Thank you Netherlands, but we just couldn't! Way to go for Romanian supporters!
We were ousted. So? We are left with images of Romanian fans encouraging their team in any circumstances, singing the Romanian anthem from the bottom of their lungs towards the end of match against Netherlands. When the group was picked, we were joking around about the number of goals we were about to receive and computing who was best to score our goal of honor in the Group of Death. The Dutch, obviously, because it was them who we beat in the preliminaries. More than zero points was a divine gift at the time!
After months of waiting for the final tour and after two sacrificial draws with France and Italy in the opening matches, we were already thinking of arrangements with the Dutch, of a victory against Spain in the quarterfinals – the tactics putting up a defensive ten with one striker, Mutu – and already dreaming of beating the Dutch in the quarterfinals and playing the finals against Croatia.
To reach our goal, we had to defeat the Dutch substitutes who treated the match against Romania as a demonstrative one. And we failed! We ruined the whole, beautiful impression we made following the match against Italy. We failed to defeat an unmotivated team, who scored twice for the sake of football. Hail to supporters with their superb behavior, singing „Wake up, Romanians!”, our anthem, even after the first Dutch goal. But for whom?
What were we to do to the Dutch? Send them bags of money? Buy candies from Berna? Dress some Romanian supporter in Dutch uniform and throw cigarette lighters at the referee – as it happened once in the Romanian championship? No, we’re not in the Romanian First League, What were we supposed to do? To postpone the beginning of the match in order to learn how Italy-France ends? To bring the Dutch out and play them two more days until Mutu manages a second shoot to score?
It was probably Stekelenburg who should have scored for us! We had to score a couple of times and we’d been winners. It was the easiest victory we could produce. But we only knew to play for a draw. In the Group of Death, we died keys in hand. Let’s go home.