Flying Dutchmen one step away

IT WASN’T quite Total Football but 32 years after losing to Argentina in Buenos Aires and 36 after losing to West Germany in Munich, the Dutch are back in the World Cup final and ready to shake off the shadows of Krol, Cruyff and Neeskens.

In the same way that England’s current generation can never live up to the heroes of 1966 and Ireland’s current crop will forever be unfavourably compared to Jack Charlton’s Boys in Green, Holland have battled against memories of the past for so long.

But yesterday Arjen Robben, Dirk Kuyt & Co achieved what even legends such as Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten could not; they took their country back to the biggest stage of all, by beating Uruguay here in Cape Town.