Pondering the Past

This story has been around for a very long time… i know that vanbasten himself was asked about it by the sportsjournalist Hugo Borst in ‘95 (have it on tape), when Borst asks vanbasten about Italy ‘90 and why it was such a f#ck-up he said; never mind, lets not talk about it again…

i know very little about this story but it has been said that the main problem was that Don Leo made Gullit his captain (he was injured for a long time prior to the WC) and not Rijkaard or vanBasten…
theres also this story that Don Leo was a little bit of a racist who told people how difficult it was to learn anything to a black (Surinam) player…

but on a serious note: i think we may had our best shot at WC glory since ‘74 (we could never win in 78,or at least not without the whole team being killed in Argentinia)
what a great team we had back than: Gullit, rijkaard,Koeman,vanbasten,Wouters, vanBreukelen,vanTiggelen,vanAerle,E.Koeman etc.etc.)

BUT: ofcourse the one positive thing about the 90 WC was Rijkaard spitting on Voeller!!! GREAT!!!

grtz

Posted from  Netherlands

Don Leo sure did a lot down the Caribean way with Trinidad and Tobago. I was reading a soccer book published in ‘78 and the author talks about blacks reflexes. Some of the older generation maybe should not be faulted for saying some things, where they are not intending to be racist; it just looks that way. My Xmas present is I’ll be reading Brilliant Orange that book, to get this back on topic. Too, I can’t help that spit may have lost Holland the game in the overall view of things.

Posted from  United States

world cup 98 was our last real chance… the positve event in that was bergkamp’s goal…

Posted from  Canada

Something completely different that I’m trying to find out which is also kind of ‘pondering the past’ (I discovered your website while googling something else World Cup related – and you seem to be an expert so perhaps might know).

One of the things I always love about the competition is all the great WK-related advertisements that companies make and broadcast before and while its being held. Some of them are truly brilliant. Is there any place you know where you can access them online?

I’d especially like to see that one again from, oh, about 10 years back it must have been, where you see Orange and Germany (who is playing really dirty) in the final, with the ref ignoring obvious Germany fouls, but passing out red cards to innocent Dutch players, some of whom are also getting injured and carried off the field. Then, all of a sudden, older brilliant players from the ‘70s (maybe even the ‘60s) start standing up one by one in the auditorium, ripping their shirts open (under which they’re wearing an Orange kit), and determinedly walk on to the field in a menacing way. Then you suddenly see it’s all been a dream of Guus Hiddink (who was coach then).

I believe it was from Nationale Nederland and, silly as it sounds, get all misty-eyed just thinking about it. Any tips where I could find it? I can’t even locate it on YouTube. Though I may not be using the right search terms.

Posted from  Netherlands

@Stam; one of my best oranje memories..i remember when he scored and i was watching with 10 friends all of us jumped on one another, one of my friends caught me with his knee in a very dear bodypart of mine..but i was so excited the pain setled in 10 minutes later (but i didnt really care!),

but my best memory has to be 88 when we beat Germany in their own home and i lived in Germany at that time, my father worked for a german company and he hung a big dutch flag in the hallway so all the germans had to get on their knees to go past this flag!! The only bad thing was when all us dutch had a party when we won (dutch military personel during cold war) we had 3 different bomb treats (from germans and an english guy!) so no real party…but nobody cared ofcourse..

lets hear your best oraje memorie???!!

grtz

Posted from  Netherlands

I have two. Connected with EC88. My wife worked for the AD newspaper and had tickets for the German game in Hamburg. She called me around 11am: do you want to go? So I picked her up, took the day off off course, and drove to Hamburg. We saw the game live and when we left the stadium, we bumped into a sports reporter from the AD and he invited us to this party. It appeared to be the party of the Dutch team in their hotel. I spent time there with Richard Witschge – only an Ajax teenager talent – Gullit, Muhren and van Basten. That was really good!

Posted from  Australia

Then we wanted to see the finals in Munich, but my wife couldn’t get tickets for that game. So we just drove off to Munich and expected to be able to buy tickets in the city. Well, 1000s of others were there and they wanted extremely high prices for average tickets. So we decided to go to a pub somewhere and watch telly. Then, in some side-street, we passed to German middle aged men, who were openly discussing the fact that they didn’t feel like going coz Germany wasn’t in the finals. I approached them and they sold us their tickets for the official price!!! They were “good”germans . I was right behind the goal where Marco van Basten scored that wonder-goal! I wish he could be our team manager… Oh…hang on….

Posted from  Australia

I will always remember 98. Orange had the world in awe and gained many fans throughout. Sometimes I have to remind myself we did not win the WC that year.

Posted from  Canada