Dutch delight over World Cup heroics against Brazil
By DPA, IANSFriday, July 2, 2010
AMSTERDAM - The Dutch players were still celebrating on the pitch in South Africa when back at home the local media revelled in an impressive 2-1 World Cup football quarter-final victory over Brazil Friday.
“Oranje through,” screamed the website of De Telegraaf daily in a bright orange frame on its website. The paper spoke of “the miracle of Port Elizabeth” as thousands took to the Dutch streets in celebration of the prestigious triumph.
The Algemeen Dadblad said: “Oranje stunt: into the semis via Brazil.” And then went one step further: “Oranje can start believing in the world title.”
The Dutch have only one title from Euro 1988 and have yet to make it on the global stage. The closest they came was in the 1970s, but they lost the 1974 final to West Germany and the 1978 decider to Argentina.
De Telegraaf said that “the team has finally overcome its Brazil syndrome,” looking back at a 3-2 quarter-final defeat in 1994 and on penalties in the 1998 semis.
But like the players, the papers also conceded that it wasn’t all a class-act before Wesley Sneijder headed the winner.
The AD named Felipe Melo’s own goal for the equalizer “the lucky strike (which) helped Oranje over the low point” and De Telegraaf said “Oranje was reborn after ‘lucky’ equalizer.”
