June 27, 2021 | Awake & Dreaming

Along with Argentina, (due to 1986 Mexico World up and Diego Armando Maradona) the team that I support in international football is the Netherlands. Perhaps over the years I have veered towards the Dutch a lot more since I watch a lot of them. Some of the very best players in the world during the 80s & 90s were from the Netherlands. Remember the remarkable attacking duo of Rudd Gullit & Marco Van Basten? Who, along with their AC Milan teammate centerback Frank Rijkard and his defence partner Ronald Koeman dominated the 1988 Euros! Moving on to the next decade most of my fav players in the 90s and 2000s were the core of Dutch players who did well in the next two World Cups and in club competitions. Like Denis Bergkamp, Marc Overmars, Phillip Cocu, Ronald & Frank DeBoer, Edwin Van der Sar, Jaap Stam, Patrick Kluivert, Clarence Seedorf, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink & Edgard Davids.

This Euros they have won their first 3 games which were the group rounds and look to be a strong contended to atleast reach the semis. The Dutch with a perfect record in Group C now travel to Budapest for Sunday’s last-16 tie. The Netherlands played their group games at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena and three wins have sparked optimism regarding the team’s chances of emulating the side that won the 1988 Euros. Assistant coach van Nistelrooy says the Netherlands must not be complacent after topping Group C at Euro 2020 and learn from mistakes made at major tournaments in the past.

The Netherlands scored eight goals as they won all three of their group games at Euro 2020 against Ukraine, Austria and North Macedonia. But a different mentality is needed for knockout phase. Since winning the tournament in 1988, the Netherlands have progressed from just two of their seven knockout stage games in the European Championship. And they are looking to win their opening four games of a European Championship for only the second time, having last done so at Euro 2000.

Edit: Nope, they fucked it up and lost. All because of De Ligt who got red carded.

3 biggest challenges you struggle with as a blogger and how to overcome it?
1. The challenge of whether to create a blog with a niche (or I have heard genre being used for it as well) or not. So for example if I like hockey or football then my blog is mainly about hockey or football or maybe even just about the team or even teams that I support. If I am into hard rock & heavy metal music then writing only about band news, events, upcoming albums or sharing musical clips.

If I am into movies and tv or only a genre of movies or tv (like horror or scifi) then my blog is only about those topics. Or only about Scifi or only about Star Trek or Stargate or Battlestar Galactica topics. I have thought about that and I still feel the pull to do that but then I would have to give up on all the other topics that I love and am interested it. I couldn’t only pick movies or just tv or only a sport or books! I have way more interests than just that. How to overcome it is to create a personal blog and then you can blog about anything and everything in the cosmos that interests you.

2. Writer’s block – This is something which I know affects all of us. The best writers go through it and they have studied communication and writing. So who are we? The best thing is the blogging community. Like this very prompt, there are lots of sites out there that give you topics and prompts for your blog. If you are like me then you are already aware and use a bunch of prompts any given day. My shtick is to write atleast one blog post every day and there are days when I cheat and just post some jokes or something. But since 2007 I have made it a rule of mine that I will blog every day unless I am too sick to do so or something really wonderful or really tragic has happened.

3. Motivation to keep writing or the lack of it. Most of the bloggers I used to like have long stopped blogging. There’s a few that remain and even they are sporadic these days. I miss that feeling of community that I used to enjoy. I loved getting the comments and replying and then going to their blogs to see what topics they have and sharing my inputs on their posts. I have made some good friends due to blogging and they have all moved to Facebook. Luckily I am still friends with them there. But I think I have to find more blogs and bloggers so I can get that sense of blogging community back once again.

Prompt from 121 LIFESTYLE BLOG POSTS IDEAS TO WRITE ABOUT IN 2021