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"1974 was actually very painful to us all," says Dutch psychoanalyst Anna Enquist. "We can't admit to ourselves that something can be so important. But it matters very much. There is still a deep, unresolved trauma about 1974. It's a very living pain, like an unresolved crime."
En Vincent zag het koren
En Einstein het getal
En Zeppelin de Zeppelin
En Johan zag de bal(And Vincent saw the corn
And Einstein the number
And Zeppelin the Zeppelin
And Johan saw the ball)
--Dutch cabaret song
The intellectualisation of football has always foundered on a simple problem--the players. Doing all your most rewarding thinking with your feet seems to dull the philosophical impulse. Unless, of course, you are Dutch. According to legend, Europeans played a moronic, muscular version of the world's game, until Holland proclaimed its vision of total football in the 1974 World Cup, and enlightenment dawned.
In Brilliant Orange--the neurotic genius of Dutch football, journalist David Winner explores his personal fascination with the land that gave the world Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Johan Cruyff--searching for reasons why such a tiny country has produced some of football's most intelligent, enigmatic and unfulfilled teams.
Winter talks with the players, past and present--including Johnny Rep and Ruud Krol from the losing World Cup Final sides of 1974 and 1978--uncovering their personal experience of the public triumphs and disasters. But it is the breadth of his enquiry into what it may mean to be Dutch--reconciling a colonial past with a multi-cultural present; living with the memories of wartime occupation and collaboration; the tensions between a fiercely individualistic, libertarian spirit and the principles of communality--that makes this such an extraordinary and wonderful book. --Alex Hankin -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
The book also covers some of the more recent vintages of Ajax and the Dutch national team in the same way. This shows not only a continuity of cultural thought, but also helps to deal with situations that occurred after the early '70's, such as the influx of other ethnicities into the soccer teams, and the accompanying problems this brought.
"Brilliant Orange" is essential reading for all those who love Dutch soccer. But it will also be entertaining and insightful for anyone interested in the way cultural thought manifests itself in specific areas of life.
The book also covers some of the more recent vintages of Ajax and the Dutch national team in the same way. This shows not only a continuity of cultural thought, but also helps to deal with situations that occurred after the early '70's, such as the influx of other ethnicities into the soccer teams, and the accompanying problems this brought.
"Brilliant Orange" is essential reading for all those who love Dutch soccer. But it will also be entertaining and insightful for anyone interested in the way cultural thought manifests itself in specific areas of life.
Just as the Beatles and the Swinging 60s marked a turning point in Britain, so the new spirit in soccer marked a cultural watershed in the Netherlands. A key figure of those heady days was the prodigiously gifted and outspoken Johann Cruyff, cited by the author as probably the most important and best-known Dutch person alive. Here was a player of such intelligence and physical skill that even ballet superstar Rudolph Nureyev watched him in fascination.
David Winner has doggedly researched his subject, meeting and interviewing many of the key figures. They speak with a distinctive voice and overall the writing evokes a strong sense of place, people and events - not least the (self) defeat of the Dutch in the 1974 World Cup final against Germany. "How come you understand our country so well?" a Dutchman asked me after I shared some of the book's insights with him.
This is an outstanding read for anyone interested in soccer, anyone who has Dutch friends or has ever been to the Netherlands or ever intends to go there. Not to mention anyone who is interested in the importance of sport in the life of societies and nations.
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