In some cases, it's a cruel twist of fate, in which injury will the player's hopes and dreams of representing their country at the World Cup. In others, the player has had an excellent run of form, but his character and reputation for trouble making will cost him his place. But the most common of all, and in the cases of the majority of these players, their poor form has ultimately cost them their place at the greatest show on Earth.
In the case of Holland, a side blessed with some of the most naturally gifted footballers to grace the beautiful game, and the runners-up to Spain last time out, the competition for places has been fierce and this has caused a few surprise exclusions from their 23-man squad.
The only man who we were well aware would be out of the tournament was Kevin Strootman. The 24-year-old Roma man had been in fine form with the Serie A runners-up this season, having scored five goals and assisted six in 25 appearances, before tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in his knee against Napoli. He is a big loss for the Dutch side, and was key in their qualifying campaign, starting nine of their 10 fixtures. The midfielder has been capped 25 times at international level, with coach Louis van Gaal stating his importance on numerous ocassions "Strootman is a player who brings a balance to the entire team. I will have players like Rafael van der Vaart and (Wesley) Sneijder, of course, but no one will be able to replace Kevin."
Although van Gaal looked set to replace Strootman with van der Vaart, the Hamburg midfielder was also injured before the tournamnet began, suffering a calf muscle injury while training with the national side. It caps off a bad year for the veteran, who's experienced would have been highly valued in the young and inexperienced squad van Gaal has established during his time with the Oranje.
Elsewhere, experienced Fulham defensive duo Maarten Stekelenburg and Jonny Heitinga were both excluded from the squad as they each suffered miserable seasons at the Premier League's whipping boys. For such an experienced and usually solid unit, they were part of the defensive calamity that ended up with Fulham conceding 85 goals and finishing in 19th place, thus being relegated to the Championship.
Although it is likely that these players may end up being missed, Holland still have an extremely talented squad heading into the 2014 World Cup, and they will be hoping to finally win their first trophy at the World's biggest tournament, and ease the burden that was never lifted during the Total Football regime.
