Gullit: I want to see Holland win ugly
08 02 10 From ESPN:The World Cup final defeat of 1974 still provides a searing pain in the heart of Dutch football. It was the day that Rinus Michels' 'total football' philosophy, spearheaded by the talismanic Johann Cruyff, was defeated by a ruthless Germany team and the poaching instinct of the prolific Gerd Muller. "The best team never to win the World Cup" is a label often handed to that Netherlands side, but rather than inspiring future success, the defeat seemed to strike a blow to the Dutch psyche - the reverberations of which can still be seen today.
Dutch legend Ruud Gullit, who scored the opener in the 1988 European Championship final triumph against the USSR and also coined the phrase "sexy football", believes that to make an impact in South Africa, the Netherlands may have to sacrifice style for substance and abandon their traditional 'total football' approach. "I have my doubts about whether Holland can win it, simply because we need to play well in all the games," he said. "The opposition seem to have sussed us out at the last few tournaments, which makes it difficult to play our game, but I hope we will do well. There is a great possibility to get through our group but it's going to be hard. I always hope that, when we get through our group, we can win games ugly - that would be a turning point."
Bert van Marwijk is the man charged with leading the Netherlands to their first World Cup triumph this summer after taking over from Van Basten following another Dutch anti-climax at Euro 2008. Having masterminded a perfect qualifying campaign - the Dutch won all eight games, scoring 17 goals and conceding just three - expectation in the Netherlands has again reached fever pitch. "The Netherlands national team job is one of the hardest in football - everybody thinks they are a coach and everybody knows better than you. There is a lot of pressure to play football in a certain way and sometimes it's difficult to play that sort of football all the time and win."
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