Weary Netherlands Shows Its Staying Power : Group F: A loss from elimination, Dutch instead sweat out 2-1 victory over Morocco that clinches title. Roy breaks tie in 78th minute.

One by one, they trudged toward their bus, their faces grim and their shoulders sagging under the weight of their bags.

Not a smile among the 22 players.

And these were the members of the winning team.

On a scorching day when simply breathing was an effort, the Netherlands found itself squarely on the hot seat. One defeat from an embarrassing exit from the World Cup, the Dutch had to survive on their grit, which has never matched their formidable talent. Sweating together instead of taking separate star trips, they defeated Morocco, 2-1, Wednesday at the Florida Citrus Bowl. It was no Dutch mastery, but it was enough to earn the Group F championship.

“We didn’t play very well, but the most important thing was that we won,” said second-half substitute Bryan Roy, who scored the game-winner in the 78th minute with a left-footed nudge of a pass from Dennis Bergkamp.

“Of course we are happy, but we are too tired to show it right now,” Roy said. “The important thing was that we advanced to the second round. The way Morocco was attacking (early in the second half), I thought we might lose.”

Holland won the game--and the group--on Roy’s goal, scored 11 minutes after he replaced winger Peter van Vossen. “It was pretty simple,” said Roy, who plays for Foggia of the Italian League. “I made myself available in front of the goal and it was passed in to me. The rest was easy.”

In truth, none of it was easy. To make himself available, he had to outrace several defenders. To set it up, Bergkamp--who had scored Holland’s first goal--had to keep the ball in the goal area after Morocco failed to clear the ball, and he had to sacrifice a scoring chance. To get the pass to Roy, Bergkamp had to cut sharply around defender Smahi Triki.

And Roy had to get just the right bounce on his shot to fool goalkeeper Zakaria Alaoui El Ashraf, which he did. “I’m always hungry to play,” said Roy, who had started Holland’s previous two games. “I thought I played well in the earlier matches, so I was confident. I was very proud to score the winning goal.”

The goal turned the group standings upside-down. The Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Belgium were 2-1 with plus-one goal differentials, but Belgium was relegated to third place because it had scored only two goals and had given up one. Holland and Saudi Arabia had each scored four goals and had given up three, but Holland won the head-to-head matchup, 2-1, to win the group title and gain a round-of-16 meeting with Ireland on July 4 in Orlando.

“I don’t think we played our best game today. We played our best game against Belgium and didn’t win,” defender Frank De Boer said. “But that happens sometimes. We are very glad to stay here and play against Ireland because we don’t have to travel.”

Said midfielder Jan Wouters, who earned his second yellow card and will sit out the Ireland game: “Nobody expected us to finish in first in this way.”

Coach Dick Advocaat anticipated criticism for not having finished first in the group more easily, but he made no apologies for his team’s performance. Venue officials said the temperature on the field hit 105 degrees, but a thermometer shown on television read 118.

“There are only very few countries that managed to win two matches in this tournament, even the big countries that were expected to win the title, so we didn’t do too badly,” Advocaat said. “We know the way we like to play in Europe is here verboten , impossible. . . . The heat has hurt the play for everyone.”

It didn’t evaporate the spirits of the below-capacity crowd of 60,578, including fans who wore curly wigs and painted their faces in honor of their beloved Orange. They sang and waved their bedsheet-banners when Bergkamp took a pass from van Vossen and sent a left-footer inside the right post in the 43rd minute, for his first World Cup goal.

“It was just a fluke that the ball came to me,” he said. “I then took immediate action, and that’s how we scored. . . . I created many chances and I felt good about those chances.”

But Morocco (0-3) created some chances too. Coach Abdellah Ajri’s lineup changes produced a feisty team--it collected five yellow cards--and a persistent effort. It paid off in a tie in the 47th minute, when Hassan Nader got behind defenders Ronald Koeman and De Boer and converted a square pass from Mustapha Hadji, who had entered the game moments earlier.

“I think we deserved better for the way we played in these games,” Ajri said. “At least today, we lost to a great team.”

They were one goal better, because of Roy, but not every Moroccan player thought the Dutch were great. “They didn’t have any tempo,” defender Nacer Abdellah said. “Only if Gaston Taument and Bryan Roy worked on the ball, there was more action and they created a lot of space. . . . The way Wouters plays, my grandmother could play better. It is a shame to send Ruud Gullit away for this.”

Gullit, a brilliant but mercurial midfielder, chose to leave the team on the eve of final roster selection. The Dutch might miss his talents but not his temperamental outbursts. “It’s a pity we don’t have him,” Roy said, “but we have other great players and we have to do it with the players we have.”

On Wednesday, those players were good enough.