Tonight 22-year-old Daphne van Domselaar will almost certainly be in the starting line-up against Portugal. The Leeuwin, who was born in Oudkarspel, is not yet widely known in the village. But with a little help, fellow villagers know her name.
Since lioness Sari van Veenendaal was injured in the European Championship match against the Swedes, the Van Domselaar has been under the bar of the Dutch women’s team. Walkers in the Dorpsstraat sometimes need a little push before they recognize the name of brand new lioness Daphne van Domselaar. But once the penny drops, they are excited.
“It’s nice that such a girl from the village comes this far,” says a gentleman. He does not know her himself but suspects that she is in the same circuit as his daughters. He admits that he has ‘a little less experience’ at the women’s football tournament. But he does not rule out the possibility that he will look at the lionesses differently now that there is a fellow villager in Orange’s goal.
Unknown
Yet there are also people who really do not know who Daphne is. “Women’s football completely passes me by,” says a lady on a bench in front of the village hall. When asked whether it does something to her that a fellow villager has made it to the Lionesses, she replies laconically: “I think it’s all beautiful but I’m not going to look.”
And so it turns out more often on the street that women’s football is not yet permeating all living rooms. “No”, says a gentleman, “I’m not going to look, I think the weather is too nice.” It seems that Daphne still has some spectacular saves to make to convince her fellow villagers to stay home for a game of the lionesses.