No such thing as luck - Schadenfreude edition

Here I am again, in the same room where I wrote this.  Once again, I write on my yellow-lined paper between class sessions where people congratulate each other over and over again.

My concern is with a friend who suffers and my mind is generally distracted.  As my mind wanders, it goes to a book I just finished called Brilliant Orange, by David Winner.  It made me think about mindsets.  Again, I have lingered on that topic and how it relates to raising my son.  Everything circles back to that these days.  In this case, I just don't want him to be a loser.

The book describes Dutch culture and relates it to the national soccer team, which has been devastated by crushing chokes and defeats for generations.  The crux of the book is that the Dutch play one way, and unapologetically so.  Their style is beautiful and devastating when nothing is at stake.  They do not concentrate on penalty kicks because they believe deeply in their offensive style and put all their eggs into the "win big" basket. The book succeeds by explaining Dutch cultural traits and the mindset of the citizens of Holland while applying those traits to its national-team identity. 

I have explained my position as to nature/nurture philosophies for success before.  I strongly reject notions of natural gifts as the bulk of talent.  I have always held a rather arrogant belief that people become very good at the things they care to practice.

The perfect illustration for why I do not see eye-to-eye with the mindset of Dutch soccer came from its greatest player, Johan Cruyff.  A highlight video I found on Youtube included black-and-white footage of a young Cruyff dribbling a soccer ball with abandon as a young man and bouncing it on his head as he walked.  He clearly worked his whole life to become special at his craft.  Yet, despite his clear practice and dedication to perfection, I was surprised by his explanation of the following Dutch football fiasco... (just drink in this monumental choke... Cruyff was not involved, but commented as I will explain below):



The game above was for a place in the finals of the 2000 European Championship match.  It was played in the Netherlands, so was a home game for the Orange.  It featured five (5!!!) missed penalty kicks by the home team, two in regulation and three after extra time penalty kick tie-breaker.  I learned from this book that the Dutch acknowledge that they did NOT practice penalty kicks much at all.  Of all people, Johan Cruyff, legend of the "greatest team never to win a World Cup" (they celebrate such things in the Netherlands), shrugged and said something to the effect of "you are either good at PKs or you are not." 

It was like he forgot how hard he worked.  I wanted to find Cruyff and show him his own Youtube video.



Cruyff was not alone.  Many excused the lack of focus on penalty kicks as the "Dutch way," and the book illustrated how consistent and predictable this mindset was in the Netherlands.  This section of the book led me to tell Dave that the Dutch are thorough losers in soccer.  I then declared my absolute intention to never stake even my verbal prediction on the Dutch soccer team winning more than a local talent show... and even then if no one else shows up. I would absolutely put money on them in a choking contest, though. 

The book clearly intends to celebrate a team that plays the "right" way in spite of anything. Despite the intent, I viewed the whole story as that of systematic capitulation.  The 1974 team is still celebrated in spite of its monumental choke in the World Cup championship game.  They toyed with West Germany in taking a 1-0 lead only to watch the Germans gut out a hard fought 2-1 win that was nearly 3-1.  Somehow, that German team lives in obscurity.  I read the details of the game in this book, complete with flowery praise for that beautiful Dutch team that got complacent before scoring "that second goal" as they checked out mentally and caved to German tenacity and aggression.  My take: The Germans were tenacious and determined and convincingly took down a much more talented team.  The Dutch choked and deserved to lose.  End of story.  They should meet once a year to pour a 40oz for that team, not celebrate it.  As I now know, however, this celebration of potential over result is a very Dutch phenomenon.

That brings me back to the 2000 Euro choke job.  The Italian national team has broken my heart many times, so it pains me to compliment them.  That said, I respect that team for its tenacity.  Italy thrives on defensive games and then destroys teams in the PKs.  You can see it in the video above. Just look at the smirks on those Italians as they pop the back of the net each time.  Confidence. They practice PKs... it's no coincidence.  Look at the faces of the Dutch.  They are all terrified.  They might as well be kicking PKs with tarantulas on their faces.

A person can SEE tenacity... almost as clearly as a person can see tentativeness.  I was proud of Jacob for showing such a smirk in tae kwon do recently.  Jacob broke his first (re-breakable) board in class.  He broke the white board first (easiest level).  He felt confident and asked to break a yellow board.  He was determined, so the deal struck was that he could try, but, if he failed to break it by attempt four, he could never attempt to break a higher-level board again.

Chips on the table.  Jacob missed the first three tries and expressed concern at the stakes.  I responded, "Then go through it right now."  I was dying to see how he would respond.

Jacob looked at me almost offended, compressed himself into a solid stance, took a calm breath, stared a laser through the board, waited a beat... and he delivered the best kick I've seen him perform while going through the board like paper.  At that moment he became ineligible for Dutch soccer.  It made me so proud to see him stiffen under pressure.

I just hate hearing anyone declare "I'm just not good at _________ (fill in anything)," unless they also say "because I have not yet tried or practiced it."  Jacob isn't allowed to say stuff like that at home.  If a person isn't good at math, do math. Not good at penalty kicks?  Kick them.  Work for it.  We must all pay homage to and respect the effort required to acquire skill.

Cruyff should know better than to offer excuse, but he was surrounded by the disease.  He was amazing... but he suspended effort in '74 along with everyone else after imposing a humiliating beginning on Germany.  He counted his unhatched chicks with the rest of them as the Germans needled and harassed him out of his game.  It's a skid-mark on his legacy.  They call this move the "Cruyff Turn"... I call it "what he does when nothing is on the line."



Many who reviewed this book took it as an appreciation of a beautiful style of play and the purity of a nation that embraces that style without compromise.  It is that.  I, however, found the litany of amazing collapses to be illustrative of a national illness brought on by a loser's mentality.  Even their manufactured rivalry with Germany (they almost never beat Germany, and certainly not when anything is on the line) was based on a revisionist view of history that ignored rampant collaboration.  The Dutch have genuinely suffered a staggering number of gut-punch losses, and David Winner makes them all seem so inevitable.

I enjoyed the schadenfreude collapse stories, and I enjoyed learning about the Netherlands as a nation and a culture.  The Xs and Os were interesting and effective.  Their soccer mindset, however, struck me as systematic foolishness, and I just couldn't make myself honor that no matter how pretty it can be.