difficult as people here told us it would be, in that the games don't sell out as often as people think.

To minimize hooliganism, the Eredivisie (the top Dutch soccer league) requires, for most seats at most games, anyone buying tickets to be a registered "supporter." There are different types, but the basic supporter's card costs only 6 euros, is good for two years, and lets you buy 3-4 tickets for most games and 1 ticket for games against big rivals. You can also buy tickets for away games; every stadium has a section for fans of the visiting team, separated to prevent fighting.

At the end of August, Casey and I trekked south to the Amsterdam ArenA (I don't know why they capitalize the final A; maybe they're confused about the definition of "palindrome") and each bought an Ajax club card and two tickets to a game against Vitesse, a middling Dutch team. We found two people in Casey's department who wanted to join us, and last week we went to the game!

The biggest difference I noticed between soccer games here and, say, baseball games in the US is that at soccer games, people don't get up for beer or bathroom breaks until half time. Also the chants are much more complicated. There's some long song when the team comes out (although for that one, the words are displayed on the big screen [I'd call it a jumbotron, but it's not all that jumbo]). There are also long chants throughout, like whenever a goal is scored, and also for no apparent reason. There was one section to our right that never sat or even was quiet, the entire game. The guy selling us tickets warned us away from sitting there, saying it "might not be safe." At the time I thought he meant that fights might break out, but I see now that he meant, "you might get hurt from all the jumping and banner-waving."

So we sat in a section that looked like overflow for the visiting team's fans, probably only used as such at games against bigger (and closer?) rivals like ADO Den Haag and FC Utrecht. Thus, we were surrounded by plexiglass topped with steel spikes. In today's picture, you can see this steel. The picture is of one of Ajax's many shots on goal during that game, although this particular one did not go in. I felt odd taking photos during the game, as if I was being sacreligious by not fixing all my attention on the game itself. Even the two guys next to me, who were sharing a very large joint, did not take their eyes off the game as they passed it back and forth.

And the final score? Ajax 3-0.