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World Cup not so bright for absent Oranje

The Dutch reached the semifinals at France 98 but lost on penalties to Brazil.

By CNN's Simon Hooper

With a squad packed full of superstars, the Netherlands should be flying out to the Far East in May as one of the leading contenders to bring home the World Cup.

But the only flights players such as Manchester United's Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Juventus' Edgar Davids and Barcelona's Patrick Kluivert will be boarding this summer will be taking them away on holiday.

The Dutch World Cup dream ended last September when the national side slumped to a 1-0 defeat against 10-man Ireland in Dublin to finish third in their qualifying group behind Portugal and the Irish.

Even by Oranje standards it was a crushing disappointment. Dutch supporters are used to failure but normally at the later stages of a tournament.

Twice a beaten World Cup finalist during the 1970s, the Dutch only missed out on a place in the final in France in 1998 on penalties after an enthralling semifinal with Brazil.

Victory at the 2000 European Championship, played on home soil, would have been some consolation but the Dutch froze again in a semifinal shootout defeat to Italy.

Enormously disappointed

"People are enormously disappointed because if there's one country that really expected to be going and has a high opinion of its own qualities it's Holland," said football writer Simon Kuper, speaking to CNN.

"I definitely think it's the players fault," Chelsea's Dutch striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink told CNN. "If you can't win your home games and some away games then you don't deserve to go to the World Cup."

But Kuper believes the Dutch players have been motivationally damaged by past failures.

"Football fans tend to think that everyone dreams about the World Cup and I think you do until you've played one," he said.

"But it's hard for a footballer. You've had a long season and you're in a camp for four or five weeks. You get on each other's nerves, you should be on holiday and your wife's not there.

"And then you get knocked out on penalties and it's an enormous anti-climax. It happens every time and I think subconsciously they didn't want to do it again. They realised France was their best shot. It wasn't going to get any better, and the hunger had gone."

Football writer Rutger Slagter also claims the Dutch may have lacked the same desire as their rivals in qualifying.

"In the game against Ireland, the Irish -- to use a Dutch expression -- looked like they wanted to eat the pitch," he told CNN.

Winning mentality

"The Dutch don't have a winning mentality. They were leading 2-0 against Portugal with 10 minutes to play. Any other team would have kicked it out of the stadium but they tried to score a third goal and gave it away. That wasn't very clever.

"But in qualifying the Netherlands has always left it late and they thought it would work out. They'd forgotten it was possible to fail."

"It's partly due to the overload on modern players," explained Kuper. "All the Dutch are playing in the Champions League or in top European leagues. So it's last week Barcelona, this week Dublin, next week Milan. It's just not that exciting."

But excitement will be in short supply for Dutch fans as well when the World Cup gets underway in Japan and South Korea on 30 May.

While the tournament will be without some of football's most colourful and enthusiastic supporters, the Dutch absence will also be felt back home.

"Dutch people tend to be down to earth except when the national team are playing, in any sport. Then everything is orange," said Slagter.

"I think shops, bars and restaurants are going to notice when the tournament starts. It's going to be a quiet summer. There's not the same feeling in the build-up. The excitement and anticipation is missing."

Kuper though believes Dutch fans will still tune in to follow the action.

"I remember World Cups in 1982 and 1986 when we weren't there and we'd support Belgium or Denmark," says Kuper. "They had some players who played in Holland and they were a bit like the Dutch."

"If you're a little older you can remember that Holland being at the World Cup can't be taken for granted. We were there in 1974 and 1978 and then not again until 1990. And before 1974 there was nothing.

"Maybe it's just too small a country to support constantly good generations of players. The annoying thing is that we do have a good generation at the moment.

"But missing the World Cup has helped because now you're more fired up to make the next one."

Slatger also picks Belgium and Denmark as the likeliest recipients of surrogate Dutch support.

"There are a few Danish and Belgian players in Holland and it's good for Dutch football if they do well.

"In the south of the country people will support Belgium as there are close ties, but -- speaking for myself -- it won't be the Belgians. They've rubbed it in already."