What the FLYING Sugar is wrong with the Netherlands and their Football??!!

 Oh dear.

I want to run down some names before I attempt to try and comprehend what has happened to Holland. Seedorf, Bergkamp, Kluivert, Frank De Boer, Edgar Davids, Van Basten, Rijkaard, Gullit, Van Der Sar. These are just some of the incredible talents that have come out of Holland. To think that they have gone from being one of the most talented teams in the world, to lie in fourth place in a qualifying group with Iceland, Czech Republic, Turkey...is incredible sad and very unfortunate for football lovers.


Over the years, Holland's problem has always been their mentality. The physical side was never lacking. Talent had always been there in abundance with some of the best display of technical prowess on a football pitch that we've seen. What has prevented them from crossing that World Cup hurdle is that winning mentality, which is vital to get your claws on sport's biggest trophy. Talent can always get you to a quarter or semi, but when in those much later stages, when the teams are so close in quality, it's really about how you apply yourself psychologically and how much more you want to win it.

Now though, they don't even have the physical talent that I thought would always be a constant for them. So if they don't even have THAT, then there is absolutely no hope for them moving forward. What you have is a team that actually don't have the skill to play the damn game, nor do they have the mental fortitude to really grind through and win a game....unlike Iceland. That leaves Holland right down at the very bottom in terms of being a competitive football team in the most basic sense.


Now it's time for the blame game. Who is the person responsible for this sharp downfall? Who needs to stand up, and have his hands handcuffed and be lead into the hall of shame? Who is this terrible person that has been pulling the strings of disaster that has lead Holland down this very dark pit?

The very simple answer to that is: EVERYONE.

The coach, the players, the board, and even the country as a whole. From the very top all the way to the very bottom. This is a national problem. For such a famous footballing nation, it should be a responsibility to ensure that they are always competitive in all levels of the game. That means funding for good coaching, to ensure that the talent wheel keeps on turning and churning out players that can compete at a World Cup and European Championship. Now for some reason, someone stuck a wrench in that wheel, and some serious duds have been spat out into the national team. So that is how you have Turkey, who have not been relevant since 2002, being able to waltz right through their defense like a Sunday morning stroll and put the ball UNDER the keeper. Laugh Out Loud.

But its the mental aspect that Holland need to really work on, and has been their achilles heel for all time. To lose THREE World Cup finals, is unacceptable. To allow yourselves to be beaten by a country that only house 330,000 people at YOUR cribb...is disgusting. If the Netherlands players had a stronger mentality and were more unified as a team, they would actually be able to make it out of this group and would have won at least ONE World Cup. Even if this is the worst Dutch team I have ever seen, they are still at least on PAR with Iceland and the Czech Republic in terms of player quality. With the willingness to dig deep and urge to win, they would succeed...just about.









The unification aspect is again another aspect that has befallen the Dutch team over the years. I used to read of there being a divide between the white and black players in the team. Even when looking at training pictures as things built up to a World Cup, I always saw the black players take a picture together in a group and the whites doing so in another. There did not really seem to be a blend between the two racial demographics within the team. That would not have helped for the chemistry on the pitch or being able to fight for one another when things went astray in a match. In contrast, it is something that the Italians are the best at. The more difficult things get for them, the better they are while Holland are at their WORST when things don't go their way. If a team that is considered worse than them manage to get a goal, and start playing well, just like clockwork, the Netherlands will implode and they will visibly give up before the referee has even considered blowing his whistle for full time.


Personally, Holland should take no part in the next Euros. I do hope that Turkey are able to go out and handle their business in the final two games and ensure this. It would be much worse for Holland if they manage to squeeze through, and end up in the Euros by some backyard way. If that were to happen, and they finish bottom of their group at the tournament, they would still take the positive of being able to somehow qualify in the first place when no one gave them a chance.

By them failing to qualify and the embarrassment of that fact, it would force them to look inward and really start to take their football seriously and perhaps even improve the way that they apply themselves mentally during matches. In other words, this could be the best thing that ever happened to them. Sometimes in life, you need fall before you can rise to reach the top of the mountain.



HH