They travelled to Brazil in neither hope nor expectation, the nation feeling that their squad was significantly underpowered in any event but drawn into a group containing Spain and Chile, even progress to the knockout stage seemed to be a lot to ask. As it turned out, they waltzed through the section and left the tournament with six wins and a semi-final defeat on penalties to show for their efforts, all thanks to a distinctly un-Dutch approach.

For one, their squad did not dissolve into a rammy of internal combustion; for another, they actually managed to win a penalty shootout. Not just any old penalty shootout either, but one with, given the situation, the staggeringly bold substitution of their goalkeeper. They would not say it themselves naturally, but wasn’t there just something a bit… German about that?

Yes they were kick-started by a woeful showing from a clearly exhausted Spanish side, and yes they could hardly have imagined that their quarter-final opponents would be a nation like Costa Rica, but they far outperformed predictions and deserve enormous credit.

Their play was pragmatic in parts – certainly there wasn’t much ‘total football’ about their bruising back line of Vlaar, de Vrij and Martins Indi – but it was impressive that they managed to adapt to it at such short notice and to such great avail.

Their whole campaign was a triumph of coaching for Louis van Gaal. In a job which had him cast as the protector of the legacy of Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff, he did not shirk from completely changing the formation and taking an aggressive approach in the knowledge that this was what was required to extract the most he could out of the group at his disposal. Mind you, this is the man who reportedly dropped his pants at Luca Toni in the dressing room, so we should not be surprised that he had the balls.

Perhaps there is an argument that that, too, is ‘total football’ of a sort. The essence of that concept is that each player has the ability to perform any role on the pitch at any given moment depending on the circumstances, so it can surely be said that for a coach to so fundamentally reimagine what his team looks like on the basis of the cards he is dealt at any time – even after 29 and a half minutes of extra time – is in keeping with that principle. Flexibility and composure are the keywords, and there can be little doubt that van Gaal displayed tons.

There again, perhaps the lesson is that it does not pay to be too precious about a reputation or a set way of doing things. For while the Netherlands fell short of the final only by the width of Javier Mascherano’s extended rectum, Brazil and their jogo bonito could hardly have missed it by a bigger margin. Their insistence on playing defenders who cannot defend – specifically the utterly comical David Luiz, whose career will forever be scarred by a semifinal performance as frazzled as his hair – was exposed in the most brutal fashion imaginable, and their post-mortem will likely come to the conclusion that if you want to win a World Cup with players who aren’t very good, you can’t just stick a yellow shirt on them and tell them they’re Pele.

Even at the very highest level, with the very best players, here was proof that good coaching and strategy can make the vital difference.

This article originally appeared in RedMatchDay Issue 02

This article originally appeared in RedMatchDay Issue 02