hmm, I have a funny feeling the national team is indeed back, as shown in this screenshot
I blew up the picture and it is indeed #9, patrick kluivert taking a free kick, as far as I know barcelona does not have a orange kit, and holland has had that exact one.
as for holland sucking, like my idon van gal said, "this generation of players, are..spoiled"
holland has world class talent, but they are too full of themselves, Advocaat is a coward, who doesn't have the guts to take decisions. When the Czechs scored their first goal (13th minute) the task was plain simple: we needed two goals. As simple as that. And what did Advocaat do? After we went 1-0 down he brought three new players: Paul Bosvelt (defensive midfielder), André Ooijer (defender) and one striker (Pierre van Hooydonk) replacing another striker (Van Nistelrooy). Now, can someone explain me the logic behind that...?
The most tragic thing, however, is the fact that all of the players after the game firmly believed that they'd played 'all or nothing'. I watched the game and I never noticed any such thing whatsoever. They played slowly, without any idead, no creativity. And they never went all the way, kicking long balls towards Van Hooydonk, storming forward.
Van der Sar rushing forward for a corner in stoppage time was actually a parody of an 'all or nothing offensive'. They never had the passion. Not one single second. And the sad thing is that I believe them instantly when they say they did all they could. They really thought they worked hard. This underscores the fact that they don't even know anymore how 'hard working' is really done.
Dutchmen tend to regard 'quality' and 'mentality' as two different things. As in: we have a lot of quality - and if our mentality is also good we have a really good thing. This is a typical Dutch, very persistent misconception. Mentality is actually part of quality. It's one of the pieces of the pie that is 'quality'.
As I said before: this Dutch team is not nearly as good as we think. They really believe they did everything they could. Well okay. In that case it's even worse that they never displayed any creativity, that they hardly created a chance and that the Kluivert/Van Nistelrooy combi was once again a tragedy and totally ineffective.
The Czech Republic national team is better than the Dutch team in every thinkable way. They are more of a 'team', they are better individually, they have more skill, they are better tactically, they are more professional and they also have a better mentality. Everything. No excuses - they are simply just a tad more talented. The average Dutchman will admit anything about Oranje, but not that quality is the problem.
But it is. Holland, open your eyes. How many more defeats in real games (Ireland, Portugal, Czech Republic) and near stumbles in minor games (Moldova, Belarus, Estonia) do we need to admit that?
We will not make it to Euro 2004, which means that this generation was of relatively low quality - and it brought us back to the 1980s. Back to the times in which it was usual not to qualify for two or more major tournaments in a row ('82, '84 and '86, in fact). The only difference: at the time the country was realistic about it. We knew we were **** and we did not expect anything. For some reason we do expect stuff now - and for some reason we think we're top drawer. But the situation is the same as it was back then: we're not good enough. You can't keep denying that from July 2000 to September 2003. Simple as that (and no, Mr Advocaat, an unbeaten streak in friendlies does not count).
World Cup 2006 - here we come.