Philip Cornwall believes England could learn a lot from Holland in light of their contrasting fortunes.
As the Dutch prepare for Tuesday night's World Cup semi-final against Uruguay, Philip Cornwall reflects on how England could learn plenty from their Dutch counterparts
It seems a very long time ago now, but England's season started last August in Amsterdam against a Holland side who now contest a World Cup semi-final. Go back 11 months and there really was not too much between the sides.
England had won seven out of seven of their qualifiers; Holland had also won seven out of seven and, because their notional pursuers had dropped so many points in a five-team group, had already qualified. It was a celebration of success for the home fans, but we were happy, too, and all paid warm tribute to a figure venerated in both countries: Robert William Robson, 18 February 1933 - 31 July 2009, someone who knew a little bit about World Cup semi-finals.
Fabio Capello's side survived conceding through two embarrassing individual errors, by Rio Ferdinand and Gareth Barry, to come away from the Amsterdam ArenA with a deserved 2-2 draw. At the time I linked the blunders to those the previous season in Berlin and at home to Kazakhstan and not the smallest part of the England story under Capello has been the propensity for such errors.
Present, too, despite the Italian's efforts was wastefulness with the ball. I wrote: "Holland were at their most dangerous when England were in possession, and for Fabio Capello it was an unnecessary reminder of the failing he has been seeking to address all along: the difficulty England players have in passing the ball to each other." What we saw in South Africa from England was nothing new.
The Dutch complaint and the complaint about the Dutch is that we are seeing something new from Holland under Bert van Marwijk: a steely concentration on victory at the expense of imagination has drawn criticism from abroad and at home (though perhaps less so in the latter case since the win against Brazil).
It is part of the curse of Dutch nostalgia and nostalgia for the Dutch that their challengers for the title of the world's best team fell just short in 1974, while Brazil's side of four years earlier - whose survivors were put to shame by Holland - lifted the ultimate prize in the ultimate manner.
It took another 14 years, including losing the Argentina '78 final against the host nation but also missing out on two World Cups and the Euro '84 tournament, before the Dutch did lift a trophy. The 2-1 semi-final win against hosts West Germany at Euro 88 was some measure of revenge for 1974, the 2-0 victory over the Soviet Union in the final long overdue vindication.
But tournaments are rarely straightforward. Holland had lost their opening meeting with the USSR and, despite dispatching England, and it took a deflected Wim Kieft goal eight minutes from time to beat Packy Bonner and deny his Republic of Ireland side a semi-final place.
Without that Marco van Basten would never have struck his famous volley, Ruud Gullit would never have lifted the trophy. There is a tendency in football history to see an inevitability about a team's victories, to forget the struggles and remember the triumphal progress. It is a form of amnesia that Van Marwijk has guarded against, at least ensuring at the group stage that knowing how to win ugly meant no Kieft deflection was necessary.
Sound technique matched with less risk-taking did not make Holland immune to England in August or to Brazil in the quarter-finals. There are no guarantees going into the meeting with Uruguay. But as a tactical starting point it can offer a solid base, and the talents of Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, Robin van Persie et al offer a way out if inspiration is required.
I am struggling to imagine Andre Ooijer as a World Cup winner and some of Van Marwijk's solid selections - Mark van Bommel, Dirk Kuyt - would look out of place in the Dutch sides of the past, but the potential rewards of not taking the risks are great.
Capello, as he analyses where things went wrong in the last 11 months, could certainly do worse than look for some technically sound toilers.
