Holland v Spain pre match thoughts: Oranje's run so far

The football fan

So Holland is in the final of the worldcup and I still can’t believe it…
This lucky and dull team somehow made it to the final of the 2010 worldcup, and thereby making a mockery of the great Dutch teams of the past. If Johan Cruyff was dead he should be turning in his grave: his legacy of attacking (total) football that he introduced in the seventies has been tarnished by this year’s team. Can you imagine? This 2010 team featuring one André Ooijer and Stijn Schaars, winning the worldcup, while the ’74 team, with football legends Ruud Krol and Wim van Hanegem somehow couldn’t win. A Dutch win in the final would be a loss to football.

Let’s take a look at this Dutch team shall we?
Goalkeeper Maarten Stekenburg: Nothing special. Yes, he made some decent saves against Slovakia and Brazil, but his howler against Uruguay proved he’s not world-class material.

Right full back Gregory van der Wiel; He has some talent but looked completely lost against Slovakia and he seemed just too nervous in the Brazil game.

Left full back Gio van Bronckhorst: He is ancient; it’s still surprising no team has been able to challenge him this world cup.

Centre back pairing John Heitinga and Joris Mathijssen: Both are overachievers. They are slow and their heading ability is average at best. Johnny can’t tackle while Joris always will make one howler every game.

Holding midfielders Mark van Bommel and Nigel de Jong: Van Bommel is useful in his own annoying way: he should have been sent off at least 3 times this world cup. De Jong: decent tackler but he can’t pass and he has a tendency to win stupid bookings, thereby getting his team in trouble.

Attacking midfielder Arjen Robben: Always injured and when he plays he always dives.

Attacking midfielder Wesley Sneijder: Must be the luckiest player at this worldcup. Yes, he has 5 goals to his name, but all but one were goalkeeping errors or deflected shots. His overall play has been disappointing.

Attacking midfielder Dirk Kuyt: He is just a hardworking player, nothing more.

Striker Robin van Persie: Great talent, but is a massive underachiever this worldcup.

Let’s face it this Oranje has been very lucky this world cup: They won their first game through an own goal against Denmark, the second game was won because of a goalkeeping error and their final group game was basically just a friendly. And then there were the knockout stages: in the second round they were lucky to escape with a 2-1 win against minnows Slovakia. In the quarters against Brazil, they should have been down by 3 goals at least before the interval. And Holland only won because of a goalkeeping mistake and a Brazil player who went completely mad. Then there was the game against Uruguay, were Holland had trouble beating a team missing their goalscorer and their best defender.

This team tries to be ‘well-organized’ while they are leaking goals left and right. They can’t convert their chances, have difficulty passing the ball, can’t get their striker involved, they are collecting booking with cynical fouls and they dive. As a fan of football, I think this Dutch team was just fortunate getting this far and was lucky that other teams massively underperformed this world cup.

For the final, I just hope Holland doesn’t embarrass themselves against Spain.


The Dutchman

So Holland is in the final of the worldcup and I still can’t believe it…
Before the tournament nobody thought this Dutch team would get this far, there was doubt about the goalkeeper, the back four was laughed at, their midfield was judged to be solid but unspectacular, only the Dutch attack was rated as competent. Doesn’t that make this Dutch world cup run more remarkable?

While this Holland team plays very dull football, even duller if you remember Dutch teams of the past, they do have a kind of invincibility about them that Oranje didn’t have in the past.
The history of Dutch football has always been marred by playing nice attacking football and then losing in excruciating fashion. It’s nice to have a team that just wins for real rather than just win sympathy. And while most people in the Netherlands (and around the world) would prefer to see Holland play their normal attacking football, it’s not this team’s fault it has to carry the burden of attacking football. In other words: you can’t blame this team for not being the 1974 team. They are their own team. And besides if this was an Italian team would we really care how they got to the final? Wouldn’t we say: Italians just know how to win?

In (lazy) world cup previews the Dutch team is always characterized as underachieving and with infighting. The strength of this Oranje however, is undoubtedly their team spirit. In the past it’s always been said that Holland can’t win if they played bad, this team characterized itself by playing ugly and winning. Credits should go to Bert van Marwijk for this, who brought a new identity to Dutch football, maybe not as pretty as we want but it is a winning identity. And winning has been lacking for a long time.

Some describe this team as lucky. While there is no denying Holland had some luck getting to the final, it’s not fair to say they got this far just because they are lucky. The people who call Holland fortunate point to the Brazil game as prime example: although Brazil was much better in the first half, the seleção didn’t create a lot of chances if you look at it objectively. Also the referee's decisions didn’t benefit Holland in that game.

The performance in their semi final game certainly wasn’t a prime one if you consider that Uruguay was playing with a depleted team. But on the other had you should also consider: Uruguay had nothing to lose as massive underdogs, also Holland was missing one of their most important players: Nigel de Jong.

Germany has played wonderful football this great world cup, causing Dutch pundits to proudly describe the way the way the Mannschaft plays as 'typical Dutch'(like most people in the world, we like to take credit for other people success). And despite the rivalry that still exists between the Germans and the Dutch, this German team is held in high regard. And although their free flowing football has been great, I do like to point out that Germany has played teams that like to attack while Holland played very defensive teams for the most part. It’s hard to look good against defensive teams.

Maybe Holland will lose the game against Spain; because, let’s be honest, that would be the most logical outcome of the final. But I am sure Bert van Marwijk’s team will make it very difficult for Spain and who knows, this Dutch team has surprised me more than once.

Projected Dutch line up (4-2-3-1) Stekelenburg; van der Wiel, Heitinga, Mathijsen, van Bronckhorst; van Bommel, de Jong; Robben, Sneijder, Kuyt; van Persie

Fearless prediction: 2-1 to Spain. Objectively speaking Spain are just the better team right now (Clearly I hope it will go Holland's way). I have no idea what kind of game this will be.