There are streamers and glitter cannons and air dancers. The game kicks off 10 minutes late, in fact, because the display was so lavish that nobody seemed to have taken into account that all of the paraphernalia would have to be removed from the field. For much of the first half, players on one flank have to dodge not only opponents but the bright red streamers left littering the halfway line, too.

The game, almost inevitably, feels something of an afterthought. IJsselmeervogels — historically the more successful of the two teams, and chasing a championship again this season — takes the lead. Spakenburg equalizes a few minutes later. Early in the second half, the host is reduced to 10 men, its midfielder Maikel de Harder sent off for lashing out at a Spakenburg player. It peters out into a feisty, full-blooded tie.

By the end, the noise has abated a little. Fans start to filter out, clutching their masks as mementos. Perhaps the result has left everybody dissatisfied. Perhaps thoughts are drifting, now, to the lifting of the alcohol ban at 5 p.m.

A few fans confide that this has been a more low-key affair than they had been expecting, that the previous encounter this season — also a tie — was a little more colorful, a little more of an occasion. They wonder if the novelty has worn off, or if the reputation now weighs too heavily, if the expectations are impossible to match.

A few minutes after the game, the road out of Spakenburg is choked with traffic. Those who came from much further afield to watch the derby of derbies are starting to leave. They have had their weekend road trip, seen the world’s biggest amateur derby, ticked another item off the bucket list, devoured another experience. The locals walk home, to the houses with their names etched outside and the flags hanging from balconies, to clear up the detritus of the parties they hosted. Spakenburg will be quiet again soon, the same as ever. The game that defines it, though, is changing, an occasion that used to be exclusively local irrevocably altered, somehow, by its contact with the global.