Holland's new heroes

The Netherlands reached the final of the World Cup for the third time on Tuesday with its victory against Uruguay. The image of the players has been transformed, writes daily Nrc.next: "Between 1990 and 2008 Oranje's footballers were above all spoiled young boys of the carefree generation. Guys who suffered from too little discipline, too many slogans and way, way too much money. Who played well when the going was good but failed when things got rough. ... And then we won. ... Now we are simply in the finals. The word 'simply' is symbolic for our new reality. ... It's not heroism that defines our success but success that defines our heroism. If the Netherlands doesn't lose the finals in a bad way on Sunday we will see how the image of spoiled, affronted boys is replaced in our memory by that of a team of heroes."

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