Despite their World Cup semi-final elimination on penalties by Argentina, the Netherlands and their coach Louis van Gaal will move on from the tournament with their reputations unquestionably enhanced.
Van Gaal can hand over to Guus Hiddink having fulfilled his primary objectives and will take up his role at Manchester United having confirmed his status as one of the leading tacticians on the planet.
Dick Advocaat, one of van Gaal’s predecessors at the Dutch helm, even went as far as to say that the 62-year-old was “the best coach in the history of the Netherlands”.
Following the debacle of Euro 2012, when Holland went out in the group phase after three defeats, van Gaal took charge of a team ravaged by doubt and in need of a completely new defence.
“Van Gaal was the only one who could have pulled it off,” Advocaat told Dutch daily De Telegraaf. “It was such a difficult challenge that only Louis was capable of meeting it.”
One of van Gaal’s biggest gambles was to build a defence almost exclusively composed of young Eredivisie players such as Stefan de Vrij, Bruno Martins Indi and Daley Blind who had no prior experience of international football.
The Dutch media expressed scepticism on the eve of the tournament, with several commentators speculating that van Gaal’s young side would struggle to emerge from a group that also featured Spain and Chile.
Van Gaal declared that he was “targeting the final”, but his famed self-confidence - deemed arrogance by his detractors - left some supporters uneasy.
But then came the opening 5-1 win over defending champions Spain, and with it a delayed revenge for Holland’s 1-0 defeat in the previous World Cup final four years previously in South Africa.
Van Gaal’s tactical flourishes confirmed his aptitude for tournament football. He had faced criticism for jettisoning the traditional Dutch 4-3-3 in favour of an innovative 5-2-1-2 system, but it turned his side into a counter-attacking machine in the image of flying winger Arjen Robben.
A supposedly fragile defence became a fortress, conceding only four goals (including two penalties) in six games.
This World Cup, however, could prove to be the last major tournament for old-stagers such as Sneijder, Robben, Robin van Persie and Dirk Kuyt.
For Hiddink, himself no stranger to success in international football, the initial challenge will simply be to live up to the standards set in place by Van Gaal.
