The Netherlands vs. the U.S.A.: What in the World?

     So, who am I rooting for?
     This is not exactly how we intended it to be: The Netherlands as soccer World Cup champions, yes. But the intention was the Dutch men's team.
     Holland could rule the soccer world Sunday -- the Dutch women, that is. Who would have imagined that?
     One slight problem: The championship-game opponent -- in Lyon, France -- is the United States of America. Our women's team, the reigning World Cup champions going for two in a row.
     Dang it, what a dilemma in my mind.
     Love both countries, love both teams. 
     So, I am rooting for the winner and will feel for the loser. But both countries, both teams are winners for me. I will always root for both, never pull against either one.
     My No. 1 sports dream is for The Netherlands' men's team -- as I often have said and written -- to win the World Cup championship. That was my first sports love, starting in about 1952 when I was 5 years old ... in Amsterdam.
     Wrote about this in June 2014 as the men's World Cup was about to kick off (my history of Dutch sports fandom):http://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-oranje-hup-holland-hup.html
         (Short version: The Netherlands men have come heartbreakingly close to winning the World Cup six times -- three championship-game losses (1974, 1978, 2010), twice in overtime, and three other outstanding teams that either made the semifinals or lost to the eventual champions. Painful losses, all.)
        Here it is five years later, and I am writing about women's soccer, and happy to do it.

The U.S. team has had fun celebrating
 its goals, and success.

      The American team has gotten lots of publicity, or notoriety, during this tournament as the prohibitive favorite. A fun team to watch, except for the players' over-the-top goal celebrations. 
     Those irritate many fans. I am among those who think they could have, should have, toned it down. But that's sports today -- the look-at-me, look-what-I-have done, showoff style. We can accept it, or we can let it irritate us and complain.
     Whatever ...
     (Not getting into controversy about the off-the-field back-and-forth with the Tweetmeister. That's showoff territory, too.)    

The Dutch women's team has been on quite a roll.

     Meanwhile, the Dutch women -- who are the reigning European champions -- have kind of sneaked through to the championship game. But that 12-game winning streak in major tournament play is impressive.
      Still, I expect the U.S. team fully expects to win Sunday's game and, to be honest, I expect that, too.
       But even before Holland had scored the winning goal (in extra time) Wednesday in the semifinal against Sweden, an old friend -- yes, Mike Richey, we're old -- asked who I would root for in the title game.
      I was/am Dutch, spent my first 8 1/2 years in Amsterdam, am reminded every day by pictures here in the apartment and any mention of Holland that Mom and Dad's families were Amsterdamers.
      Since 1956, we have lived in the United States; that's 63 years if you're counting. We have been U.S. citizens for 58 years. Proud of it. 
      But proud of Holland, too. It is a beautiful, very progressive country, innovative in so many ways. And one of the world's greatest soccer countries, despite its very small size.
      And I have said and written this often: The world's greatest fans. If it is speedskating -- Dutch skaters have dominated the world the past decade -- or cycling or, well, any sport -- the orange-clad fans are as over-the-top as the U.S. women's soccer team's celebrations.
      Yes, better than LSU fans or Yankees/Red Sox/Cubs fans; pick a team's fans, I'll take the Dutch fans.
      To answer Mike Richey's question of who I am rooting for, as I told him, I cannot choose. It is like choosing between rooting for LSU or Louisiana Tech. More personally, it is like choosing between my children or grandchildren. They are all No. 1.
        To be honest, I have watched little of this women's World Cup. I have monitored the scores on my phone or computer; recorded a few of the games and watched some afterward. Just have other things to do, to keep me busy. Less stress that way, too.
         But I am familiar with many of the U.S. team players and like watching them play. Cannot name one Dutch player right away, but our friend Kip Coons -- a co-worker in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram sports department a decade ago -- pointed out Wednesday that the Dutch head coach, Sarah Wiegman, spent a year playing as a midfielder with the North Carolina Tar Heels' dynasty program. Among her teammates on the 1989 NCAA championship team: superstar Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly and Carla Overbeck -- all then or about to be Team USA stars.
     Looked up Wiegman's background: First Dutch woman to play 100 international games, extensive coaching career. Impressive. 
      Her team's efforts have been impressive, too. Proud, too, of how far women's athletics have come.
       Only wish Dad was still here to see this. He loved athletics -- as many of my readers know -- and he especially loved soccer, or voetbal as we knew it in The Netherlands. He introduced me to the game a darned long time ago.
       (And, just as an aside, Dad was born 100 years ago Saturday.)
       I will be thinking about him Sunday; Mom, too. They would have loved this.
       If you care, if you watch, enjoy the game. May the best team win. They are both winners to me. I will be alternating between Hup, Holland, Hup and U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A.  
       

Give these women a parade; they deserve it

Abby Wambach lifts the World Cup championship trophy, and joins her
U.S. teammates in celebration (photo by Elaine Thompson/Associated Press)

     I am here to praise women's soccer. I want to relish -- one more time -- the World Cup championship won by the United States women last Sunday, and how much I enjoyed it, as did a few million other Americans.
      If you have read this blog regularly, you might know that soccer was my first sports love -- back in Holland more than 60 years ago. It's still up there with baseball and then basketball ... yes, all those even more than American football.
      So watching a team I was really rooting for win the World Cup of soccer, that's only happened three times -- all by the U.S. women. Those three times match the times my favorite team of all favorite teams, the Netherlands' men's soccer team, has lost in the World Cup championship game.
      I know, and I have acknowledged this often in blog pieces, that most people here don't care about soccer -- at all. And yet, the U.S.-Japan women's final drew the biggest television audience in the U.S. for any soccer game ever, men or women.
      You know why? Because Americans absolutely love winners. If the U.S. men's national team ever wins the World Cup, it will be as big an upset -- and celebration -- as the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" Olympic gold-medal champions.
      I'm going to say this right now: As much men's soccer as I have watched all these years, I enjoyed this tournament, and the play of the U.S. women, as much as any I've seen.
      (OK, maybe I was a lot more fired up when the Dutch men play great soccer, but I don't enjoy those games as much as I agonize through them.)
      Here's what else: The quality of play in this tournament was as good as any men's World Cup I've watched. Seriously.
      The women players aren't as fast or as strong -- obviously -- but in my opinion there is no discernible difference in the skill level. The women's teams now play together so well; their passing, dribbling, crosses, corner kicks, field-position discipline and even their headers are right there with the men's game. Their all-out effort tops the men's.
      What I liked most is that these teams stayed on the attack, there wasn't all that much buildup offensively (which the men's teams love because they want to show off their quick-passing abilities), and offenses went end-to-end repeatedly.
      And, and -- take note here -- the women have only a minimum of flopping and gamesmanship and dirty play that, again my opinion, taint the men's game.
      I didn't watch a lot of the Women's World Cup, only the four games the Netherlands team played and each of the U.S. games -- six wins, one tie -- but I thought all of them were exciting ... even if at times there weren't many goals. But that, as you know, is the nature of soccer.
       So the U.S. team played one scoreless tie (with Sweden), won twice by 1-0 and twice by 2-0. But that championship game, those five goals -- five -- that routed defending champion Japan were spectacular.
       Think about this. It took Carli Lloyd only three minutes to score the game's first goal. That matched the number of goals scored by the winning team in the last two men's World Cup final. Three minutes. It took Spain 116 minutes to score its goal in the 2010 final; it took Germany 113 minutes to score its goal in the 2014 final.
        It took Lloyd only two more minutes to score her second goal. And as we all know now, the U.S. had four goals in the first 16 minutes.
        And really, in the men's or women's game, have you ever seen a more sensational goal than the one by Lloyd that made it 4-0? 
        The shot she launched from midfield, a 1-in-1,000 shot that caught the Japanese goalie far out of her goal ("off her line" in soccer parlance) was the dagger that assured it was a great day for Lloyd and the U.S. team. Sure, it was lucky, but Carli's field vision -- spotting the goalie's mistake so quickly -- was brilliant.
 ---
        There was little that was negative about this Women's World Cup, except ... FIFA.
        Soccer's ruling organization, made up mostly of rich men from around the world, is known for its 19th Century vision, rules and customs. We know -- or so all the reports and indictments say -- that its leaders are (1) subject to taking bribes and (2) making themselves very rich.
         Yeah, put those future men's World Cup finals in such popular locations as Russia and Qatar. Gee, wonder how that happened? You don't suppose there's payoffs involved?
         We also know they are sexists, male chauvinist pigs.
         They made things difficult for the women in this tournament, forcing them to play on artificial turf fields in Canada, a much-publicized, much-criticized move. Much tougher on players' legs, much more susceptible to players being injured.
         No way -- no way -- the men's teams would be forced to play on artificial turf. They would revolt before that happened; they'd absolutely refuse to play. 
         But that's not even the most appalling disregard for women. Just follow the money.
         The men's World Cup champion, Germany, received $35 million for its soccer federation from the 2014 tournament in Brazil. The U.S. Soccer Federation, and the women, receive $2 million for this championship. Let's see, $35 million and $2 million. Yeah, that's fair.
          Certainly the TV rights for the men's tournament generate a great deal more revenue for FIFA than the women's tournament. But couldn't the FIFA people be a little more generous, a little more even-minded?
           At least, we know our World Champions received a first for a women's team -- a ticker-tape parade down New York City's famed "Canyon of Heroes." That was a wonderful and fitting tribute Friday.
          FIFA could pay New York City's expenses -- and the team -- for that parade, don't you think? I'd say $33 million would do it.  Heck, that's probably as much as FIFA's top officials made in their (hush, hush) deal making. 
         What soccer needs is equality. My solution: Put women in charge of FIFA. I nominate Abby Wambach, Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd, Christie Rampone, Alex Morgan, Kelley O'Hara, Lauren Holiday, Tobin Heath, even Hope Solo. Give all 23 U.S. players a spot on the FIFA board.
          They know how to get things done the right way. They are winners, and they were fun to watch.      
      

The Oranje: Hup, Holland, Hup

Robin Van Persie: The Netherlands' world-class scorer ...
our biggest World Cup hope (photo from www.sbnation.com)

   It is my ultimate sports dream: The Netherlands as the world champion of soccer.
   It could happen in the next month. Not likely to, but when the Oranje plays, you never know. We've been so close before ... three times.
   The 2014 World Cup begins Thursday in Brazil, Friday for my team. And it will be a heckuva opening challenge: A rematch with mighty Spain, a rematch of the 2010 championship game that Spain -- deservedly but also luckily -- won 1-0 in overtime, with the goal in the 114th of 120 minutes of play.
     Another heartbreak for the Dutch. We've been there before.
     Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a passionate fan of the Yankees, LSU, Louisiana Tech, the Cowboys (when I can stand it), but above all, The Netherlands' national soccer team.
     That's my first love, that's the team I've rooted for since I was 5 years old in my native Amsterdam. That's my home country team.
     I love the traditional uniform -- bright orange shirts, white shorts, orange socks. I love the fight song, Hup Holland Hup; I've known the words since I first heard them, repeatedly, listening to games on the radio; I know the national anthem, Wilhelmus.
     I know that my dad loved all this, too. He learned to love American sports, but like me, soccer is what he knew first and knew best.
     If you know anything about soccer -- or care -- you know that The Netherlands, despite being one of the smallest countries geographically and population-wise in the soccer world, has been one of the great powers for 40 years. The Dutch teams are always respected.
---
     Don't mistake this: I certainly will be pulling for the United States team in this World Cup because I am proud American citizen. But in soccer, in voetbal, Holland has a much greater chance to succeed than the U.S. History tells us that.
     The Americans, to be frank, will be challenged to win one game in the "group of death." The Netherlands' draw, aside from Spain, appears easier. 
    But  this Dutch team doesn't appear to be nearly as strong as four years ago. The 2010 team was a bit of a surprise, but it kept improving and kept fighting, and kept thrilling the millions of fans back home.
    And thrilling one Fort Worth resident who could not have been prouder. I am still as big a fan of Dutch teams and athletes as I was 60 years ago.
    I figure that if our soccer team can perform as well as the Dutch speed skaters did in this year's Winter Olympics, we will be world champions.
    Those who saw my Facebook posts -- those who cared -- on the Olympics early this year saw the repeated photos and celebratory notes. Holland dominated long-track speed skating -- it won 23 of the 36 total medals, eight of the 12 gold medals.
    It meant something to me because my first sports hero was a Dutch speed skater, Kees Broekman, winner of two silver medals in the 1952 Winter Olympics.
     As proud as we were of those speed skaters, as I told several friends during the Winter Olympics, I'd still rather see Holland win the world championship of soccer.
---         
     The rise of the Dutch soccer empire is remarkable, really, considering how weak the country's status in the sport was when I was a little boy there. Until 1954, there were no professional clubs there; the top clubs were semipro at best.
     But the evolution of the pro clubs there, the amount of money spent on player development and eventually the money paid to players, paid off with the kids born in my generation, the baby boomers.
      By the early 1970s they made up the famed "Clockwork Orange" teams, known for their "total football" approach, players who could attack and defend and play with discipline all over the field, known for their precision short-passing game, a quick-striking offense and rugged defensive style.  
      (Soccer, many American friends have told me, is boring. It can be. It also can be ugly with shoddy officiating, too much complaining, too many intentional fouls, and no sports' players are better at "flopping," faking spills or exaggerating the extent of injuries. That's a disgusting part of the game. Holland's teams and games, though, aren't often boring.)
      In 1974 and 1978, the Dutch -- never before a factor in World Cup play -- reached the championship games, only to lose to the host country -- West Germany (2-1) and then Argentina (3-1 in overtime).
      Look, I'm not into alibis. But we had the best team in 1974 -- no one will convince me otherwise -- and we dominated most of the final game, but the West Germans held tough. The Dutch effort in the final at Argentina, before a totally crazy partisan crowd, was just as great. There are times when it's not meant to be.
        Like the Yankees' World Series champions of 1977-78, those Dutch players were my guys, all about my age, Johan Cruyff, considered the greatest Dutch soccer player ever (although Abe Lenstra was the hero of my boyhood and is a legend), was born 1 1/2 months before I was in Amsterdam.
        Holland's greatest soccer success was the 1988 European Championship -- a wonderful team led by the exciting Ruud Gullit, Marco Van Basten, Ronald Koeman, Frank Rijkaard and goalie Hans van Breukelen.
        That team should have fared better in the 1990 World Cup, but lost to the eventual champion West Germans; the 1994 team lost to eventual champion Brazil in a thrilling game in Dallas -- Dad and I got to see two group-stage games in Orlando, with Dad thrilled to have a seat right behind the Dutch bench for one game. The 1998 team, led by the brilliant Dennis Bergkamp, reached the semifinals and lost a penalty-kick shootout to Brazil.
        So close so many times, so many difficult losses.
---
        The Dutch teams, good as they have been at times, always have had a reputation for in-fighting, dissension, difficulty with coaches and management, and at times, rough play.
        But the 2010 team was a wonderfully tight-knit team that made big plays, scored big goals game after game. The 2-1 quarterfinal victory over old nemesis Brazil, a comeback from a 1-0 halftime deficit, was one of the greatest Dutch victories.
         Yes, the final against a skilled, superb Spanish team was a brutal, at times violent, outing. It was hard to watch our players resort to that, but they figured that was the only way it could stay in the game.   

The Dutch fans are known for their passion, and
their zaniness (photo from worldblog.nbcnews.com)

        We had one great chance to win it. Arjen Robben -- our speedy dribbling demon and longtime threat -- had a breakaway and the Spanish goalie got lucky, stuck out a foot and barely deflected the ball away before Robben could lift it over and past him.
         Robben is one of only six players from that squad on this year's Netherlands team. Louis Van Gaal, in his two years, as the team's coach -- he's headed to the world's most famous team, Manchester United, after this tournament -- has upended the roster and has a young, internationally inexperienced nucleus.
       Two other returning stars are Robin Van Persie, a world-class scorer and our biggest hope, and Wesley Sneijder, a little midfielder who was a giant in 2010. But both of them, I read, are dealing with leg issues. (We're without three would-be starters who are injured.)
          A memorable aspect of the 2010 journey was the aftermath. The Dutch team flew home from South Africa to heroes' welcome -- a meeting and photo op with the queen, a boat parade through the canals of Amsterdam and then a joyous celebration at the city's museum plaza with hundreds of thousands of fans, almost all wearing orange.
          The team was welcomed like champions, and deservedly so.
         And the fans ... Holland's fans, for most any sport, are known for their passion, their orange, and their fun-loving, zany ways. Frankly, collectively, they're nuts. I think LSU fans have the same type reputation. Throw in arrogance, and you have the Yankees' fans.
          As the Dutch players, and the fans, sang and danced in 2010, an announcer asked Robben -- the would-be hero -- how he felt.
           "This is unbelievable," he told the crowd. "... Spain might be the world champions, but we have the best fans in the whole world."
         I agree, and I am one of them, and proud of it.