I remember an interview with MvB after the 88 win, he said – Yeah it’s great, but tomorrow is another day-off to the supermarket, shopping and live another day.” That just about sums up our mentality – Wine or Lose.

As for the actual issue: I think the problem is caused and should be solved at youth level.

It’s remarkable how, if you look at the statistics of 40 years Dutch football, there are three types of successful players:

1 the ones with incredible talent and a very strong mentality (Cruyff, Van Basten, Rijkaard, F. De Boer, Sneijder) who succeed through the big clubs’ youth system

2.the ones with incredible talent but lacking mental strength who are sent away from their club and have to fight their way back to the top (Van der Vaart, Engelaar, Van Persie, R. de Boer, Nigel de Jong, Huntelaar)

3. the ones who aren’t really recognized as talens and slowly make their way to the top, mostly based on their mentality (Wouters, Stam, Bogarde, Van Nistelrooy)

The problem at youth level is that most players of Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV are spoiled rotten at those clubs. They’re picked up and dropped of for training sessions, their kits and shoes are awaiting them, there’s nice meals, educational support and last but not least: there’s admiration, attention and lots of praise. Players like Van der Vaart, Van Persie…when they were young (15, 16, 17 years old) they were told they were young Gods.
And they didn’t bump into a lot of resistance at that level either. Ajax, Feyenoord or PSV will also win most titles at youth level. These youngsters don’t know how to fight.

Van Persie was King in Feyenoord’s youth team and when he moved on to the big boys, he had to deal with Van Hooijdonk, Van Wonderen, Bosvelt and co. who didn’t take any crap from loudmouths like Van Persie…

In Italy, they don’t have youth competitions like in Holland and when you’re a young and talented player, the big clubs loan you out to the Serie B or Serie C team somewhere in Sicily or Umbria and you have to fight every week just to keep your legs in one place… That builds character…

Thanks for your reply, Jan – it helps to know. Unfortunately, it seems that we really need to boost our national spirit, honestly. See, the Dutch – a country of Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Cruijff, Michels MUST be proud of itself, – there is no other way. Per capita mega talents in the Netherlands would perhaps be one of the highest on earth; this is the reason to feel pride in every cell of ones body and spirit! Of course, we should not go and beat up the Russians after dfeat, – I am not suggesting that, not at all, – but why can’t we make a huge deal of the fact that WE had been defeated. Raf says: “life moves on, there are worse things in life”. Thanks, Raf for reminding, we are not stupid, we know life is tough. But if you ADD UP all the “small” pains you caused to your fans all over the world, – this will be a heck of a pain you know. Losing a game by itself is not necessarily bad, but giving up and being scared (as if not 11 Russians, but 65 Peles and Maradonas are against you) and taking it so easy is! I know now that we have some attitude issues, thanks Jan for your great clarifications. I just want to say that maybe we should try to develop some attitude, you know. Otherwise, we will keep losing which is no good. I remember a couple of years ago when I was in the U.S. I played soccer with friends, persistently wearing an orange T-shirt and people used to tease me. Especially when I publicly stated that I believe Holland will win WC2006. It hurts, you know. We have little respect. If we were an ordinary nation with lousy people, that would have been OK. But we are not! (I am no Dutch buy I say “we” b/c I feel the unity with you guys). Look, we are a tiny country but so many things to be proud of. I recall we were playing soccer one day (just a street game) and an American pretty ordinary goalkeeper (maybe playing soccer second time in his life) conceded the goal from my teammate. A minute later I was on the attack, and I accepted the ball and was almost sure I would score, but the keeper in a split-second appeared in front of me remarkably kicking the ball of my feet and yelling: “I ain’t gonna concede the second one in a row!” Can’t we be like this? Can’t the Dutch soccer academy help to develop some winner’s attitude while developing future Rafs or Robbens? This is a public issue; we should do something about it. Here is my suggestion: we seriously need to think about inviting on board the national team a professional PSYCHOLOGIST, really. And maybe make this issue a public one,- good luck with that. Thanks.

Ronald de Boer recently said in an interview that the Dutch lack the hunger. We’ve never been a “fighting nation”, we were always trading. That means a lot of empatic skills, communication, negotiating… We’re talkers, more than do-ers. I remember that Van Gaal in his golden Ajax-days repeatedly would blame the grass pitch for a defeat or a bad performance. We always look for someone or something else to blame if things don’t go our way. We find it hard to put up a fight. When the US declared war on Iraq we said: we won’t fight with you, but once you’ve won, can we then send our companies to do some restoration work and make some money, please?

I don’t know, it’s not in our nature. We prefer a full back looking for the “football solution” when he is in trouble, while English or Italian full backs will shoot the ball in the stands.

Other comments? Fellows?

Thank you for your message. I will do my utmost to respond to messages from fans personally. Any press, commercial or business requests will be answered by a member of my management team at Essel Sports Management.

All the best,
Rafael van der Vaart
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In response to:
LIFE GOES ON by Rafael van der Vaart (22-06-08)
It’s very disappointing indeed. Of course, the Russians have a fantastic team. And they deserve a big compliment from us.

We were terrible in the first half, though we improved a lot in the second. But looking at the numerous chances Russia had, you have to say that they always deserved to win.
It’s been a hectic week. That’s no excuse, but a lot has happened. We just should have tried even harder.
We’ve played a great tournament and we didn’t expect it to end this way. It’s a downer, but we’ve got to move on.
In terms of football, this is horrible. But we’ve seen again in the last few days that there are things that happen in life that are a whole lot worse.
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MY RESPONSE

Of course, there are many things which are MUCH worse than the latest defeat at Euro2008 [we do not need to be reminded that]. But, that defeat is the TRAGEDY as well, of course to a lesser degree than some other horrible things. If you think otherwise, you will keep making your fans “happy” all the time, like in the game against Russians. If Brasilians had lost like that, or even Germans, they would have been much unhappier and thus, more motivated to correct their mistakes. Anyway, with all due respect, once the Dutch national team learns to be tougher, keep their spirits up and not take it too easy all the time, maybe 1988 can be repeated at some point. What makes many fans angry around the world is that no one in the Dutch team had guts to stand up and sincerely apologize to the fans for all the PAIN you have caused. As if nothing happened, yeah, we lost, but it is OK, you know, we will try to be better – this is a shameful attitude, trust me.
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My favorite is the one below. It is very cleverly made as it sounds just like McLaren singing Rihanna’s Under My Umbrella. It is hilarious:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbyUDJbVgM8