What a Welcome For the Most Unsporting Team

[ladyDeWint]

Hundreds of thousands of fans took to the streets and canals of Amsterdam today to celebrate the Dutch football team’s second place in the World Cup.

The players waved at fans, swigged beer and blew vuvuzelas aboard an open-top boat as it weaved its way through Amsterdam’s network of canals.

Scores of boats packed with dancing revellers followed the official flotilla, cheering the team as it passed


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[valk]

Whatever floats their boat.

[ladyDeWint]

What ever floats their boat seems to be to celebrate a team who tried to kick the opposition out of the match........that's something to celebrate.

[tabbynera]

I didn't find they played more unsporting than other teams, and if they got to the final, I thought they must have been better than others. But perhaps I missed something. I am sure someone can enlighten me.

[ladyDeWint]

Tabby I'm amazed that anyone could have watched the final and found the Dutch teams behaviour acceptable, but perhaps a real Dutch football hero said it better.

Holland legend Johan Cruyff has launched a scathing attack on the Dutch team's performance, slamming their 'dirty' tactics and their style of 'anti-football'.

Cruyff, at the heart of the Holland team that earned a reputation of playing 'Total Football' in the 1970s, admits it saddened him to witness the Dutch thuggery.

'Sadly, they played very dirty,' said Cruyff. 'So much so that they should have been down to nine immediately, then they made two (such) ugly and hard tackles that even I felt the damage.

'Holland chose an ugly path to aim for the title. This ugly, vulgar, hard, hermetic, hardly eye-catching, hardly football style, yes it served the Dutch to unsettle Spain. If with this they got satisfaction, fine, but they ended up losing. They were playing anti-football.'

Cruyff has also joined in the criticism of referee Howard Webb - but only because he believed the official should have been even firmer and sent off Nigel de Jong for his karate kick to the chest of Xabi Alonso as well as handing a second booking to Arjen Robben for kicking the ball away.

The 63-year-old added: 'What you cannot do is create your own sense of justice and, even worse, invent a very personal application of the rules.

'Not only did he not send off two Dutchmen (including Robben who deserved the second yellow) but he also looked the other way at times when he should have involved himself.'

[tabbynera]

Yes indeed, if I had seen the complete final then I would probably have known a bit more, but things happened to come in between. That is why I asked. Cruyff, who has a strong reputation for favouring fair football, seem to have criticised the Dutch team, before they even played in the final and the ref should have been a bit more strict with the players it seems. Good job that the Spanish won, at least the fairer team won.