Trainer Louis van Gaal got his wish, the Volkskrant writes. He is the first trainer to come back from a World Championship with no goals scored against him in a game.

‘The Dutch can come back home with their heads held high. They outclassed the Brazilians with – amazingly – attacking football.’, the paper writes.

The AD indulges in a little dreaming of what might have been had Van Gaal substituted Krul in the semi-final against Argentina.

‘What would have happened if Van Gaal hadn’t substituted Robin van Persie?,’ the paper pondered. ‘Krul could have perhaps handled the penalties better, the way he did  against Costa Rica. Van Persie might have scored the first penalty. As it was Vlaar started with a miss and Oranje never caught up’, the paper writes.

Evangelist

And although the Dutch did well ‘Oranje didn’t deserve any prizes for attractive football. It was defensive and too reliant on Arjen Robben, one of the best players of the tournament. Attacking and dominant football took a back seat even for the evangelist of attacking football Louis van Gaal’, the paper concludes.

Trouw is looking ahead to the final between Germany and Argentina. ‘We’re for the Germans now’, it heads an article on German-Dutch relations. ‘Anti-German sentiment used to be rife in the Netherlands not that long ago. But things have changed, the Netherlands has changed’, the paper writes.

‘Anti-German feeling seems to have largely disappeared. Not ten years ago research by the University of Utrecht showed that certain stereotypical perceptions of Germans (‘disciplined’, ‘no sense of humour’) hadn’t quite vanished but that the Dutch placed more emphasis on what they have in common with the Germans. 80% said they felt sympathy for Germans.’

‘This trend seems to have continued,’ Trouw states. ‘The two countries even play the same kind of football. For two world championships the Dutch have been playing the kind of unattractive result-driven football that made Germany successful.  And we love it. The Germans are just like us. They work hard. They are organised. We love the Germans.’

The reason for this newfound affection for Germany is that ‘The Netherlands and Germany often do things together. Meanwhile the EU is growing and countries are wondering which countries they have a natural affiliation with. We have more in common with Germany than with Eastern –European countries, which don’t have a very positive image in the Netherlands.’

Not that the Germans necessarily feel the same about the Netherlands, Trouw notes. ‘Dutch criticism of the European Union is unwelcome. And Louis van Gaal’s training style is considered ‘grim and authoritarian.’