2010 FIFA World Cup - Final - Netherlands-Spain 0-1
Holland lose more than just the game

Monday, 12 July 2010

By losing 1-0 to Spain in the final of the World Cup Holland lose more than just a Cup - with the ugly and raw way they played they also lost a lot of friends.

Reading through foreign papers this morning there are no compliments for Holland. All bemoan their rough play and negative tactics. "The Dutch battle plan was, unlike that of Spain, to spoil and harass and then strike out for any possibilities that might come their way," The Independent wrote.

And they were right. As it was right that Spain came out on top and won the Cup.

But that's about all that's right about this final. Holland lost again, and what's worse: much of the goodwill that Oranje has build up in the past 36 years with positive, offensive football has been lost with it.

Dutch football had many friends in the past. But a lot will have shifted their loyalty to Spain after yesterday's game. Few new friends will have been made. Apart from losing the third World Cup final Holland have lost their good name and sunk to that of teams they used to despise for their negative tactics.

And not only outside Holland, but in the Netherlands as well people are criticizing the way their team played. And they are envious of Spain. For forty years Holland have tried to play beautiful and win. They never succeeded and decided it wasn't possible. What irony that Spain proved them wrong with their own style.

What now?

No one can argue Van Marwijk did a bad job. He took his team to the final and perhaps made just one mistake: holding on to Van Persie as a lone striker. The Arsenal player had a very poor tournament, and if it wasn't for John Heitinga he could be called Holland's weakest player. Still the Dutch came mighty close. Robben could have decided the game and made himself and Van Marwijk heroes.

But even when Robben had scored and Holland would have clinched the Cup much damage would have been done. After all, this was the second time the Dutch team showed their nastiest side at a World Cup, as their second round encounter with Portugal in 2006 also ended in a war of attrition.

Dutch fans may have cheered their team on by the millions yesterday and of course all would have been over the moon with a victory, but when your one real football icon (Johan Cruyff) says that he will support the opposing team ahead of the game, you should know you're doing something wrong.

And Holland did do something wrong. They forgot about their tradition, they ignored their millions of fans around the globe and disappointed the majority of true football fans by looking at the result only.

After each pragmatic display in the past weeks Dutch fans hailed the result and hoped they would see good football in the next game. Even after the mediocre semifinal against Uruguay many optimists argued that they would save the best for the final. But they didn't. It was chop, chop, chop all along. Had it not been the World Cup we would have switched to the History Channel.

And what to do now? Do we send away a coach that brought us to the final of the World Cup? Just because we weren't entertained? Can we really demand Van Marwijk to resign after a World Cup-campaign of 14 won and only 1 lost? Do we not need destroyers like Van Bommel and De Jong? Do we really want to go back to playing offensively and bow out to Brazil in the quarterfinal?

Yes we do!

What joy we got from the tournament in 1998! What exhilarating football and fond memories of it! And as such there are several tournaments in which Holland played football that got lauded by us and the rest of the world: 1974, 1988, 1992, 1998, 2000 and 2008. We didn't win, but the warm reception of our approach and artistry more than made up for the lack of trophies. Every now and then we see the footage on TV or on YouTube and we're thrilled. Seeing footage of this World Cup will still send shivers down the spine of the beholder, but it will be shivers of disgust. And we don't want that!

Football is entertainment. That sentence could well have first been uttered in the Netherlands. And it's true. Football can indeed be entertainment. It should be. For what other reason would millions around the planet be so occupied with it for four whole weeks? But reading through the none-Dutch papers today no one seems entertained by the way Holland played. They were appalled, insulted, disappointed. But Holland shouldn't play in an appalling, insulting and disappointing way.

So ahead of Bert van Marwijk - or another manager - now lies the enormous task of letting Holland find back to it's own true style. Thank you Mark van Bommel. You did all you could, and it was a lot. Thank you John Heitinga. For a defender with such limited capabilities you did remarkably well. And thank you Dirk Kuyt. So little talent and such achievements.

In a team that plays for possession like Spain does one destroyer (De Jong) should be enough. Germany played like Holland. The way they occupied the space was similar. But Germany had Schweinsteiger in stead of Van Bommel. Just think of the third German goal against Argentina and you see the obvious. Sneijder can play in that role besides De Jong. With Robben and Elia out wide Van Persie or Van der Vaart can drop back to the position of Sneijder leaving room for Huntelaar as the out-and-out striker.

Sneijder can play like Schweinsteiger or Alonso does: moving up front in support and closing down the space for the opponents midfielders. He did so for Inter all season, albeit in a very different system (4-5-1). But Van Marwijk opted for an extra lock with two holding midfielders who did nothing but hold. De Jong hasn't once been in the enemy's box, Van Bommel only at set pieces. The Bayern midfielder has a vicious shot, but only once or twice got in a position where he could use that ability. But with Heitinga and Mathijsen two holding midfielders were necessary. The central defenders aren't good enough to play higher up the pitch, as was visible yesterday on numerous occasions.

It left Sneijder and Van Persie isolated as they were always one man short. It is there where tactics need to be adapted. More bodies going forward. No more playing only to deny the opponents and wait for their mistakes. No more Mourinho-style counter football. Let Portugal do that. Holland is Holland and should play Holland-style. So they can lose Holland-style. That way we will not have to be ashamed when we read the sports pages of a foreign newspaper.