Congratulations Netherlands!

Four years ago I was driving somewhere in Montana, when I learned that Spain had just won the World Cup. Missing the game as I drove from southern Alberta was eating at me and there were no radio stations that were broadcasting the match. I paused every thirty miles or so, to check the score on my Blackberry and I suppose some people on the Iberian peninsula heard my screams of joy blend with their own once the final was complete and the championship in hand.

The Netherlands fell just short of the coveted trophy after a very hard fought match. Had Spain lost the game they would have focussed on plays that fans generally recognize as dirty from the Clockwork Orange squad. While it is true that the Orange can play a precision game, their success often comes from periodic flashes of surprise that throw an opponent off. Routine and consistency lead players to expect certain responses to very specific actions and set up the very opportunities to counter and score.

In a game like soccer one single goal can make the difference between victory and defeat. There is nothing like tremendous conditioning that allows a skill-focussed team to create a machine-like style of play. Their play resembles a carefully crafted flow chart, where each movement suggest two or three other actions. Quickly the combinations and permutations grow beyond what any defender can comprehend. And there lies the beauty.

The impeccably prepared squad will take all the time they can during a match and repeat steps one, two and three time after time after time. As long as they can keep the opponent out of their goal, they patiently wait for the simplest of mistakes and suddenly after steps one or two they jump to step seven or eight. In those moments even the quality players tend to only consider possibilities four through six, but when it happens it is too late.

In soccer the ball never crashes into the net. No, the beautiful game takes the hardest struck ball and flies it into a webbed netting where opponents' stomachs sink as they watch their hopes fall into the trap of false expectations. They realize they have been fooled and if only they had been where they were supposed to be have been they wouldn't see the net flutter before their eyes. No one expects a clock to make a surprise.

As the Orange celebrated their 5-1 victory over the Spanish Red they surprised Casillas, the Spanish Goalie, the Spanish squad and much of the soccer world. Their play was crisp, precise and methodical. But their success came from a wonder of imagination. Some writers have called the victory revenge. Many expected the title defenders to show up and play like champions. Time will tell if these are valid or merely false expectations.

I tip my hat to the Orange today, but expectations aside I'd trade an opening round loss for a World Cup any day.