Sepia Saturday - Soccer

This weeks' theme has to be picked from a picture made available by the Dutch National Archive. It shows some presumably Dutch boys on their way to the weekly soccer match, their soccer boots casually dangling from their  necks. The photo is dated 1915-1925. 
The thing that strikes me is that they carry just their boots and very little else. No towels, no club shirt, no nothing. If you compare that with todays situation, where boys in comparable situations carry big bags with a track suit, match clothing, a towel, clean underwear, shampoo etc, the conclusion can only be that the times they are a-changing (thank you Bob Dylan). The explanation is probably simple. In those days clubs did not have showers (or maybe cold water only) nor sophisticated dressing rooms. It is not unlikely that these boys wore their club shirt underneath their daily clothing. They probably had to "change" in a draughty dressing room, played their match and went home where the weekly tub with hot water was waiting. The other thing that draws my attention are the soccer boots. Today those are unthinkable without commercial striping. And they can be bought in all colors of the rainbow. The boots in the picture are black and black only, I can assure you.

Picture ex Dutch National Archives

Although our son played soccer, I have very little action pictures showing him. But in 1976 he participated in the penalty trophy of his club DVH. DVH means De Vliegende Hollanders or The Flying Dutchmen. The name of the club finds its origin in the circumstance that it was meant to be the club for families of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines staff.

DVH's 5 best penalty kickers in 1976.
Picture taken on the DVH grounds in Amstelveen.

For more action shots, have a look at the Sepia Saturday Site where my fellow bloggers show their trophies.

Sepia Saturday 136 - Sporting photographs

Voor de Nederlandse tekst, zie na de Engelse tekst.
A few weeks ago I decided to join the Sepia Saturday people Kay Mortensen and Alan Burnett. They came up with the idea of putting old pictures in the limelight. 'Old' in this respect is to be regarded as a broad notion. Not only sepia coloured pictures qualify, coloured ones do as well. So I started with a post about my maternal grandparents on July 14 last. A week later I highlighted my mothers teenage hobby of collecting movie star postcards by portraying Dolly Haas.
Having written these two posts it dawned on me that Kay's and Alans idea entails more than just digging in ones own shoebox and write something about an arbitrary picture. An important part of their idea is that they come up with a weekly prompt. Their Sepia followers should then dig in their own shoeboxes trying to find an image to suit the occasion. So while I will continue with my own sepia series I like to join the Sepia followers as well. 
This weeks prompt is all about sports. After all, today is the first full day of the 2012 London Olympics.

I had to go through quite a number of albums and shoeboxes before I finally found the photo below. I saw scores of pictures of weddings, diners, babies etc. etc. But sports pictures are rare, at least in our family. Therefore, I am relieved to be able to present this one. It shows our son when he was 9 or 10 years old playing soccer. 

Son Robert cleverly avoiding opponents in Amstelveen, 1977.

He is the one playing the ball in this match between his club DVH (De Vliegende Hollanders meaning The Flying Dutchmen) and rival NEA from neighbouring Ouderkerk a/d Amstel. At that time DVH was the club for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines staff and family. When he started playing tennis, his promising soccer career ended shortly afterwards, around 1980 I guess.


Samenvatting
Een paar weken geleden ben ik gestart met de Sepia Saturday serie. Sepia staat dan voor 'oude zwart/wit foto'. Die oude foto's hadden immers die mooie bruine, sepia tint. Het idee van deze serie komt van twee Amerikanen. Nadat ik op 14 en 21 juli mijn sepia nrs. 1 en 2 had geblogd, kwam ik er achter dat het (ook) de bedoeling was om een door Kay en Alan aangedragen onderwerp zo mogelijk van een foto te voorzien. Dat doen ze nu al voor de 136e keer/week! En deze zaterdag, de dag waarop de Olympische Spelen in Londen pas echt van start gaan, is de uitdaging om een sportfoto uit de familie te vinden. En dat valt nog niet mee. Genoeg foto's van trouwerijen, familiefeestjes en babies maar van sport, ho maar. Het lijkt wel of dat vroeger niet mocht. Het zal toch geen gevolg zijn van onze Calvinistische opvoeding?? Maar hoe dan ook, gelukkig heb ik er nog eentje gevonden met zoonlief in een glansrol. Hij is al slalommend aan de bal tegen NEA uit Ouderkerk a/d Amstel. Zijn "cluppie" was toen DVH, De Vliegende Hollanders, de voetbalvereniging van de KLM in Amstelveen. Voetballen doet hij inmiddels niet meer, wel tennis.