You Have To Read This Book!
From the desk of the Publisher
Jim McGough
January 26, 2002
Book Review: Brilliant Orange, by
David Winner
When I was nine
years old, my next-door neighbor, a Dutchman named Frank
Knappen, got me to join his son's soccer team, which he
coached. I've been playing, watching and talking about the
sport ever since. Fast-forward twenty years, when an accident
of circumstance introduced me to Amsterdam, and to Ajax, and I
quickly fell in love with the city and the team. I've been
struggling for years to adequately explain these obscure
devotions, especially to my "normal" American friends. Why do I
love soccer, and especially why Dutch soccer?
Thank God for David Winner's book, Brilliant Orange: The
Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football. Forget my lame, fumbling
explanations. The next person who asks me why I love Ajax so
much, I'll just shove a copy of this exquisite book into their
hands.
Then I'll take it back. After all, it's out of print and
rather hard to come by. (More on that later.) I'll just point
them to this book review. That'll have to do.
Brilliant Orange is a very personal and compelling study of
the weird and wonderful history of Dutch soccer and
society of the 20th century. Winner plumbs his own unlikely
Orange obsession (he's an Englishman, but his Dutch nanny
introduced him to Holland's charm) and finds connectivity in
the seemingly unrelated threads of Dutch politics, culture,
philosophy and football. He weaves them together in one highly
original and entertaining text.
And it's a testament to Winner's authorship that a treatment
of such heady subject matter (art, architecture, anarchists
movements, flying cows) is still a delight to read, easy,
engaging, moving un-selfconsciously from subject to subject.
This is not a post-graduate socialist dissertation on the
socio-economic justification of hooliganism in a post-Thatcher
society. It's not art-wank. It's a passionate and thoughtful
testimonial by a true fan.
Personally, I've always believed there was something
different, and better, about the way the Dutch play the game.
But I always assumed it was mostly my warped perspective, as a
fan of Ajax. The Dutch team of the mid-90's which I loved so
much was really Ajax in Orange, so I figured my
bedazzled reaction to their play was just an extension of my
blind love for the Amsterdam side.
...Until I read this book. Now I get it. Winner's
explanation of the Dutch use of space, their obsession with
playing "good" football, their disdain for defensive systems
and penalty kicks (that abomination)... It sounds trite and
lame when I list the qualities here. But Winner makes his case,
thoroughly and eloquently, as in this introduction to a chapter
titled "Dutch Space is Different":
"Space is the unique defining element of Dutch football.
Other nations and football cultures may have produced greater
goalscorers, more dazzling individual ball-artists and more
dependable and efficient tournament-winning teams. But no one
has ever imagined or structured their play as abstractly, as
architecturally, in such a measured fashion as the Dutch.
Total Football was built on a new theory of flexible
space..."
You might be skeptical, just reading this rather erudite
introduction. But Winner goes on to make you understand
and believe him. He explains how this small, flat,
densely populated country was forced to discover new ways to
use space in agriculture, architecture and, consequently,
football. They gave the world a new vision of the game, one
which creates great freedom within rigidly confined spaces.
Dutch football is as precise and geometrically constructed as
an aerial view of Dutch farmland. Played well, it can be
thrilling. Played without flair, without 'speed of thought,' it
can also be as boring as watching grass grow on said
landscape.
Winner's book does run to the very edges of reason, but
never crosses over into silliness or mystical eccentricities.
He makes his case, with facts, with quotes, and even with
technical drawings. Moreover, he is thoroughly fun to
read.
"In a famous 1968 European Cup match on a swamp of a pitch in
Istanbul (the 'Hell of Fenerbahce', as it became known),
Keizer created one of the greatest Ajax goals ever by lobbing
a high ball into the thickest mud on the field. The Turkish
defenders, expecting a bounce, were wrong-footed as the ball
stuck where it landed. Cruyff also read the conditions
perfectly and glided on to the ball without breaking stride,
flowing on to score gracefully."
The book also provides an interesting pastiche of
Holland's greatest stars. Sjaak Swart made sure his daughter
kissed his boots before every match; Johann Cruyff always
played in his oldest boots, even if they had a hole in them;
van Hanegam let his dog decide whether to accept a move to
Olympique Marseille. (The dog was opposed, and van Hanegem
stayed at Feyenoord.) An entire chapter is devoted -- with
fascinating results -- to a quirky interview with Johnny Rep,
in Amsterdam's Sloterdijk Station. Even the interview Dennis
Bergkamp refused to grant comes across as more
interesting and telling than many of the football interviews
I've read elsewhere.
Of particular interest to me is the chapter dedicated to the
"Jewish-ness" of Ajax, the subject of Simon Kuper's book
Ajax, de Joden, Nederland, (published
in English on our site). What Kuper does thoroughly
and methodically in his book, Winner treats briskly and with a
touch more humor in his chapter. Really, you need to read both
if you want to begin understanding "the wierdest, least kosher
Hebrew tribe in the world." But Winner's book, with it's lively
pace and telling quotations, is a fine introduction.
Barry Hulshoff recalls fondly the club's Jewish climate in
the 1960's and 1970's: 'That Ajax team never felt Jewish, but
it was there nevertheless. It's an Amsterdam thing - many
Jews always had a feeling for us."
You may have noticed by now that this review, like the book,
dwells on Ajax over other Dutch clubs. Winner begins the book
by disclosing his bias for the Amsterdam side:
"If this is a book about Dutch football, at some stage you'll
probably wonder why it contains pages and pages about art and
architects, cows and canals, anarchists, church painters,
rabbis and airports, but barely a word, for example, about
PSV and Feyenoord. A very fair point. And the reason, I
suppose, is that this is not so much a book about Dutch
football as a book about the idea of Dutch football,
which is something slightly different. More than that, it's
about my idea of the idea of Dutch football, which is
something else again."
In closing, I will point you to the sagacious words of our
friend Neil Sherman, who said it
better than I can, way back when the book was first published
in 2000. Here's an excerpt from Neil's
review of the book, published on Amazon.com:
"I will tell you right off that I've been waiting for this
book for 26 years. ... Being an American, I was starved for
information about this generation of players who brought a
revolution in tactical thinking to world soccer. I'm sure a
lot was written about them at the time (some still is), but
most of it was not in English or not easily availble in the
States. I was convinced at the time that the progressive
thinking of these teams must be, in some part, a function of
the Dutch mentality. This book is an attempt to show that
connection. ... "Brilliant Orange" is essential reading for
all those who love Dutch soccer. But it will also be
entertaining and insightful for anyone interested in the way
cultural thought manifests itself in specific areas of life."
Yeah, exactly. Why didn't I just say that?
- Jim
A note on availability:
At the time of this review's writing, the book was "out of
print," but you could still order it from a variety of UK
book-sellers such as Soccer-Books
Limited or
Sports Books Direct, or from the publisher,
Bloomsbury Books. Initially, I tried to order from
Amazon.com. They strung me along for six months
before finally admitting that they couldn't get it. (If I'd
known how good this book is, I wouldn't have been so damn
patient!) Finally, I ordered the book from a bookseller on Abebooks.com, where you can
"access the bookshelves of thousands of used, secondhand, rare,
and out-of-print booksellers around the world." They find
copies of books and manage transactions between vendor and
buyer. A great service. It worked for me.
