OK – Nora was wrong the last time … I had to stop myself from saying “I told you so”. It felt a bit childish to say this to a rabbit, but alas it is Nora the Office Rabbit, the substitute for Paul the Octopus and we are talking here about the World Cup in Brazil. Nora did not make a mistake for the match against Chili – she ran for the food with the Dutch flag on it!

But what are the chances for the Dutch against Chile tonight during the WC2014 match? The Van Gaal strategy (not to mention the line up in advance) is a smart one – Chileans like a clear plan from their opponent and like to know what direction you are heading in. Not following the plan may not be smart in a business meeting, but for this match it makes great sense because it may cause restlessness with the Chileans. So Dutch team – be as unexpected as possible! Not having van Persie aka the Flying Dutchman (two yellow cards) may be a blessing in disguise as means a different line up is inevitable.

In general Chileans respect the personal space of others (“respetar su metro cuadrado”), but on the football pitch I doubt this is going to happen. Handling power for sure is a major difference between the Dutch and Chileans. Where for the consensus-driven Dutch each person’s opinion counts, the Chileans go for a ‘chain of command’ structure. If ‘we’ can disrupt this, we stand a good change of winning.

What we should not underestimate is the importance of the team for Chileans: group interests outweigh individual ones. That is their major strength. Let’s hope we can counteract this with beautiful individual actions and win another match. Guys – do it for Nora. She deserves more carrots, so prove her right!

Nannette Ripmeester

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