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Brilliant Orange |
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A History of Dutch Football
David Winner
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David Winner's acclaimed history of the footballing nation who gave us Total Football and Cruyff. Includes a new chapter on Euro 2000 last year. |
Paperback, 238 pp, b/w & colour photos
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Add my Review |
It`s a brave task to attempt to explain Dutch football`s extraordinary enigmas and even more extraordinary progress from third rate to world class over just a few post-war years.
Yet David Winner has done it with style and verve, with his love for the Dutch game and its players coming across with a warmth that makes Brilliant Orange a pleasure to read.
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Soccernet
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`Brilliant Orange` is without doubt one of the finest football books you`ll get to read this, or come to that, any year. Its insight into the Dutch game is breathtaking and will have you searching the video shops frantically for those hard to find moments of footballing genius.
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Mike Ashford - Footie 51.co.uk
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England
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Brilliant Orange by David Winner is an excellent read. Originally published to coincide with Euro 2000 in Holland and Belgium, Winner provides an original and entertaining ramble through Dutch football.
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www.worldsoccer.com
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I have to say that I started this book with an element of scepticism. I wasn`t sure how readable this would be. However, these thoughts proved somewhat unfounded as I got further into David Winner`s unique insight into Dutch Football. In a sense, this was not merely a football book. Winner was able to analysis Dutch society, Dutch culture and Dutch politics at the same time as Dutch Football. The book itself looks at Total Football (Holland`s most cultured export since Rembrandt - some may say) in depth, but also reasons over Dutch failure, particulary in 1974 and 1998, and gives detailed explanations for these failures. The Dutch may be underachievers, but think of what they have given the football world. I say this because the best bits are related to the glorious moments. The Cruyff turn; Van Basten`s wonder goal against the USSR in 1988; the great Ajax teams of the early 70s and the mid 90s; Johnny Rep; and Ruud Gullit`s captaincy of the Dutch side as they won Euro 88: they are all covered and they give unusual and intricate views on the Dutch footballing nation. David Winner is both passionate and objectivce about Dutch football and this fascinating book is a clear display of that.
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Stuart Croucher
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Reading UK
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