Willem van Hanegem is still disappointed that he did not become world champion with the Dutch national team in 1974. De Kromme only realized afterwards how good Orange was at the time.
At the World Cup in ’74, the Netherlands captured the hearts of many football fans with total football, but that was not a preconceived plan. “Not Cruijff, not Michels, nobody said: now we are going to the World Cup and we are going to play total football. How someone gets there? I do not understand that, “says Van Hanegem in conversation with the KNVB.” That just happened. You all have good players and something happened in the field. If you like football, you want to conquer the ball as soon as possible. So you all hunt for the ball. Every imbecile can remember that, right? “
The World Cup final was ultimately lost against West Germany. “We were not lucky, we did it all ourselves,” continues Van Hanegem. “At that moment you do not realize, all those good players. But later you think: we were goddamn good anyway,” he concludes.
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