Tonight’s the night. Netherlands vs Argentina in the semi finals of the World Cup 2014. And that meant an early start today to find out what Nora the office rabbit would predict as outcome. Gosh! She hopped towards the Argentinean-flagged carrot, looked at it (did I see anger, pity, fear?) and then hopped to the Dutch-flagged carrot. First she started to chew on the Argentinean carrot (Yuck! Did this mean defeat?), and then started nibbling the Dutch-flagged carrot, ignoring the flag after a while (it was still standing!) and completely ignoring the carrot with the Argentinean flag. What does this mean? How should one interpret such rabbit body language? I guess Nora was saying: Yes it is going to be a fearsome match, but keep faith because the Dutch team will stand strong and win.

We’ll see; the Dutch newspapers were warning of a ‘squishing’ of the Dutch team. It’s typically Dutch to talk yourself out of a winning mood, however, the small print says “…the Argentineans think they are going to win but of course they are not.” In that sense, the keeping of faith is an interesting one. In the Netherlands, religion doesn’t play a major role and most Dutch people would agree to the idea that winning or losing is down to how good and well-prepared you are. For the Catholic Argentineans ‘outside forces’ do play a bigger role. So would the outcome of the game depend on what these ‘forces’ have in mind for us? The Dutch team has an outside force to reckon with: Louis van Geniaal is of course an interesting ‘jack-in-the-box’.

When we look at some other cultural differences between both nations, we are in for an interesting culture clash. The Argentineans prefer tact and diplomacy and avoid direct criticism, whereas the Dutch prefer open, direct and honest feedback. Argentineans like near physical communication, with a lot of touching, and although the Dutch ‘do’ 3 kisses when they meet, too-close physical contact is avoided (although football players seem to be a different kind when it comes to physical contact). Hierarchy is important for Argentineans and the chain of command is easily visible. Messi is the man. The Argentinean team is built around him. The Dutch team on the other hand consists of 23 players and all of them have their own individual strengths next to an important team role. Number 23 of the Dutch team (goalie Tim Krul) showed last match the importance of individual class coupled with team spirit. I’m curious what the outcome will be. I will follow Nora’s lead and am convinced we are going to win!

Nannette Ripmeester,
Expertise in Labour Mobility

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