Total Football? Total Disgrace!

As Ricky Tomlinson's "Jim Royle" character would say, "Total Football? My arse!" Normally I like the Dutch. I like the people, I like the country, I like their towns and cities and I like their football. Think Cruyf, Neeskens, Krol, Rep, Gullitt, Van Basten, Bergkamp and so on. After last night's World Cup final defeat to Spain - a third World Cup final loss, no less, in 36 years - Holland officlally becomes the best footballing nation never to have become world champions. But I'd wager a small bet that the likes of Cruyf, Gullitt and Bergkamp would have been just a tad embarassed by what they witnessed last night at Soccer City in Jo'burg. For the "Total Football" of the 1970's was replaced by sheer thuggery yesterday by a Dutch team who concluded that as they could not match the wonderful Spanish for skill, then they would attempt to kick them off the park. Nigel de Jong's karate kick and virtually every tackle by Mark Van Bommel was a disgrace, referee Howard Webb had no choice but to send off John Heitinga and there were many other incidents too. They nearly got away with it. Iniesta's fabulous finish was just four minutes away from a penalty shoot-out that the Dutch stood a 50-50 chance of winning. And that would have been a total disgrace. So, congratulations to Spain who were the best team at the World Cup, and I hope that the Holland we see at the European Championships finals in two years' time will be the Holland we know and love, and not Wimbledon FC in orange.