In the hot summer of 2010 the Dutch national football team played a World Cup Final for the third time in history. After previous disappointments against Germany (1974) and Argentina (1978), it was Spain that snatched the Holy Grail from the Dutch in South Africa. The men of Coach Bert van Marwijk’s elite squad will have to wait at least another three years for another chance to win the most prestigious football title in the world. That’s, of course, assuming that ‘Oranje’, as the team is fondly known due to the colour of the players’ uniforms, qualifies again for the world’s largest sports event.

But thankfully Holland’s been quite lucky with its draw for the 20th edition of this tournament. There are nine European groups that will fight for direct qualification, and Holland will have to deal with five other countries: Turkey, Hungary, Romania, Estonia and Andorra. Without a doubt, Turkey is the toughest opponent. Coincidentally, the team is coached by Dutch football guru Guus Hiddink, but it has been under-achieving for years. The cheers of their fanatical supporters do, however, regularly bring Ay-Yıldızlılar (Turkish for ‘the moon stars’ which refers to the white moon and star on the Turkish flag) to a higher level.

Hungary has by now become pretty familiar to ‘A Clockwork Orange’, Holland’s nickname which is both a reference to the classic novel and film as well as to the ingenious concept of total football practiced by the Dutch in the 1970s. In the qualifying campaign for the European Championship in 2012 in Ukraine and Poland, the guys in orange pulverized the Magyars, resulting in a final score of 9 - 3. In earlier qualifying rounds Romania has never been a problem for the Dutch. Since the 1924 Olympics Romania has only managed to beat Holland once during 11 encounters.

And although Estonia can be scrappy at times they definitely shouldn’t be a major obstacle to the runner-up world champions. The beautiful women in the capital Tallinn might be more of a challenge for the Dutch stars. After all, the players of the Dutch national team are known to enjoy the attractions of the female sex. In 1974 Holland lost its chance to win the title when, a day before the final, the German tabloid Das Bild published photographs of the Dutch players in a swimming pool surrounded by a number of salacious women. Subsequently the whole night was marked by marital discord which obviously affected the players’ concentration on the pitch the next day.  And history repeated itself recently when defender John Heitinga and the normally well-behaved forward Dirk Kuyt were photographed in a Brazilian night club after an international match with a horde of attractive local ladies. National coach Van Marwijk managed to nip this scandal in the bud, however, as he guards his players like a true matador.

Finally, the men in orange don’t seem to be troubled by the tiny mountainous principality of Andorra stuck between France and Spain. It appears, therefore, that Holland should qualify quite easily for the World Cup. As we go to print, the qualifying rounds for the 2012 European Championship in Poland and Ukraine will be nearly finished. So far Holland has managed to achieve a 100% score in Group E, with Sweden, Moldova, Finland, San Marino and Hungary as opponents. The team that finishes first in this group will qualify directly for the tournament. Oranje’s objective is clear. Coach Van Marwijk wants to follow in the footsteps of the legendary trainer Rinus Michels, who led the country to its largest football achievement in its history back in 1988 when it beat the Soviet Union 2 – 0 to win the European title.

Ajax
At home Ajax won the national title for the 13th time in their history last season in a thrilling, suspenseful conclusion worthy of an Alfred Hitchcock film. In a direct title fight the team from Amsterdam were too strong for FC Twente on the last day of play, which meant that they could have a third star sown onto their jerseys, a symbol of their achievement. FC Twente, a provincial club from Enschede (a former textile producing town in the east of Holland) has managed to keep company with the traditional powers PSV (Eindhoven) and Feyenoord (Rotterdam). In fact, Twente surprisingly won the national title two years ago.

This season both favourites (Ajax and FC Twente) have made a good start again, so there’s a good chance that one of these two teams  will become the 2011/2012 champions. Although the Dutch league is sometimes mockingly called Europe’s Mickey Mouse league, there are few football divisions in on the continent with more attractive, attacking football than Holland’s. Unfortunately, the continuing international economic crisis has left its trace on the two professional Dutch football leagues as well. In the last few years two clubs have disappeared completely from professional football (Haarlem and RBC Roosendaal) and only five teams out of the current 36 professional clubs are financially healthy: Go Ahead Eagles (Deventer), MVV Maastricht, Telstar (Velsen), FC Twente (Enschede) and FC Volendam. At least 13 teams have been labelled ‘unsatisfactory’ by the Dutch FA, the KNVB. These clubs have now been put under legal restraints and must account for all of their expenses. It appears, however, that the worst is already over as most have already trimmed their budgets.

Supporters haven’t lost faith in their heroes either, because just like last year, nearly 300,000 loyal followers have bought season tickets for their favourite clubs in the Eredivisie, the premiere division of the Dutch football league. Ajax (40,500), PSV (28,500) and Feyenoord (28,000) have the biggest stadiums and therefore draw the largest crowds. If you’d like to watch a match in Holland, it will prove a lot easier to get tickets for a match in the First Division. These are seldom sold out and some of the stadiums are time capsules full of nostalgia like SC Veendam’s De Lange Leegte and Telstar’s sports park Schoonenberg, which is called the Tata Steel Stadium these days. If you’re looking for atmosphere, the provincial clubs NAC (Breda), FC Utrecht and ADO Den Haag are a good choice, because these clubs create a party atmosphere at every home game. These days there’s no longer any need to fear the presence of hooligans. Many stadiums are now modern facilities with state-of-the-art security, so violent incidents are now very rare at football matches.