Holland v Slovakia afterthoughts: Confusion

Holland v Slovakia 2-1
'18 Robben
'84 Sneijder
'94 Vittek p

The Netherlands is through to the quarter finals of the World Cup for the first time in 12 years, and just for the 5th time in their rich football history. Historic football powers France, Italy and England are long gone. One of the favorites to win this tournament, Spain, has already lost to some dull neutral outfit. The other favorite, Brazil has drawn a game and got scored on by minnows North Korea. Holland has won all their games and just conceded two penalties.

So why does this current Dutch world cup run feel so unsatisfying? Is it because Holland is known for their attacking style (total football & clockwork orange etc.) and now play a more (cowardly) counterattack football style? Is it because Oranje only has played 'small' football countries like Japan (who look pretty decent) and Slovakia (who beat the current, but admittedly, weakened world champions) this world cup? Is it because the Dutch most well known players: Robin van Persie, Wesly Sneijder, Rafael van der Vaart and Arjen Robben haven't yet produced for the most part, because of poor form or injuries? Is it because of the unproven back four, who despite their decent performances are still characterized as a weakness? Is it because Maarten Stekelenburg isn't Edwin van der Sar?

Here in Holland, a pundit answered this question:"Did Holland deserve to win against Slovakia?", with a very tentative:"...I don't know, maybe yes...". The commentator of today's game, seemed to have forgotten that Maarten Stekelenburg was actually there to try to stop the Slovaks from scoring, and was concentrating more on how these Slovak amateurs (he didn't actually say 'amateurs', but the dismissive tone of his voice said enough) got a chance to shoot at all. After the match Maarten Stekelenburg was praised for 'saving' Holland. The fact that the Slovak goalkeeper actually saved his side in the early stages of the second half was forgotten. After the game the mood was very strange: there seemed to be a sense that Holland was lucky to go through.

The Dutch papers described this performance as decent but unconvincing. Most journalists have a difficult time covering this Dutch World Cup run. They seem somewhat confused.

The whole of Holland seems a bit confused really: should we be happy we are quarter finalists or should we be mad that our performances are bad and boring? The most confusing aspect is the style Holland plays now: it's not Dutch. To be more accurate it is not Cruijffian. Since his early playing days Johan Cruijff and also coach Rinus Michels have had such big influence in the way Oranje plays. Young kids are taught football in their spirit of fluent attacking football and dominating opponents by keeping the ball rather then stopping the other team from playing. The Dutch team lived and flourished with their way of football in the seventies and died with it in the early eighties. Thankfully Oranje came back in the nineties, again with Cruijff's style.
The way the team of today plays, is what we would normally consider German football of the eighties and nineties. This consideration is usually only used to insult people! But now we are talking about our national pride playing German retro style football: should we bash it while we are winning? Or should we embrace it because we are winning? There is no Dutch genreally accpted answer at the moment.
More questions without answers: Does this Oranje try to play this counterattack style football? Or is it worse: do we try to play 'normal' attacking football, but for some horrible unknown reason the result is some workmanlike struggle?

At Euro 2008, Holland played very attacking football under Marco van Basten. Van Basten, former great player and a Cruijff disciple, was a very inexperienced and naive coach at the time. After two emphatic but somewhat lucky wins against Italy and France, Holland got absolutely destroyed by Russia, who expertly used the (acres of) space that Oranje left due to their attacking playing style. The way Holland got eliminated was the main reason the Dutch FA chose the more conservative Bert van Marwijk to succeed Van Basten. Under Van Marwijk Holland qualified for this World Cup with ease, but without ever playing very good football: not in qualifiers nor in friendlies. So what we are seeing now, shouldn't be a real surprise. But still a lot of people here just miss our Dutch style: playing tremendously exciting football, receiving all kinds of praise from all over the World and then losing in the most excruciating fashion, receiving all kinds of sympathy from all over the World: just like in Euro 2008.

Maybe we will just have to get used to it: this is the kind of football we will see under Van Marwijk's reign. But if Holland loses to Brazil, which wouldn't be a surprise, I predict the reaction will be quite extreme. In the Netherlands a loss is acceptable but only if we have shown the World how to play attractive football. On Friday there is a real possibility we will go out without ever playing anything near Dutch football this world cup: this may be a very hard reality to accept.



Golden Clog
Two players win the coveted Golden Clog this time: Arjen Robben for just being spectacular and Maarten Stekelenburg for making people forget about Edwin van der Sar.