{"id":5635,"date":"2018-06-26T13:11:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T13:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=5635"},"modified":"2018-06-26T13:29:53","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T13:29:53","slug":"football-in-the-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/football-in-the-netherlands\/","title":{"rendered":"Football In The Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t know if you missed it, but there is a huge\u00a0sportevenement\u00a0<\/em>(sports event) happening right now: The Wereldkampioenschap Voetbal\u00a0<\/em>(The Football World Cup) in\u00a0Rusland\u00a0<\/em>(Russia). And while the Dutch elftal\u00a0<\/em>did not qualify, all Dutch eyes are on this\u00a0Wereldkampioenschap<\/em>. Who will win it? Learn here some vocabulary and how the Dutch follow this World Cup!<\/p>\n

Voetbal in Nederland<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

Check out this video at YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Voetbal\u00a0<\/em>is one of the most popular sports of the Netherlands. And the Dutch men team used to be very good, with incredible results, such as the 1-5 win at the\u00a0wereldkampioenschap\u00a0<\/em>in 2014. In fact, the Netherlands became third, and so is officially the third best team in the world! However, in recent years, the Dutch team has not done very well in kwalificatiewedstrijden\u00a0<\/em>(qualification matches). It was not part of the UEFA\u00a0Europees Kampioenschap (EK)\u00a0<\/em>(European Championship) in 2016, nor did it qualify for the World Cup in Russia that is going on right now.<\/p>\n

However, the Dutch still feverishly follow the\u00a0wereldkampioenschap<\/em>. All games are broadcast live on Dutch TV, with\u00a0commentaar<\/em>\u00a0(commentary) and\u00a0besprekingen\u00a0<\/em>(discussions) afterwards. You can watch it all live here<\/a>, if your location allows it.<\/p>\n

Elftal\u00a0<\/em>and other words<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Dutch star player Arjen Robben at the EK 2012 (Image by Football ua at Commons.wikimedia.org under license CC BY SA 3.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

What is a voetbale<\/em>lftal<\/em>? Literally, it is a “football eleven-count”, so eleven (elf<\/em>) of something in football. Because a football team has eleven players, it is synonymous to “football team”. It is almost exclusively used with this\u00a0sport\u00a0<\/em>(sport), and so it is almost always just simply shortened to\u00a0elftal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What about other terms?<\/p>\n

Buitenspel\u00a0<\/em>– offside.\u00a0Buitenspel\u00a0<\/em>literally means “outside game”. So in the\u00a0buitenspelpositie staan\u00a0<\/em>(to stand in the offside position), means that you are standing somewhere where you are outside the game. And that reflects the rule pretty well – you cannot participate in the game in that position, if you get a ball played to you.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0schop\u00a0<\/em>or trap\u00a0<\/em>is a “kick”, and these words are used in many football terms:<\/p>\n