A Romance in Oranje

Chronicle of an everlasting love affair with Dutch football

International football for me, pretty much for the entire duration of my life has been a romance in orange – a tragic romance, but an overwhelmingly faithful one nevertheless.

The Netherlands ‘so-so-near-yet-so-far’ loss at the 2010 world cup final....and not just a loss...a loss in the 115^th minute , after Arjen Robben had missed a gilt edged one-on-one with the goalkeeper chance which he normally buries nonchalantly with both his feet tied together and his eyes blindfolded...so continued my seemingly everlasting wait for the Oranje to win at a major international competition since Euro ’88, when Van Basten’s outrageous volley converted me to a dutch football fan for life.

International football from that moment on (culminating in WC 2010) has comprised fleeting moments of pure joy interspersed by the rather more plentifully incessant agony. If Dennis Bergkamp’s three touch bamboozlement of Roberto Ayala in 98 remains the favourite footballing moment in my life, it is mired somewhat like hope in pandora’s box amidst Branco’s incredible free kick , the penalty defeats to Brazil in 98 and Italy in Euro 2000 , Arshavin’s wizardry in Euro 2008 and 2 outrageous goals (in Euro 2004 and WC 2006) from an otherwise average Portugese midfielder bearing the Indianised name of Maniche. Truly, when the Dutch undid the Brazil jinx at last in 2010, coming back from a real pasting in the first half , I believed that the time was nigh when my footballing hopes would be realised akin to those in other sports (Aussie cricket, Lakers in the NBA, Schumi in F1 etc). Andreas Iniesta ensured otherwise deep into injury time and my wait to celebrate dutch footballing glory continued.

Marco van Basten : The Volley of Genius

The one thing football has taught me is that no matter how earth shattering the result, there is always the next game around the corner....and so I waited.... for Euro 2012...knowing full well that Spain were still the strongest team in Europe and Germany, the most promising team on the horizon and well what followed, threatened my support for the Oranje to fatal proportions. The signs were there during Van Marwijk’s entire reign- the fluidity and delight of the Dutch game were replaced by a pragmatic , hard tackling no nonsense football. The team was built around midfield enforcers like Van Bommel and De Jong at the expense of that extra creative player. At the front Robin van Persie has long proved that even when fit, he is not half as good a player in international colours as that in those of his club. Even for battle hardened Holland supporters, it will take time to regain faith in the team after the debacle at the Euros. The Dutch need that one inspirational player to capture the imagination but it is difficult to see who that might be. The core group of RVP , Huntelaar, Schneider, Van de Vaart just lack that little something. Arjen Robben, on talent is probably still the best player in orange but fitness, form and confidence have been all too transient in the enigmatic winger. Dutch football is in crisis and under the dictatorial leadership of Louis Van Gaal, the crisis may either be resolved or deepen along the lines of the French in recent years.

Cutting over to the club football scene - once cable TV featured prominently in our lives in the mid-nineties and the European Leagues became an unavoidable weekly commitment favourites developed in this arena as well. Not unsurprisingly all the teams I have grown to support have or have had strong dutch connections....Arsenal of course , as the home of my favourite footballer through the nineties, the incomparable Bergkamp ; Ajax Amsterdam....well simply because they are dutch and in the mid-nineties were the epitome of footballing artistry (not too dissimilar from the modern day Barcelona) and Barcelona, for in the late nineties-early nougthies they fielded teams with more Dutchmen than Spaniards (counting randomly : Kluivert ,Overmars ,de Boer brothers , Riezeger , van Bronckhorst, Cocu)....while my footballing admiration for Messi’s  team is as great as any that I’ve seen play, their recent holier than thou attitude has somewhat cooled my support for them. Merely the name AC Milan excites the pleasure centres in the brain in fond remembrance of the days of the trio of Van Basten , Gullit and Rijkard. Those days are long gone – Inter Milan and Manchester United have more Dutch players than AC or Arsenal but the early associations have strengthened pretty much into eternal support.

Methinks I shall remain a footballing martyr for life – destined to hope , be disappointed and hope again , but as Ernie recently proved in the Open Championship, maybe once, just that once the never-ending hope of seeing the Oranje win international gold will bear fruit.  

Let the words "Dennis Bergkamp" suffice