Beautiful Bridesmaids Dressed in Oranje by Gary Thacker

Author:Gary Thacker [Thacker, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781785319518
Publisher: Pitch Publishing Ltd
Published: 2021-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

The tournament

Once in South America the Dutch were quickly moved on to their camp in the Andes mountains, far away from any urban centres. According to Poortvliet, it was an ideal situation, well away from distractions. ‘From the moment we arrived in Argentina, we were isolated. From the airport to our resort in the mountains. There we could eat, exercise, drink, watch TV and play cards. That was all we did for the first couple of weeks. Totally isolated.’228 Others found the camp much more difficult, though. Rep in particular had problems. ‘It was far away from home and people didn’t have the money to go. We spent three weeks in a training camp in the Andes. Nobody there. We went crazy.’229

Acknowledging the isolation felt by the group, Dr Kessel also understood it provided something of a security blanket, protecting the Dutch from a harsh reality that would become clearer much later. ‘Most of the time we didn’t know what was going on around us. We got some days’ old newspapers. You just didn’t know. You heard everything much later.’230 Four years earlier in West Germany, understanding the newspapers would have been less of an issue. Although that also had its drawbacks, Jan-Hermen de Bruijn explained. ‘In the last phase of 1974, the aggression of German press played a role. In 1978 nobody could read Spanish.’231 Given Neeskens had spent four years in Barcelona by this time, and that Rep had spent a season with Valencia, that may not have been completely accurate.

If the squad were shielded from the trauma of the country hosting them, that was less the case within the camp itself. The simmering conflict between Zwartkruis and Happel could only be kept on a low heat for so long. Eventually it was bound to warm up. Perhaps it had been Zwartkruis’s reluctance to give up his position with the military that had persuaded the KNVB that a full-time, fully committed coach was required to give the Oranje the best opportunity in Argentina, or maybe they just saw Happel as a better coach. The uneasy relationship between the two was hardly entirely satisfactory to either man but, so long as Zwartkruis was prepared to tolerate his No.2 role, there was at least the semblance of a working relationship. It wouldn’t last until the end of the tournament, however. Even before a ball had been kicked, the cracks were beginning to show.

Happel’s disclosure of the tactics the team was likely to use did not go down well with Zwartkruis. It seemed like hubris, if not mere folly, and certainly offered no advantage to the team. The growing tension was then ratcheted up when, during press conferences ahead of the opening game, Happel would state and reiterate his perceived need to expunge any ‘Cruyff Complex’ from the squad. The Austrian felt that the former captain was still casting a long shadow, and that any doubts among the players that they would be unable to perform at the highest level without him needed to be cleared from their minds.

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