"The intellectualisation
of football has
always foundered
on a simple problem-
-the players. Doing
all your most
rewarding thinking
with your feet seems
to dull the philo-
sophical impulse.
Unless, of course,
you are Dutch.
According to legend,
Europeans played
a moronic, muscular
version of the world's
game, until Holland
proclaimed its vision
of total football in the
1974 World Cup,
and enlightenment
dawned."

From:
Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football

Holland celebrate their heroes

Wednesday, 14 July 2010

It was a question often asked yesterday: what if they had won the World Cup? Because seeing how the Dutch celebrated the second place in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, it wasn't hard to imagine the scenes when Giovanni van Bronckhorst would have carried that golden globe on a stick with him.

Fans all along the canals when the team were carried around Amsterdam in a boat

Still, despite the goal of Andres Iniesta in the 117th minute of the final Holland was not going to have a celebration taken away from them. The three-times-runnersup were celebrated like heroes. And they are.

Yet it cost the players some trouble to switch to the party mode. There was much disappointment and that was visible when they were received at the Catshuis, the prime-minister's residence. But once they arrived in the palace of queen Beatrix the atmosphere had lightened up and all players and staff had big smiles on their faces.

Holland are proud of their team

It was the moment when it became clear for the players and coaches just what they had stirred up back home during the past 7 weeks. There were thousands at the gates of the palace, but that was nothing compared to the masses that awaited them in the country's capital.

The team flew to Amsterdam per helicopter and from a navy base they embarked on a boat trip through the canals of the city. The second place in the World Cup was enough for the entire metropolis to cheer them on. No one bemoaned the rough play in the final, no one paid any mind to jealous British journalists. Criticism of the way Holland played came from professional followers of the team. Not from the fans.

More than 200,000 gathered for a party on the Museumplein

Just like when the team won the European Championships in 1988 people jumped in the water when the boat passed and everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of the players. Some got close in small boats and the river police had a lot of trouble enabling the boat with the players to carry along it's way.

At the end of the boat trip the players were celebrated by a crowd of 200,000 on a stage on the Museumplein, where so many Dutch fans had watched the games of the team.

"Spain may have won the World Cup," said Arjen Robben to the crowd. "But we have the best fans in the world."

When the team flew over the Museumplein in a helicopter it became clear what they had achieved

The celebrations took place without any trouble, just like the tournament happened without any trouble.

And the Dutch fans? They will remember this World Cup of yet another great summer of football as Holland has seen many in the past 36 years. Perhaps it wasn't with the most entertaining football this time around, but they went as far as they could, and in the end they met the one team that was better than them.

The supporters are hopeful. In four years there's another World Cup and who knows, perhaps this team can work miracles during the European Championships in 2012.