Day 18: Fake Dutch Masters

Han van Meegeren was a Dutch painter who produced near-perfect forgeries in the style of Vermeer and other artists of the Golden Age. He is something of a folk-hero in The Netherlands for duping Hermann Göring, and today there is a legitimate market for his works and well-respected galleries often hold van Meegeren exhibitions shamelessly displaying his counterfeits.

Ironically though, a lucrative career can now also be made from forging his works, as some people are foolish enough to buy them.

"Well, thanks for the history lesson," I hear you say, "but this is meant to be a football blog".

Let me continue...

The "Golden Age" of Dutch football came in the 1970s. During this period the national side, managed by Rinus Michels and led by Johan Cruyyf, played what became known as "Total Football", and received much acclaim for the style of their play. Unfortunately though they narrowly missed taking out the World Cup in two successive tournaments, but nonetheless subsequent Dutch teams have had to try and live up to the legacy of the "Clockwork Orange".

Much like Brazil, who live in the shadows of 1970, the Dutch teams since '78 have been burdened with the expectation to deliver the football of their predeccessors.

They did win Euro '88 with Michels back in the manager's seat, but the comparisons with Total Football, while inevitable, were unjustified - it was just a good copy, and the victory was largely thanks to the individual brilliance of Gullit, van Basten and Koeman.

But this 2010 team is a long-way short ... Indeed you can clearly see the wrist-watches. Fake! Fake! Fake! Some people will buy it, but not me. Simply having three strikers does not mean you are playing Total Football. Otherwise we'd be singing the praises of New Zealand.

Instead, much like a van Meegeren forgery, Total Football is now best displayed by those who have copied the concept, or even those who have copied them.

Michels took it to Barcelona and Cruyff spent time there as a player and as a manager. Diego Maradonna also played at Barca, and Lionel Messi is on their books now.

Little suprise then that Spain and Argentina are so good to watch.