*this article originally appeared in Libero Magazine Issue #1
In the 1970s, The Netherlands introduced the world to their brand of “totaalvoetbal” revolutionising the game with their fluid, ‘carousel’ style of electrifying attacking play. Domestically, this was pioneered by Ajax who won three consecutive European Cups in 1971, 1972 and 1973. The national team – led by legendary manager Rinus Michels and Ajax captain Johan Cruyff – arrived at the 1974 World Cup in West Germany as one of the most impressive footballing sides ever assembled.
The Oranje took the tournament by storm, scoring fourteen goals and conceding only one as they progressed to the final; an historic tie against bitter enemy and tournament hosts West Germany. A fierce rivalry born from World War II; The Dutch went into the Munich Olympiastadion not only expecting to win the final but expecting to win it well. The match got off to a perfect start in that regard, with the Dutch immediately testing the West German back line from kick off. After an intricate attacking move, Cruyff was brought down just inside the German 18-yard box, winning a penalty for his side after only a minute. Cruyff’s Ajax teammate Johan Neeskens converted the spot kick, and the Netherlands were a goal up before their opponents had so much as touched the ball. A desire to humiliate their opponents however, reared its face in the form of a hubris that would ultimately be the undoing of the Dutch on the day. The intelligence and pressing that Rinus Michels’ side was known for made way for showboating and concentration levels suffered, allowing the West Germans back into the game. Helmut Schön’s men were given the chance to equalise after winning a penalty of their own in the 26th minute, which Paul Breitner converted. Gerd Müller would score just before half time and West Germany would go on to win the game 2-1, wrapping up one of football’s great failures. The hosts were crowned World Champions on their home turf, and the Dutch were sent home with the sour taste of what might have been.
The Netherlands were given an opportunity to atone for this in 1978 as they fought their way to a place in the World Cup final, once again against the host nation, this time César Luis Menotti’s Argentinian side. However, The Oranje were without their talisman Cruyff, who missed the tournament amidst mysterious circumstances. Rumours varied from protesting Argentina’s military junta, to a kidnapping attempt on Cruyff and his family. Whatever the circumstances it meant that The Netherlands were missing their captain and spiritual heartbeat of the team. The final, held at River Plate’s Estadio Monumental, was a hostile, volatile affair, with Argentina eventually running out 3-1 winners after extra-time. Back-to-back World Cup Final defeats hurt the nation, condemning the Dutch to the unwanted moniker of being the best side never to have won the World Cup.
The tag of football’s great nearly-men weighed heavy on the subsequent crop of Dutch players. A poor Netherlands side was knocked out of Europa 1980 in the first round, and they subsequently failed to qualify for the following three major tournaments. The worldwide influence of Dutch totaalvoetbal was giving way and being replaced a more pragmatic style of play (exemplified by the English dominance of the Europe at club level in the late 70s into the early 80s), and the Netherlands were struggling to parse the transition. Football – ever the cyclical beast – was threatening to leave The Netherlands behind.
Rinus Michels returned to manage the national side in 1986, tempted out of retirement by the opportunity to take the Oranje to the footballing heights previously denied to them. A somewhat flattering unbeaten European qualifying campaign saw the side finish top of a group consisting of Greece, Hungary, Poland, and Cyprus. The scene was set for The Netherlands’ return to the international stage at the 1988 European Championships. A tournament to be held in - proof if proof was needed that the footballing gods own a screenwriting book or two - West Germany.
Euro ‘88 brought with it a new crop of Dutch talent for Michels to impart his philosophies onto - and what a group it was. The squad included in its ranks incumbent Ballon d’Or winner, team captain Ruud Guillit, who became the world’s most expensive player following his £6million move from PSV Eindhoven to AC Milan in 1987. Guillit was coming off the back of winning a scudetto with Milan – a first for I Rossoneri in nearly a decade. Powerful, skilful, and intelligent: Guillit was the focal point around which the Dutch Euro ’88 squad was built. The squad also boasted several European champions. Hans van Breuklen, Ronald Koeman, Barry van Aerle, and Gerald Vanenberg had just won the European Cup with PSV Eindhoven, and Erwin Koeman won a European Cup Winners Cup medal with K.V. Mechelen. This was a squad packed with undeniable pedigree.
To suggest that revenge was the main driving force for Michels and his side at Euro ’88 may be doing a disservice to the footballing acumen of one of the game’s legends, but atoning for past disappointments was certainly on the minds of the Dutch as they headed to West Germany – the site of the nation’s most glorious failure.
The Netherlands faced up against The USSR in their opening match of the tournament. In typical Dutch style, they decided to do it the hard way, as they succumbed to a 1-0 loss after a Vasyl Rats strike gave Valeiry Lobanovskyi’s side the win.
On the bench that day was Ruud Guillit’s Milan teammate, Marco van Basten. The 24-year-old striker had been tipped for big things, scoring 128 times in 133 appearances in his six-year spell at Ajax before his transfer to the Italian capital. However, a troublesome ankle injury had limited his playing time at the San Siro to just eleven league appearances in the 1987/88 season, and van Basten was included in the Dutch squad for Euro 88 as mere back up for Ajax striker John Bosman.
The Netherlands’ next game was against Bobby Robson’s England, who themselves had lost their opening game to an impressive display from Bobby Charlton’s Republic of Ireland – making the tie a must-win for both sides. Concerned about a lack of attacking flair in the opening game, Michels elected to take a gamble, starting van Basten despite his lack of fitness. The decision would go down in history.
Van Basten turned in a performance for the ages, announcing his arrival on the international stage with a hat trick of the highest quality as The Netherlands breezed to a 3-1 win, condemning a sorry England side to the plane home in the process. A masterclass in clinical finishing: van Basten scored two finely worked left-foot finishes before claiming the match ball with sweet volley from close range with his right, giving his marker – a 21 year old Tony Adams - the type of day central defenders swap horror stories about around a campfire.
The Dutch followed this up with a 1-0 over the Republic of Ireland. A Wim Kieft goal proved the difference on the day – a cleverly redirected header from a speculative Ronald Koeman volley from the outside of the box defied all known laws of gravity as it bounced at right angles confounding Pat Bonner in the Irish goal, giving The Netherlands the win and sending them through to the semi-finals of the tournament.
There was a good feeling around the Dutch camp. The Euro ‘88 side was more harmonious than Netherlands sides of previous tournaments – too often mired by clashing egos or perceived arrogance within the swuad. Michels had put together a group that perfectly encapsulated football at the time. Defensive players like Frank Rijkaard and Ronald Koeman were able to marry toughness and fight with the skilled totaalvoetbal style of possession inherent in every Dutch player’s DNA. Guillit was able to play off this and effectively run the team from his attacking-midfield position, constantly looking to look for opportunities to bring his Milan teammate van Basten into play. Rinus Michels once said of football, “it is an art in itself to compose a starting team, finding the balance between creative players and those with destructive powers, and between defence, construction and attack – never forgetting the quality of the opposition and the specific pressures of each match”. Togetherness, creativity, and grit; the Dutch were fighting for each another and fighting for their manager. What’s more, they were once again a joy to watch. The wins over England and the Republic of Ireland had provided a momentum that the Oranje were eager to build upon. This was handy, of course, as lying in wait for them was the matter of a semi-final meeting with the old enemy West Germany in Hamburg.
The hosts were favourites to lift the European Cup going into the competition, and little had taken place to change this notion since. Lothar Matthäus had been in imperious form in the engine room of the German midfield as consecutive 2-0 wins over Denmark and Spain set up a scintillating semi-final tie with the Dutch in Hamburg. The hosts were confident of a win. Not that home advantage meant much in the Volksparkstadion, as Dutch fans flocked to Hamburg, managing to vastly exceed their official ticket allocation of 7,000. The Oranje Army were out in force, eager to see their side make amends for the lingering sorrows of 1974.
The match itself was a feisty affair, with The Netherlands largely managing to out-muscle and out-brawn their opponents across the pitch. With 75 minutes gone, the game stood at 1-1, with both sides finding the net from the penalty spot (Matthäus on 54 minutes and Ronald Koeman on 75) – just as in the 1974 final.
The resolve of the Dutch would persevere where the Golden Generation of ’74 had not. On the 87th minute, Jan Wouters picks the ball up just inside the German half and - spotting the run of van Basten towards the right side of the German penalty box - slides a through ball for his striker to run on to. Van Basten – realising that the ball is just out of his reach – improvises with a moment of striking genius and hooks the ball goalward with a sliding movement, firing it across the body of German goalkeeper Eike Immel before he has a chance to set his body properly, the ball nestling in the left corner of the goal. The Volksparkstadion erupts. An outpouring of cathartic joy and fills the Hamburg air as Romanian referee Ioan Igna blows his final whistle. The players are ecstatic, having successfully expelled the demons of the 1974 final. Ronald Koeman is pictured on the field wiping his backside with German midfielder Olaf Thorn’s shirt. Back home in the Netherlands, over nine million people took to the streets in celebration – the largest congregation of people in the country since its liberation from German occupation in 1945. Inside the stadium Rinus Michels was met with a standing ovation from a gathering of 150 foreign journalists. Jan Jongbloed – goalkeeper for The Netherlands in both 1974 and 1978 – sent the victorious Dutch side a telegram that simply read: “we have been released from our suffering”.
The Dutch had beaten their most bitter of rivals and headed into the final against The USSR as a team freed from the weight of the albatross that had previously hung round their necks. Fitting then, that the final would be played at Munich’s Olympiastadion – the site of the ’74 final.
Not that the final was a foregone conclusion by any means. The USSR had reached the final themselves playing some impressive, free flowing football under Valeiry Lobanovskyi, Swatting aside Italy in the semi-final in a 2-0 win. Let’s not forget, this was a Soviet side that had already beaten The Netherlands earlier in the tournament.
That game, however, was missing one key element that The Dutch had since found – Marco van Basten – and he was about to make sure that the final, and indeed the tournament, was his own.
The opening stages of the game proved an exciting encounter, with both sides playing some neat football. The deadlock was broken on the 32-minute mark when Erwin Koeman picked up the ball on the right side of the Soviet half. His looping ball was headed back across goal by van Basten, and met by Ruud Guillit who fired a header at goal with such ferocity that Soviet goalkeeper Rinat Dasayev – one of the world’s best at the time – had no time to react as it bulleted past him into the back of the net.
This game will be remembered, however, for one of the finest and most iconic footballing moments in history. On the 54 minute mark, Dutch veteran Arnold Mühren picks the ball up on the left wing, and aims a looping, speculative ball towards the right side of box towards Marco van Basten. The cross finds van Basten on the edge of the box, in line with the Soviet six-yard line. What follows from van Basten is one of the most incredible volleys in the history of the game. Hit with more top-spin than seems possible, the ball sails back across the face of the goal, over the helpless Dasayev into the goal. Unable to comprehend what he has seen, the usually reserved Michels springs up from his technical area, mouth agape, a smile adorning his face from ear to ear. Everyone watching knows they have just witnessed history: the greatest goal ever to be scored at a major tournament.
The Dutch were able to compound the Soviet misery soon thereafter when van Breukelen saved an Igor Belanov penalty, keeping the scoreline at 2-0 and ensuring that The Netherlands were crowned Champions of Europe. Van Basten would finish the tournament as top goalscorer with five. Michels had finally led The Netherlands to the pinnacle of international football.
The Dutch side of Euro 88 remains one of the most iconic in memory. Defensive powerhouse Frank Rijkaard would join his national teammates Ruud Guillit and Marco van Basten at AC Milan, forming a Oranje spine in what would become one of the greatest club sides in history. Marco van Basten would go on to win the 1988 Ballon d’Or, with his national teammates Guillit and Ronald Koeman also making the top five.
The Dutch Euro ‘88 kit became one of the most recognisable and in-demand pieces of sportswear in history. In their book, The Fabric of Football, Classic Football Shirts describe the shirt by saying “the ingredients for a classic are great design, innovation, glory, iconic moments and legendary players, this shirt is stuffed with such an intoxicating amount of each that it has been elevated to an almost divine status.”.
With his Euro ’88 squad, Michels followed a similar template. Innovative and iconic; The Netherlands were able to use the hurt of the past to take their nation forwards. The resulting glory – divine.
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