Dutch arrogance may be biggest opponent

Dirk Kuyt and Mark Von Bommel celebrate the Netherlands' quarterfinal victory over Brazil.
(Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

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CAPE TOWN, South Africa – The Dutch are Unclutch, or so the stereotype goes. Every time they get a great team together, they promptly fall apart and throw away the tournament.

World Cups. European Championships. The years and venues and players change, the story stays the same. No world power is more disappointing.

“When we win, we tend to be a bit arrogant,” said coach Bert van Marwijk on Monday, on the eve of a World Cup semifinal here against Uruguay.

Now, this is some humorous stuff.

The Dutch are arrogant? The Dutch suffer from overconfidence?

This is a nation best known for windmills, tulips and wooden clogs. It boasts a fan base that wears bright orange – and gets the joke. They are suckers for brass bands. They go nuts for trendy sports such as long track speedskating. They put mayonnaise on French fries. The nation’s biggest city, Amsterdam, is famed for its legalized marijuana and front-window red light district. People still commute by canal boat. Or bicycle.

You want to know about the Netherlands? Well, you can walk into a movie theater in Amsterdam and buy a beer. And I don’t mean just like in no paper cup, I’m talking about a glass of beer.

If ever there was a country that didn’t take itself too seriously – one that would presumably lack self-confidence – it’s the Netherlands. The warm, friendly, welcoming and decidedly unpretentious Netherlands. Everyone loves the Dutch. These are some of the nicest people on earth.

Yet, there they are. They win a few soccer games and for some reason they completely lose their mind. And after besting mighty Brazil – with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory, no less – the possibility for arrogance is obvious.

The only thing standing in the way of the Netherlands’ first finals appearance since 1978 is Uruguay, a small South American nation whose coach spent most of Monday’s press conference complaining about his invasive local media … which is considerably smaller than the horde that covers, say, the New York Yankees. He called them “war correspondents.”

Uruguay is a big underdog, with a number of missing stars (handballer Luis Suarez included) only further stacking the odds against them.

“In some countries they have more footballers than the 3 million people inhabiting Uruguay,” noted coach Oscar Tabarez.

He followed that up with this bold bit of trash talk:

“I think it’s fair to say we have a fairly modest hope we can have the effort to win.”

So look out. The Dutch have a history of overconfidence, and Uruguay would instill overconfidence in any semifinal opponent (heavyweights Spain and Germany play Wednesday).

So now everyone is nervous. Which means, for perhaps the first time ever, it’s worth reminding the good people of Amsterdam that they should just chill out. Maybe they can keep the “coffee” shops open late to help preserve civil order.

“I’ve said many times, I can’t change a culture, but I’ve worked very hard to make this group of players realize if you want to win something in a tournament, you must always focus on the next game,” van Marwijk said. “You are talking about the past that we never really made it, that we failed.”

Well, the Dutch did win the 1988 European Championship, the only major title the nation has won. Other than that it’s been a string of disappointments. Two World Cup finals losses in 1974 and 1978 were tough. Not getting back since has been tougher.

Current Dutch teammates Khalid Boulahrouz and Joris Mathijsen following their upset loss to Russia in the Euro 2008 quarterfinals.
(Lars Baron/Bongarts/Getty Images)

At Euro 2008, the Dutch destroyed World Cup finalists France and Italy in group play and appeared unstoppable. They were an overwhelming favorite in the quarterfinals, only to lose to lightly regarded Russia.

It was a stunning result. And the heart of that team is the heart of this team.

“As we said, it’s a long process,” van Marwijk said of building the mentality to close a team out.

How the heck the Dutch got so arrogant is a mystery. It’s undeniably their curse, though. Scan their history and current roster and you can actually see it. From Ruud van Nistelrooy to Rafael van der Vaart. Those are some regal – read: arrogant – names there.

And what’s with a country that calls itself the Netherlands and Holland? Yet its people are Dutch. That’s the equivalent of referring to yourself in the third person.

So history looms over Cape Town like the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. The joke is that the only team capable of beating the Netherlands is Holland, and Holland is favored.

For his part, van Marwijk kept trying to lower expectations and grew agitated when reporters asked about the finals, not the semifinals.

“I really don’t want to talk about the final. I’ve been hearing this much too often. First we have to play a semifinal. I didn’t come to this tournament to wring my hands once we achieved that. Achieving the final is not enough. You want to win the final. But I am not even thinking of that.”

Actually, he is. Everyone in orange is. They can’t help themselves. They are the Dutch. They are the Terrell Owens of the World Cup.