New Delhi, June 11 -- As the clock ticks down to the Netherlands' opening World Cup match, soccer fans are gripped once more by orange fever.

Nowhere is the mood of euphoric optimism that descends on parts of this country every time its national team plays at a World Cup more glaringly obvious than on the Marktweg in The Hague, where the local community comes together to crush as much orange as possible into virtually every square inch of their street.

From the thousands of tiny flags fluttering above the road to the facades of houses, trees and streetlights, everything is orange, apart from the few places that choose to display the red, white and blue of the Netherlands' flag.

Depictions of lions - another national symbol - abound, ma...