World Cup Diary – July 13

Almost inevitably, the Dutch lose their third final at a world cup. But then again, can any fan of the Dutch football of yore really feel too bad for this team? I had fallen in love with the Dutch style of play from the late ‘90’s at France ’98, when a team of stalwarts including Bergkamp (my personal fave), Overmars, the De Boer twins, Davids, Seedorf, Zenden, Cocu, Jonk, Van Der Saar, Kluivert among others played some great football but were desperately unlucky to lose out in the semi’s to Brazil on penalties. Two years ago my love affair with them was re in forced when they played exhilarating attacking football to thrash both Italy and France at Euro 2008. But a naivety in defense cost them dearly in the quarters against a rejuvenated Russian side. This team was supposed to be the best of both worlds, finally a potent combination for the Dutch. But the game they played in the final was, to put it simply, ugly. Van Bommel had been looking like a time bomb waiting to go off all tournament and I was surprised he didn’t get sent off even once. De Jong tried practicing his kung fu on Alonso’s midriff and yet stayed on the pitch. Almost the entire team was booked, and they were lucky the sending off only came with ten minutes of extra time remaining. Sad to say, but despite possessing some wonderful attacking talent, this team did not really deserve the cup ahead of those great teams of the past.

And what of Spain? Well, its safe to say, they were the best team of the tournament and the best team of this generation. They lost, totally undeservedly, to a boring and dour Swiss side in their first game, but you could see it did not really affect their confidence and they continued with their own style of play despite the odds. In fact it almost seemed like it was Barcelona playing out there as, obviously, it was their style which had been replicated onto the national team. Ironically, a lot of that style was influenced on Barca by Dutch geniuses like Cruyff and Rijkaard. The only reason Spain did not win this world cup even more emphatically was because, apart from Villa, they suffered a curious lack of finishing power. They may have won most of their matches by the odd goal, but deserved to win by more. This is a great team and deserve all the plaudits that come their way, despite the odd grumble or two about some play acting. As long as they are trying to play the game beautifully rather than stopping other teams from playing, I think it can be tolerated.

But I did like the final classy touch from the Dutch team and their personnel, with the guard of honor they made for the Spanish players coming with the cup. How many times do you actually see such sportsmanship in football? Despite the ill fitting final, that was a nice touch to finish off a grateful tournament.