For the Dutch, this summer was an emotional roller coaster – and we are not a people accustomed to a high emotional pitch.  While the world watched, the Dutch national team ascended to its first World Cup final since 1978.  In the weeks leading up to the final match in South Africa, voetbal pundits made much of Holland’s status as the “best team never to have won the championship.”  Die-hard romantics like Brian Phillips of Slate even hoped for a Dutch loss, arguing that totaalvoetbal, the style of play that grew out of Rinus Michels’ coaching in the 1960’s, was too beautiful to be marred by an inevitable strain toward victory.

I do not understand enough about the complexities of the game to grasp the beauty of totaalvoetbal, but during Spain and Holland’s final showdown, which I happened to watch in a smoky hotel bar in Abu Dhabi, surrounded by ambivalent expats rooting halfheartedly for Spain, it seemed to me that neither team was making a particularly beautiful effort.  Spain’s eventual victory felt like something of a relief, after an hour and a half of rough and uneventful play, culminating in the now-famous image of Dutch player Nigel de Jong kicking Spain’s Xabi Alonso smack in the middle of his chest.

For many Dutch men and women, of course, “de teleurstelling is nog groot” – the disappointment is still a big one.  I, for one, am grateful for the summer’s struggle, if only because I now feel well-acquainted with the members of the Dutch national team, a noteworthy bunch of voetballers who are spreading out over Europe now, back to the professional clubs they are paid to play for, as the real voetbalseason begins.

Vocabulary of note:

Teleurstelling = disappointment

Ongestelbaar = unchangeable

Onverklaarbaar = inexplicable

Pijnlijk = painful