But Holland still had a large pool of talent from which to find a squad. Jan Jongbloed and Piet Schrijvers, first and second choice respectively in 1974, had vied with Van Beveren for the goalkeeper's jersey over the last four years, with Schrijvers now generally reckoned the stronger shot-stopper even if Jongbloed was still the undisputed supreme "counter-attacking" goalie. In defence, Wim Suurbier, playing club football in Germany these days, and Wim Rijsbergen were still going strong, as was Ruud Krol, now playing in the centre of the back line and captain of both club and country.

  Arie Haan was to be used in an essentially central midfield this time, with Wim Jansen adopting a more definite right-sided role than in 1974. Johan Neeskens was still as effective as ever, the nearest thing to an all-round midfield player the world had in the 1970s, although, as with Cruyff, his four years at Barcelona had brought him no major honours. The midfield was augmented by Willy van de Kerkhof and the attack by his twin brother René. Both had been fringe members of the 1974 squad, René appearing as substitute in the Final, but they had now both become regulars in the starting eleven. With Johnny Rep and Rob Rensenbrink available up front again, the Van de Kerkhofs for Cruyff and Van Hanegem were thus the only changes from the team who had come so close to lifting the World Cup four years ago.

  Somewhat against expectations, Happel started with Jongbloed in the yellow jersey, and the Dutch lined up with just three at the back (Suurbier, Rijsbergen and Krol), though not the five-man midfield Happel had promised. Hugo Hovenkamp, one of the discoveries of recent years, had been expected to start as left-back, but injury was to prevent him from taking any part in the competition, and his understudy, Jan Poortvliet, was untried at this level. To a large extent, therefore, the three-man defence rather than a back four was somewhat forced on the Dutch by circumstances.

  Allowing for the fact that certain of the team were still disposed towards the flexibility of the "total football" era, the formation for the opening game can be summarised as a 3-4-3 shape, with Jansen, Neeskens, Haan and Willy van de Kerkhof across the midfield.

  As two of his three strikers, Happel opted for 1974 stars Rensenbrink and Rep. The former, diligent, intelligent and a great team man, was a favourite of his manager, whereas Rep, fast, strong and tricky but occasionally a touch wayward, was not to enjoy a harmonious relationship with the dour coach. Though not really a conventional centre-forward (then again, that label hardly did Cruyff justice either!), Rep seemed happy enough to take on the central role. The more orthodox Dick Nanninga had distinguished himself in recent friendlies, and was judged by some worthy of the berth between Rep and Rensenbrink, but the third member of the chosen strike force was to be René van de Kerkhof, a right-sided attacker more dogmatic about position than most of the Dutch players. Although one of the front three would frequently drop back into midfield, adding further to the opposition defenders' confusion, René was usually to be found somewhere out on the right flank.