Giovanni van Bronckhorst wants to retire with the
Cup
Friday, 9 July 2010
Giovanni van Bronckhorst scored
the best goal of his international career in the semifinal
against Uruguay and on Sunday after his 106th cap he
wants to retire with Cup in his hands. "Because
there is no better way to retire than that," the
Dutch captain realizes. "Then the circle is complete."
A dream has gradually become a
mission. A mission that can be perfected on Sunday after
90 minutes of football against Spain. Van Bronckhorst
too considers Spain to be the toughest opponent of the
lot, but he also has started to believe that he can
really make history with this Dutch team.
"Let's put his this way,"
says the 35-year-old left-back, a few days before the
most important game in his career: "This almost
seems to be our tournament. I sometimes feel as if we
can not lose. We don't always play that well, but we
score goals in the right moments. Everything feels good
here. The people are friendly and helpful. Often they
even speak Dutch and after South Africa got eliminated
they have started to support us. The seats in Soccer
City are orange. Perhaps it just has to be that we win
the final here."
Van Bronckhorst is positive about
a good outcome of the final because the Dutch team is
yet to show what they are really capable of. "We
are yet to 'explode'. I haven't had the same feeling
in recent weeks as I had two years ago in those great
games at Euro 2008 against Italy and France. It would
be so great if it all comes together in the final. Winning
the World Cup in your last ever game is not for everyone,
you know."
Zinedine Zidane tried and failed
during the final of four years ago, but Van Bronckhorst
could now succeed. The Rotterdammer gets goose bumps
when he only thinks about the World Cup. "When
we indeed win it I'll be floating on a pink cloud for
a few days." He had a taste of that feeling when
he hammered the ball in from 35 meters in the semifinal
against Uruguay.
"Everything fitted on that
goal. When the ball came towards me, everything inside
my body knew I was going to shoot. It was my father's
birthday. And what great gift for him than that goal
and a spot in the final. It's great to make so many
people happy I realized that when I saw all those people
in Amsterdam celebrating our victory."
But not only in Holland are they
cheering on Van Bronckhorst. On the Maluku Islands,
where his grandfather was born, people stay up in the
middle of the night to watch him play. "I get emails
from my cousins over there. They say the whole place
is orange and they all support Holland. It'll be quite
something over there when indeed I can lift the Cup
on Sunday."
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