The Netherlands were my preferred team of the 1970s. I think I have never been more impressed by a team than the famous 1974 squad led by one of my 2 favourite players, Johan Cruyff (the other one being Michel Platini). Driven by Ajax Amsterdam’s revolutionary “total football” where any player could take over the role of another one, Dutch football swarmed over Europe during a great part of the seventies. Ajax won 3 European Club finals in a row from 1971 to 1973 and the Dutch national team made it to the final in the 1974 and 1978 World Cups.

The 1974 World Cup final against Germany was certainly one of 3 the major upsets of World Cup history, along with Maracanazo, of course, and the dramatic Bern final of 1954 between Germany and Hungary. Imagine the scene, after blowing his whistle to kick off the match, the next action the referee takes is to call a penalty for the Dutch team just after 1 minute of play time and with no German player even touching the ball! The big mistake the Dutch then made after Neeskens had converted the penalty was to try and humiliate the Mannschaft in front of their own Munich crowd. Instead of playing their usual flamboyant game, the Dutch underestimated a great German team who won thanks to “Der Bomber” ie Gerd Müller with a goal so characteristic of his style (see video). It was then too late for the Netherlands to wake up and defeat the best goalkeeper of the competition, Sepp Maier.

The Dutch again made it to the final in the 1978 World Cup against host team Argentina this time. Although they had lost Cruyff who had refused to play for the national team after the 1976 Euro, the team led by Johnny Repp and Robby Rensenbrink lost 3 – 1 during over time despite an 89th minute shot against the goal post by Rensenbrink. I didn’t enjoy that team as much as the 1974 one, it was a paler copy and the absence of Cruyff showed many times.

The Dutch then went through a couple of bad years until the inventor of total football, Rinus Michels, coached the 1988 new generation team which had 3 extremely talented players: Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard. The Dutch won the 1988 Euro held in Germany and revenged the 1974 team by defeating Germany in the semi-final.

In the following tournaments, the Netherlands suffered from the penalty shootout syndrome loosing in this exercise against Denmark in the Euro 1992, against France in the Euro 1996, against Brazil in the semi-final of the 1998 World Cup and against Italy in the Euro 2000! Talk about a curse here!

I was very disappointed with their last World Cup performance in Germany where the team showed unusual violence notably when they got eliminated against Portugal with 16 yellow and  4 red cards being distributed during the game setting a new infamous World Cup record.

I still see the Netherlands finishing first of Group E but I’m not sure how the current squad will perform after that. Robbie Van Persie is only going to be back in March/April and so might be short of form for June. Van der Vart and Huntelaar hardly play for their respective Real Madrid and Milan AC teams so there again play time will be short before the World Cup.

Maracanazos love revolutionary football strategies.

Denmark is the third team I am reviewing in the series about the 32 countries participating in the next World Cup in South Africa. I already covered Cameroon and Japan which are in the same group as Denmark.

Denmark’s star moment in international football is undoubtedly when they won the 1992 Euro organised in Sweden. Denmark had not even qualified for that competion but were called in to replace Yugoslavia who had been banned despite qualifying due to sanctions imposed by the international community during the Yugoslav wars. I remember that many journalists were suprised at how relaxed the Danish players seemed to be during the competition contrarily to so many other teams who bunkerised thelselves from the outside world (and still do).

The first Danish star I recall was Allan Simonsen who played for Borussia Mönchengladbach. Despite his frailness, Simonsen was a world-class dribbler and wonderful to watch. Simonsen unfortunately broke his leg in the game against France in the 1984 Euro. That Euro saw a great Danish team make it to the semi-finals against Spain thanks to 2 other great champions, Michael Laudrup and Preben Elkjær. As much as Laudrup was a stylish player displaying incredible finesse and technique, Preben Elkjær was the “buffalo” with a no-nonsense go for the goal attitude as well as exceptional dribbling skills. He remains my favourite Danish player of all times, I just loved his incredible drive and determination. Unfortunately for his team, Preben missed his penalty during the penalty shoot-out against Spain in the 1984 Euro which saw Spain then play and loose the final against France.

During the 1986 World Cup held in Mexico, Denmark should have gone much further than they did. As often during WorldCups, teams that start off too strong have problems maintaining their level during the second round.  That is exactly waht happened to Denmark who impressively won their first round group but then lost in the eighth finals against Spain again with a memorable bad pass by Jesper Olsen that his fellow team mates never recovered from.

After some disappointing years, Denmark showed up again during the 1998 World Cup in France winning a great 4 – 1 victory over Nigeria in the eighth finals and only loosing 3 – 2 againt Brazil in the quarter finals after a memorable match (see video).

In recent years, Denmark has often come out strong from the first round groups, as in the 2002 World Cup and 2004 Euro (with a controversial last minute tie againt Sweden which eliminated Italy), but then failed to move ahead during the second rounds. In this World Cup’s qualifying group, Denmark finshed a strong first ahead of Portugal and Sweden. However, I see them come in third of Group E behind The Netherlands and Cameroon.

Maracanazos love to play Lego!