Dutch Football: How I Went from Liking Them to Disliking Them

It all turned so quickly.  I remember pulling for them to beat Brazil in the 1994 World Cup.  I remember the joy of watching AFC Ajax in the mid-90's. I remember discussing whether van Basten would have been the next Cruyff, had injuries not derailed his career. 

I remember cheering for players like Bergkamp, Overmars, Kluivert, Davids, Gullit, the de Boer's, Stam, Winter, Rijkaard and Seedorf.  So why do I now openly cheer against a team that I used to support second to Italy?

Simple.  I met many Dutch people and they lack the class their countrymen display on the pitch.

Now before you think this is some racist or ethnically insensitive article let me clear the air.  My distaste is for Dutch football, not the Dutch people.  Many of these people who have caused my shift in allegiance to the Oranje, were, and continue to be good friends of mine. 

However after years of football banter back and forth, I have been left a tad sour. It is not really one particular thing but rather a collection of things that have lead me to feel this way.

First and foremost is the utter disrespect, and to be honest ignorance towards my country of birth and football allegiance, Italy. They dismiss Italy because they claim Italy "play a boring style of football", which makes it clear to me that they are simply regurgitating old football stereotypes, or selectively choosing from a small collection of games. 

Have they played boring football before? Of course they have, but this is a result of necessity rather than tactics. I can recall Euro 2008, eventual winners Spain were the class team of the tournament. They picked apart teams with ball movement which caused opponents to chase them around, disrupting their form and opening up holes for them to exploit. 

When they faced Italy in quarters rather than fall victim to what was unsuccessful for Russia, Sweden and Greece, Italy sat back and let them pass the ball around, almost saying "are you guys going to do something or what"? Spain eventually won but Italy did not concede a goal and troubled the Spanish like no other team in the tournament could.

Another frustrating stereotype constantly launched by my Dutch friends is that Italian players are divers. This is humourous to me for many reasons. First, all football teams with the exception of maybe Canada and the United States are divers.

Secondly anybody who really knows the sport knows that South American teams are tops when it comes to diving. Finally the most notorious "diver" in the game today is Robben, a Dutchman.  Take off the anti-Italian glasses my friends and have a look around, players are diving everywhere.

Speaking of knowing the sport, half of these so called "die hard Dutch fans" show up waving their flags and sporting their jerseys every two years during the Euro and World Cup. Other than that, they are pretty much invisible. 

Way to support the team, boys. By the way, you can put your orange shirts and sideways French flags away for another 23 months until the next major tournament. And when it comes to major tournaments......

These guys are like the Buffalo Bills of soccer.  Their fans keep claiming how "great" they are but what exactly is your pedigree fellas?  I'm scanning... What do I see?  Three World Cup finals appearances, all loses. 

One fourth place finish, Four semifinal appearances in the Euros, Oh wait, there it is. One measly European Championship in 1988. Oh, but I forgot when you play football for Holland it doesn't matter if you win or not because as Mr. Johann Neeskens once said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "We would rather play beautifully and lose than to win ugly." 

I just want to know if by playing beautifully he means, Robben flailing around on the pitch, or that wonderful hack and foul display in the 2010 World Cup final against Spain, capped off by Nigel De Jong's, Bruce Lee impersonation to the chest of Xavi Alonso. 

You keep on playing that beautiful football my friends, just don't hate on my team because we have a wall full of trophies.