{"id":20817,"date":"2026-06-10T12:51:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T12:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/20817\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T12:51:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T12:51:17","slug":"orange-fans-splash-the-dutch-national-color-all-over-a-street-in-the-hague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/20817\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange fans splash the Dutch national color all over a street in The Hague"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 As the clock ticks down to the Netherlands\u2019 opening World Cup<\/a> match, soccer fans are gripped once more by orange fever.<\/p>\n

Nowhere is the mood of euphoric optimism that descends on parts of this country every time its national team<\/a> plays at a World Cup more glaringly obvious than on the Marktweg in The Hague, where the local community comes together to crush as much orange as possible into virtually every square inch of their street.<\/p>\n

From the thousands of tiny flags fluttering above the road to the facades of houses, trees and streetlights, everything is orange, apart from the few places that choose to display the red, white and blue of the Netherlands\u2019 flag.<\/p>\n

Depictions of lions \u2014 another national symbol \u2014 abound, many of them wearing the striking orange soccer shirt of the team known simply as \u201cOranje\u201d \u2014 the Dutch word for orange.<\/p>\n

Over the years, this epicenter of orange has become a popular destination for fans and an event that draws together neighbors who spend weeks transforming their street.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, we haven\u2019t encountered anyone who said \u2018we don\u2019t like it\u2019 or complain about it,\u201d organizer Danny van Dijk told The Associated Press on a visit Tuesday. \u201cUp to now, we\u2019ve only heard positive things.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a nod to an accommodation option often chosen by Dutch soccer fans, a single small red, white and blue caravan stands at an intersection surrounded by orange mesh and carrying a banner identifying it as the \u201cHague Orange Campsite.\u201d<\/p>\n

It will become a focal point for fans who aren\u2019t traveling to the United States, where the Netherlands opens its Group F campaign against Japan on Sunday in Dallas, then plays Sweden in Houston on June 20 and completes its group stage against Tunisia six days later in Kansas City.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s king, queen and crown princess will be in Houston<\/a> for the Sweden match \u2014 and will watch Cura\u00e7ao<\/a>, which is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, play Ecuador. The national color is a consequence of the royals\u2019 family name \u2014 Oranje-Nassau.<\/p>\n

For a small nation of some 18 million, the Netherlands has often punched above its weight at the World Cup, reaching the final three times \u2014 1974, 1978 and 2010 \u2014 but never winning the title.<\/p>\n

If there were a world cup for street decorators, the residents of Marktweg would be serious contenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe street is beautifully decorated. All that orange. That must have been a huge task,\u201d said Rob van Rosmalen, an amateur photographer who visited the street Tuesday. \u201cAnd it\u2019s great that all the neighbors are working together like that seems to me that\u2019s good for the neighborhood atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP World Cup coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/fifa-world-cup<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 As the clock ticks down to the Netherlands\u2019 opening World Cup match, soccer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[15747,365,822,6107,15749,6,363,15748,364,366,2852,42,831],"class_list":["post-20817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-hague","tag-danny-van-dijk","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-general-news","tag-houston","tag-nassau","tag-netherlands","tag-netherlands-national-soccer-team","tag-rob-van-rosmalen","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-sweden","tag-the-hague","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}