The Netherlands against Russia

I learned about the Netherlands for the first time in our Persian book in elementary-school time many years ago. There was a story called “Petros, the sacrificing boy” (I'm not quite sure about the correct spelling of "Petros"). It was one of those beautiful tales that get carved into a kid’s fresh mind. There we learnt that the Netherlands is a low land protected from the sea by dikes. Petros, a villager kid while passing by a dike late in the evening observes a hole in the dike. He realizes that penetrating water could enlarge the hole and will eventually lead into a dike breakage and flooding. So he puts his little finger into the hole to block the water. He continues patiently till the next morning lonely with his finger in the hole while his parents think he is spending night in a relative’s home.
Still even after roughly twenty year, I weep when I remember the story of Petros and write these words. My own view on this country and the Dutch people has always been influenced by this story, some sort of a passion. Maybe it seems ridiculous but at that time I imagined the Netherlands as a rural area with poor people as it was depicted in the story!
Well, with the Netherlands being eliminated, either soon or late, in several recent football tournaments, we were quite fascinated by the glorious 3-0 and 4-1 victories over Italy and France. In the first round of Euro 2008, the Dutch captivatingly displayed their passion for game with such a glamorous, systematic, fast and beautiful manner at the same time. I was really proud to see the rising of Marco Van Basten as a coach since I always thought of him feeling sorrow because of leaving the game as a player quite soon due to major injuries. That exciting start, all through the first round, left me quite hopeful to sea them on the final pitch, dreaming of a German-Dutch race.
But last night every thing ruined. They didn't show at all that attacking trend since the very beginning; I guess it was to slow down the Russians. Possibly Marco had planned of stopping the Russian hunger for his goal in the first half, and then try to win in the second half. But I think he overestimated the opponent; he setback quite soon. The Russian attacks never stopped or even slowed down. The damned Guus! He knows everything to win. As he said in the press conference, he was scared so he attacked. Actually he knew well that if he setbacks even a foot, his team would be overwhelmed by the Oranges attacks; so he didn't give the opponent even a single chance.
The Russians really deserved to win; who can deny this? They attacked daringly since the very first minute till the last moment in 120 minutes time. Although Guus Hiddink said “I’m scared” in press conference but also he said ‘therefore we’ll attack”.
Anyway I never thought that the Russians would play such a brilliant game against the Netherlands.
Poor Marco! I admit, Hiddink is great; his capability has been proved several times with South Korea, Australia, etc. But it's enough for him. Isn't it?