Fanday 2001

Where are we, Scotland?!

By: TonV
Pictures: Bodeca

As always: clicking on the thumbnails will open a larger version. Many thanks to Bodeca for the excellent images.

Finally, fanday had arrived, which could only mean that there was just one week to go before the first game of the season! The location was the same as last year: het Max Euweplein in the center of Amsterdam, a Delhomme pass away from the Leidseplein.

Things had been organized in a much more low-key way than last time. There were no seperate beertents, which were complete overkill and there was not a great deal of stage entertainment planned. I think this was a good thing, as the weather was so utter crap that only about a hundred fans were willing to brave it to welcome the team. And I've been to Scotland, so I know what crap weather looks like. It was raining constantly. It was cold. It was windy. There was the occasional bit of wet snow. It was nasty! But, as I said to the players: the weather can only improve compared to this.

The Trench Crew mainly holed up in a bar on the square, together with a few fellow fans, two Monarchs' fans (they always turn up somewhere) and a Fire fan (which still is my fault, I suppose) until things started on stage with performances by the cheerleaders and the junior cheerleaders. The team was introduced and afterwards milled around looking very cold after their Tampa Bay camp.

The impression we got was that of good natured banter between the players, despite the weather. Everything we've seen so far indicates that the team has really come together very well as a group. Now all we need to see is if they can play!

But the highlight of the evening of course was the Trench Crew performance. When the announcer asked for two pairs of volunteers for a little competition, I completely ignored Velcro's protests and pushed him on stage in front of me. The contest between the two teams was to dress up one member in football gear, with him being blindfolded. I got to be the lucky guy who couldn't see and with Velcro's able assistance (getting me the shoes before I had to put on the pants...) we won! The fact that I had the jersey on backwards was overlooked in the excitement. The prize was a 'cheque' for a hundred guilders worth of merchandise, generously provided by the new fan gear store sportsfanatics (thanks guys!).

"Do you think they'll notice it's the wrong way around?"

We won! We won! We won!

Don't I look buff in this outfit?
This prize brings my goal of winning something at every team in the league another step closer. After my winning a bag of fan goodies in Scotland and a Fire sweater at one of the Fire talks in Knoten, I now only have to win a prize in Berlin, Barcelona and Frankfurt!

Of course, not to be outdone, newly inducted Trench Crew member Wim entered the trivia contest (after some pushing from the rest of us) and with a little assistance from the crowd won this contest, putting the Trench Crew at a perfect 2 - 0. This was despite the fact that his answer of 'Frankfurt' to the question where the previous World Bowl was held got ruled incorrect at first, to our great amazement.

All in all, we enjoyed ourselves and got even more excited about the coming start of the season!

Here you can read about the much warmer fan day of 2000.