Euro: 2nd-best not good enough for Netherlands

Second-best just isn't good enough anymore for the Netherlands. That is what the pain of losing too many finals does to a nation.

Amsterdam already let it be known that the players shouldn't count on any official celebration unless they come home with the European Championship trophy carried aloft.  The Netherlands lost the 2010 World Cup final to Spain.

Captain Mark van Bommel says that defeat " is now the motivation to win Euro 2012."  He still remembers the bittersweet taste of the big homecoming celebrations two years ago on the canals of Amsterdam. Van Bommel said after the loss "we did everything for it, but we ended up with nothing."

No more, a nation of football underachievers says.