The stunning victory over Spain will be forever etched in their history but however magical it was the Dutch seem cautious about reading too much into an extraordinary day

Holland have a lovely problem on their hands. How on earth do you follow a 5-1 victory over Spain? Australia are about to find out, although even if Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie run riot against the Socceroos in Porto Alegre on Wednesday, it is hard to imagine Holland’s performance being talked about back home for a quarter of a century and more. Salvador, Friday 13 June 2014, was Dutch football’s JFK moment.

“It was an incredible result against Spain, you must see it as a wonder, in the same way as the goal that Marco van Basten scored in the European Championships in 1988,” says René van der Gijp, a former Holland winger who played alongside Louis van Gaal for Sparta Rotterdam and now works as a television pundit in the Netherlands.

“It’s like a miracle. That’s what I think, what the Dutch think and I also believe it’s what the Spanish players and the Spanish trainer think. I said on television that this is a game you will remember for 25 years and know where you were when it took place.”

As brilliant as Holland were in the second half, it felt like a freakish scoreline in every sense, not just because it was against Spain. Holland had produced nothing in the friendlies leading up to the World Cup finals to suggest that they were capable of putting five past Australia, let alone Vicente del Bosque’s all-conquering team. Kevin Strootman’s injury had forced Van Gaal to abandon his favoured 4-3-3 system, and a defence made up predominantly of inexperienced domestic-based players, from a league considered to be in serious decline, looked like an accident waiting to happen.

At least that was the theory going into the Spain game. The reality was beyond any Holland supporter’s wildest dreams. From the moment that Van Persie, with a wonderful piece of improvisation, met Daley Blind’s diagonal ball with a glorious looping header to equalise on the stroke of half-time, Van Gaal’s players were transformed. What followed was not so much total football as total counterattacking, as Holland, set up in a 5-3-2 formation, ruthlessly, and quite brilliantly, picked Spain off, inspired by the outstanding Robben.

Van Gaal’s tactics had been considered controversial beforehand. They felt like a stroke of genius at the final whistle. “Louis van Gaal has done something that nobody would ever think about, he has changed what the Dutch are so proud of: 4-3-3,” says Frank Arnesen, the Dane who spent the best part of 20 years in the Netherlands as a player, coach and sporting director with Ajax and PSV Eindhoven. “I think it’s very, very brave of Van Gaal, because this is the holy system of the Dutch. To play with 5-3-2, which is really a defensive, counterattacking system, is unbelievable. He has shown that he has balls, and that he knows what he is doing, because they won 5-1.”

Van Gaal, it has since transpired, has been getting things right off as well as on the pitch in Brazil, by creating a relaxed environment, devoid of tension. Van Persie, remarkably, was playing pool with his children only four hours before the Spain game, after Van Gaal invited the players’ families to visit the team hotel. Other players have been spotted driving around with their girlfriends and socialising outside the training camp.

All of which suggests that Van Gaal has learned from 2002, when Holland failed to qualify for the World Cup finals under his watch and senior players complained that his regime was too intense. These days the vibe within the Dutch squad is that they are playing for the manager as much as their country. Van Persie’s “high-five” celebration with Van Gaal, following the first of his two goals against Spain, was indicative of the strength of their own relationship – which bodes well for Manchester United – and the wider sense of harmony within the group.

It all sounds too good to be a true for a team that have developed a reputation over the years for pressing the self-destruct button at major tournaments, yet there is no reason to suspect that a grenade is about to be thrown into the dressing room any time soon.

One school of thought is that Holland are benefiting from the fact that there are few egos that need massaging in the current group. Other than Van Persie, Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Nigel de Jong – all of whom started against Spain – the only other players in the Holland squad who have won more than 25 caps for their country are Dirk Kuyt and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. It is not an all-star cast.

In many respects it is a team with a split-personality. Van Persie, Robben and Sneijder form a formidable and experienced attacking trident, while the backline has a callow feel to it. Jasper Cillessen, the goalkeeper (aged 25), Stefan de Vrij (22), Bruno Martins Indi (22), Daryl Janmaat (24) and Blind (24) all play their club football in the Eredivisie and have limited experience outside the Netherlands. Ron Vlaar, the 29-year-old Aston Villa centre-half, is the only Dutch defender who regularly faces some of the top strikers in the world.

On paper it is an area of weakness and one of the major reasons why expectations were low at home when Holland left for Brazil. Against Spain, however, several of the unheralded players emerged with huge credit, in particular Blind, who is generally deployed as a holding midfielder for Ajax but excelled in the left wing-back role in Salvador. Blind made more passes than any other Dutch player in that game and, crucially, broke forward to set up two of the goals.

“Our back four or five are not so experienced and well known, but there is a moment you have to say goodbye to certain players, that’s what happened and Van Gaal had to bring some youth through,” Ronald de Boer, a 1998 World Cup semi-finalist, explains. “Daley Blind, nobody had any faith in him a couple of years ago and now he is probably one of the most wanted left full-backs.

“I think the especially good thing that Van Gaal did is he gave these players a chance but also a very good handover. By that I mean he prepared them very well to do the job he wanted and explained if you follow that you’ll have success. There is a good mixture, with all those great guys in front, and I think that can be perfect. But we can’t think: ‘We have Messi.’ We have to do it as a team.”

As magical as the result was against Spain, the Dutch seem cautious about reading too much into an extraordinary day, which is probably wise. Euro 2008, when Holland beat Italy 3-0 and France 4-1 in their first two matches only to lose to Russia in the quarter-finals, provides a salutary lesson about the dangers of getting carried away. On that occasion Van Basten was outwitted by Guus Hiddink. The difference this time is that nobody expects Van Gaal to lose a game on the tactics board.