The Dutch are finally real.

The Dutch appreciate space like no other.Years of foraging for their own has given them an innate sense and acute awareness of space and how best to utilize it.In his tremendous book on Dutch football, David Winner marks the use of space as the defining attribute of the Netherlands as a football nation.Indeed if you were to think of football and Holland you would more than likely picture a skinny general named Cruyff or maybe one of the De Boer's raking a ball to Denis Bergkamp's chest. This Dutch side are perhaps more of a paint by numbers rather than a Van Cough but with a history forever casting judgement over them they have found their own way.

The great Ferencvaros and Hungary forward Tibor Nyilasi speaking about Hungary's cruel loss in the world cup final to Germany in 1954 commented years after "It is though Hungarian football is frozen in that moment, as though we have never quite moved on from then" It would be churlish to suggest that Dutch football has fallen to the depths of Hungarian but it could be argued that despite reaching the final again in 1978, The Netherlands have not recovered from that epochal loss to West Germany in 1974. It remains even today such an iconic game full of the greats.

Thanks to the wonder of the Internet it can be viewed easily. There is a wonderful moment at the start, Cryuff demanding the ball from the back and starts to amble a few passes away before launching into the penalty area and getting hacked down by Hoeness. Neeskens blasts it down the middle and the Dutch are one up without Germany touching the ball.Holland toyed with the Germans soon after but lost to a penalty conceded themselves and a Gerd Muller strike. Despite the loss the dye was cast for future Dutch teams.Total football became as synonymous with them as scoring became with Der Bomber.A succession of teams passed and moved and lost.Only the Milan trinity of Van Basten,Rijkaard and Gullit brought silverware in '88 but on the world stage the Dutch became the perennial dark horses. The "maybe" pick if all conditions were met.

Coming into this tournament they could boast an unbeaten qualifying record and in Arjen Robben and Weasly Snejider the two stand-out attacking players in the Champions league. They cruised through the group stage and edged past Slovakia in the round of sixteen game but were then expected to bow to Brazil in the quarter-final. They played the first-half of that game as if they agreed with the conventional wisdom but two freak goals, one a Julio Cesar flop, the other a Snejider header landed them in the semi's where despite some scares they dispatched Uraguay.

So they are back in the final. Playing a brand of football that can be described as pragmatic or downright nasty depending on your point of view. For some it is not the rapier Robben that epitomises this team but rather the, let's say robust Van Bommel who has summed up them up. All snaps and snarls in the middle of midfield. He negotiates that landmine with one of his own and seems to leaving a charmed life when it comes to yellow cards.

The Netherlands coach Bert van marwijk makes no excuse for Van Bommel or his tactics in deploying him. Graham Taylor remarked before the semi-final that Holland too often lose when they should win and he was right. They have had some wonderful teams in the recent past, think of the France 1998 side but they lacked a realist. Van Bommel and De Jong are that. Win the Ball. Keep the Ball. Slow the game. Win the game. The darker arts of Van Bommel game, the cynical, cruel fouls are an affront to the Dutch tradition but will that matter in Amsterdam should they win on Sunday? If van Bommel knocks Xavi out of his stride as Berti Vogts eventually did to Cryuff won't the end justify the means? Holland have deviated from Cryuff.The old master once said "It’s better to go down with your own vision, then with someone else’s". There are still flashes of him in a Snejider pass or Robben drag-back but winning ugly is still winning and Jules Rimet glistens either way.