Are Barcelona really still different at all? If they picked a healthy first-choice XI, how many La Masia/Barca B graduates would be in it? If you stretch to include ones who were there as kids, left, and later got bought back as senior team players (Pique and Alba) it could be five, but really it’s just Messi,…

While this undersells what Sneijder/Van Persie/Huntelaar once were and what Depay/et al might one day be, it’s probably reasonable to start thinking of the Dutch team as Arjen Robben plus some guys—and in this qualifying cycle they started out with an out-of-form, struggling to come back from injury Robben, and then…