[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUe83JKeXAI&w=480&h=295]

In his book, “Murder in Amsterdam,” about the death of the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004, the writer Ian Buruma provides this description of Dutch football: “Proud of their superior skills, their multicultural makeup, the almost mocking manner of their free-flowing play, maddening the players of more prosaic teams, like Germany … In their playful individualism, their progressive daringness, they know they are the best. And sometimes they are.”  Buruma goes on to describe what happens when thinks go wrong for the team. But I want to stick to this beautiful memory. Think Johan Cruyff, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Clarence Seedorf, Marc Overmars, Dennis Bergkamp, Robin van Persie, and, of course, Arjen Robben.

Here Robben scores the goal that takes his club, Bayern Munchen past Manchester United to the semi-final of the UEFA Champions League. Commentators in South Africa may imitate their German colleague when Robben takes charge of a game for the Orangemen. “Wunderbar. Perfek. Perfek.”