I’ve got mixed feelings about the defeat of the Dutch team in the World Cup finals. I should be proud of the team reaching the finals, but they haven’t played a good match in the whole tournament. Oranje football is world wide known as attractive and offensive football, but I’m afraid they lost that status. Both Germany and Spain played ‘Dutch’ and they actually both deserved to be the finalists. The final itself was terrible, the Dutch team played very aggressive and defensive, the referee was also bad and even the Spanish team was weak, actually I think it was Spains weakest match of the tournament, probably due to the very aggressive way of playing by Oranje. Within 15 minutes both Van Bommel and De Jong should have received a red card. I’m very embarrased about the foul play of the Dutch. The Dutch had the opportunity to play fair and clean using strength and ball control, and perhaps defeat the Spanish team. But they decided instead to play dirty and rough, losing the rest of the world respect with a very intimidating style. People were bored to see a very disappointing show where Karate ruled over football technicality. That is why I found Spain the fair winner. Also the best Dutch football player of all times Johan Cruijff tells a Spanish newspaper the Dutch played ‘hard and rough’. Despite the defeat the players will get a full-blown welcome, including a boat trip around Amsterdam, when their success is celebrated in the capital on Tuesday.
On personal note: I never want to hear any vuvuzela anymore, and I hope Paul will end as an ingredient in paella….
