Being Scottish I am perhaps not really qualified to delve deep into the nature of World-cup winning potential and strategy as even in the good years we never got further than the first group stages of either the World Cup or the European Championship.
Dutch international Braafheid is waved off at Schiphol by Oranje-fans
However, as someone who has lived in Holland through various more or less successful WC or EC campaigns of the Dutch National team, I know the usual progression from scepticism through optimism through fanaticism followed by ultimate disappointment that Dutch national football fans experience in the course of these competitions.
This latest campaign was no different really. At the time of the first group stages win against Denmark (2-0), feelings were rather latent; the supermarkets had of course got into the swing of things before anyone else, offering ‘free’ fluffy orange toys along with your usual purchases for weeks beforehand. But supermarkets do not have crystal balls like Paul the Octopus so cannot ensure that these free gift promotions will tempt you (at this early stage) into buying other Oranje products in their stores.
After the two subsequent victories over Japan (1-0) and Cameroon (2-1), the mood had changed significantly: orange-coloured streamers, flags and banners seemed to be everywhere, average punters springing gaily into action to decorate whole streets, often done by one fanatic, and pubs everywhere proclaimed their areas to be ‘Holland Houses’ where every game involving the national heros would be shown on big screens.
Despite this mood swing amongst the populace, the TV pundits retained their basic scepticism, pointing out that all the victories had been a bit close-run affairs, the Dutch style of football was pretty boring really, and the only hope they had was that one or more of the internationally-recognised ‘stars’ (Robben, Van Persie, Sneijder, Van der Vaart etc) would provide the spectacular one-off genial actions that the admittedly solid team strategy could not. The defense was – against all normal Dutch expectations – the main reason the team was progressing. That and Robben’s trickery up front at least.
Once the knock-out stage was reached, Dutch media moved into overdrive. They had lost none of their normal scepticism but were now having to take notice of the growing orange wave spreading through the nation’s football fans like a tsunami. Talk shows about the WC were now rife, taking up many hours of prime time tv space. Pundits examined every angle of the competition, from the heavier economic questions as to how the WC would or could benefit South Africa after the competition was finished, to how beautiful Milanista Wesley Sneijder’s fiancée was.
Once the quarter-finals had been reached by defeating Slovakia (2-1), cars started tootering their horns as they drove along quiet Lowlands roads with Dutch flags hanging out of the windows; orange t-shirts and other vestments were becoming the norm rather than the exception on the streets; and (always a bad sign) politicians were beginning to muscle in on the success by talking to anyone who would listen to them about how they had supported Oranje since childhood and wasn’t this great for the spirit of the nation (…etc ad nauseam). The whole dream was somehow made all the more exotic by the spell of very hot weather being experienced by Holland at the time. The usual reserved Dutch temperament was under heavy fire from untempered Optimism.
Imagine then the general tumult after the victory in the quarters against Brazil (3-2). Now surely nothing could stand in Oranje’s way? Even the tv pundits were smelling success. If you had asked any typical Dutch footie fan how far he thought Holland would go this time round, they would have told you that the quarters were do-able, but further than that they did not expect to get. Now both tv pundits and ordinary fans could see that with Uruguay as the opponent in the semi-finals, the unthinkable was in fact very likely to happen indeed.
Come the game against Uruguay, pub owners could not believe how much turnover they were generating. Dutch folk who had last seen the inside of a pub after college and before marriage at twenty-something were downing litres of the amber liquid in the bars like it was going out of fashion. Supermarkets were now cashing in on their risky purchasing strategies and all kinds of Oranje memorabilia were flying out the doors like nobody’s business. And even if they hadn’t invested in the souvenir-like articles, they would probably have done just fine with the amount of beer and other beverages being laid in by the ‘stay-at-home’ fans, who crowded round giant plasma home screens to witness the incredible feats. Yes, even in this time of recession, there was a huge upsurge in the uptake of new tv’s by the consumers to the amazement of most economics experts.
The first goal in the semi-final by old hand Giovanni van Bronckhurst (see video above), who was set to quit football after the World Cup, was perhaps in retrospect the high spot of the whole campaign; such a fantastic strike from far out and nearly on the wing had the nation wildly celebrating and leaving their rooms or pubs to loudly blow vuvuzuelas on the street, out of sheer joy. The 3-2 win over Uruguay was a fact. Holland were in the final.
You have to give credit for modesty and realistic expectations to manager Bert van Marwijk though. All through the whole thing, he had underplayed Holland’s chances in his own downbeat, forthright, “let’s see how the next game goes” manner. And now, with the final just days away, he wasn’t for changing. In all the interviews from pumped-up Dutch journos, he repeated that the team strategy was the reason they were where they were, they were in no way going to be the favourites against Spain in the final, and that he was glad for his players as a team but they still had a lot of work to do. A smile from Bert was a rare thing indeed during this campaign.
Bert, manager of Oranje 2010
Well, we know what happened in the final: Spain’s more technical prowess did the trick in the end as they beat Holland 1-0 after extra time to claim the cup. Afterwards, the foreign press was full of how Holland had played a ‘dirty’ game, hacking down players and complaining like prima donnas at disputed refereeing calls. Here in Holland, the press saw it quite differently: Holland had had their chances to go ahead but missed them (bad luck, really) and the referee had been insane in not noticing that Holland should have had a corner just before the winning goal was scored. And some claimed that the goal itself could have been given offside after the first attempted pass into the area.
Watching events in South Africa on tv, you could see that the Dutch players were pretty down about the whole thing afterwards, as you would expect. The thing was, in Holland the punters were still ecstatic that the team had got so far anyway and plans were drawn up for an official reception in Amsterdam. The day came and full tv coverage was broadcast for hours of the parade by boat through the Amsterdam canals on a sunny, warm day when once again Amsterdam turned orange.
Amsterdam in fact rarely misses a chance to go orange, and the new mayor was delighted to bask in the reflected near-glory for a few minutes on all the tv stations before dishing out a couple of gongs (knighthoods no less) to Bert the manager and Giovanni the retiring veteran.
The canal parade by boat took the best part of a couple of hours. The whole team plus entourage arrived in military transport helicopters, then took to the water with a well known canal boat tour company, who surely offered to do this for free?! The banks were packed, the weather suitable for a few overheated types to dive in and try to get nearer the players on the boat. However, a crack cop escort in small speedboats alongside saw to it that none got too near. The parade ended on the Musemplein, where the Orange group mounted a stage and sang along to suitably trite but appropriate songs (‘Blood, Sweat and Tears’ by André Hazes, for example) and trance music near the end to bounce about to.
As a spectacle, it was rather bizarre. In every individual interview with the players, they all started off by saying how disappointed they had been to lose so near the end, but later – with prompting from the interviewers – how cheered up they now were by all this attention. Some of the squad looked less comfortable than others, more or less depending on how they had performed (if at all), Wesley Sneijder predictably seeming the most cheery as he made a meal of kissing his model girlfriend as often as possible when the cameras were on him.
More than anything though, it was a cathartic exercise or therapy. The Dutch had been through the mill and nerves were tattered. A whole generation had nonetheless experienced what getting to a major final was like, and if that was how they reacted after losing the final, god only knows what would have happened if they had won.
In a ‘surprise’ development, it was disclosed on the news tonight that the Dutch bid for the World Cup in 2018 had been stepped up as they avidely rolled over and agreed with all the money-fleecing preconditions of FIFA in the hope this would be a sign of good faith. Would they not love to win it on their own turf!
