Yesterday night, a Dutch show of force took place at the Groningen football stadium. The European finals under 21: Holland vs Serbia. The young ORANJE team played an excellent match and won 4-1. It's not only the winning that was superb, it was the whole prelude to the finals, and the entourage.
Coach Foppe de Haan had quietly and seriously prepared a great strategy to get his group of young talents ready for their second European title. He engaged group psychologists, PhD candidates who studied the behaviour of penalty takers, and winning speed-skating coaches, during his team trainings. He also tossed in a few non-conventional ideas of his own, my favourite being the prohibition of iPods during the training camp and team travels, to encourage team bonding instead of individualism. The Dutch junior soccer players showed that a good team that plays with passion and enthusiasm is all you need to be victorious. In my opinion this should be a good lesson for their seniors in major national selections, who eventhough composed of great talents, often lack the spirit and motivation to excel as teams. Perhaps the result of too many large egos and too much attention. For soccer and Holland, though, I would say that the future is promising!
The party ended with fireworks, clapping for the Serb team and their supporters, concert-quality sound from the world famous top trance-DJ Armin van Buuren, and Michel Platini who handed over the Cup to a multicultural Dutch team wearing Surinam flags (a small issue that caused an interesting debate in the media), Orange banners and Dutch colours.
Top stuff, too bad I wasn't there to see it live!
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