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The Netherland - history
The Netherlands’ national team played its first official football match in 1905 with Belgium,
but they only joined the group of top European teams in the 1970s when it popularised the
playing system known as Total Football. So far the Dutch are the only team to appear in the
World Cup final three times without ever winning the title. In those deciding matches, they
lost to West Germany (1974), Argentina (1978) and Spain (2010). Their only victorious
international final was the Euro 1988 match when they beat the Soviet Union. To today, their
victory in the European Championship and three World Cup runner-up positions have been
the greatest achievements in the history of the Netherlands’ national team.
Football was popularised in the Netherlands in the second half of the 19th century by
the English workers stationed there. For many years, football players and coaches
from the British Isles served as models for the Dutch. Coaches from England were
hired by the Dutch clubs and national team. The first Dutchman to be nominated as
the national team coach was Otto Bonsema (earlier this function was performed only
by Englishmen) who worked with this team in the years 1946-1947.
The Netherlands’ national team quickly reached their first achievements. During
three Olympic Games (in 1908, 1912 and 1920) ‘the Oranje’ took bronze each time.
However, the Dutch players were not appreciated in Europe. This was largely caused
by their lack of professional status, as the Dutch players combined football with other
occupations. The first professional contract with a Dutch club was signed in 1956 by
Faas Wilkes, a forward player returning from Spain.
The Netherlands did not play in the first World Cup in 1930. During the next two in
1934 and 1938 they dropped out after playing just one match. After the war they did
not play in any of the five World Cups until 1974. In the 1950s they were forced to
withdraw from qualifiers for the World Cups (1950 and 1954) due to their political and
social situations. Between 1949 and 1955, the Oranje could not win a single match.
In 1965 Vic Buckingham resigned from Ajax Amsterdam. He was replaced by his
assistant Rinus Michels, a Dutch former player and gymnastics teacher. As it turned
out, this was the beginning of sweeping changes in Dutch club football. With time,
these changes also permeated the national team. At the end of the 1960s, Rinus
Michels developed a playing system known as Total Football. Under this system,
players are not clearly divided into defenders, midfielders and forwards. Instead, the
team makes up a whole, and a defender can play forward and the other way round,
depending on the on-field situation. The system is based on constant passing
between the players who thus remained in contact, all the time moving towards their
opponent’s goal. With the constant movement on the field, as well as changes in
positions and pace, their rivals had enormous trouble watching the team and trying
to anticipate their next moves. Under Michels, Ajax was the first team to employ
pressing and offside traps, and it all worked very well in practice: in six years the
Amsterdam team won four Netherlands Championships and the Champions League
Cup. In 1974 Michels was appointed the coach of the national team, where Total
Football found even better executors. The Ajax players were joined by those from
Feyenoord Rotterdam, winners of the UEFA Cup in the 1973-74 season.
The Dutch started the 1974 World Cup by winning with Uruguay 2:0. Then they had a
goalless draw with Sweden and beat Bulgaria by 4:1 to advance to the next phase
where they were in the same group with Argentina, West Germany and Brazil. The
victories of 4:0 over Argentina and 2:0 over West Germany’s footballers and the
Brazilians turned the Dutch into clear favourites before the final, where they were set
to play against the tournament’s hosts, the Germans. In the Munich final the Oranje
took the lead in the second minute of the match with a goal scored by Johan
Neeskens from a penalty kick. Later in the match, they allowed Germany to score two
goals and had to be satisfied with being runners-up.
After the match against Germany, Rinus Michels resigned and George Knobel, the
former coach of Ajax Amsterdam, was selected as his successor. In the Euro 1976
qualifiers the Oranje were in the same group as Poland, Italy and Finland. In their first
three matches Knobel’s players won all possible points (two victories over Finland
and one over Italy). They then suffered a great defeat from Poland (4:1), but made up
for the losses in the return match (3:0), and despite losing in the last qualifying
match to Italy, they took first place in their group. In the quarterfinals, the
Netherlands played Belgium. The Oranje secured their place in the next round
without much effort, winning the two-legged draw 7:1. In the clash for the great final,
Knobel’s players faced Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovakian national team had not
lost a match for over two years, and in their qualifying group they had beaten out
lions such as England and Portugal. Still, the Dutch were the favourites, but after
ninety minutes of play the teams drew 1:1. Eventually, Czechoslovakia won in
extra-time 3:1 to reach the final. In the match for third place the Dutch defeated the
tournament hosts, Yugoslavia, 3:2 to stand on the lowest step of the podium. The
medal was received in the Netherlands without enthusiasm, and George Knobel was
forced to resign from the coach’s position. His successor was Jan Zwartkruis.
This new coach led the team in the qualifiers for the 1978 World Cup, but eight
months before the tournament, he was replaced by Ernst Happel, an Austrian, at the
request of the players. Happel paid greater attention to effectiveness rather than to
the spectacular aspects of the game. The Dutch appearances in 1978 did not amaze
with the imaginativeness and ease that people remembered from previous
championships. The Oranje finished the group phase in second place, securing their
advancement only thanks to a better goal difference than the Scots. In the second
round of the championship, after a 5:1 win over Austria, a 2:2 draw with Germany
defending the championship trophy and a 2:1 win with Italy, the Dutch prepared
themselves to play in the tournament’s final for the second time in a row. The 90
minutes of the final match against Argentina did not end with a decisive result (1:1),
but in extra-time the Argentineans scored two goals, and Happel’s players again lost
their chance to win a championship title. After the tournament, Happel resigned, and
Jan Zwartkruis once again took the reigns of the national team.
In the following years, Dutch football experienced a crisis. In 1980 the Oranje
dropped out in the group phase of the European Championship. They failed to qualify
for the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, and the 1984 European Championship. After
these three defeats in the qualifiers for three consecutive tournaments, in March
1986 Rinus Michels was brought back in. The legendary coach of the 1974 World Cup
runners-up led the Dutch to victory in the Euro 1988 qualifying group, and the Oranje
returned to competition for the most important European trophy after an eight-year
break. Before the tournament the Dutch were not listed as top favourites for the title,
but the name of a recognised and respected coach and the condition of the
footballers, who even then were among the fittest in Europe, meant that many
commentators saw the Oranje as the dark horse of the championship. Despite losing
in the first match against the Soviet Union, in their next matches Michels’ boys
steam-rolled England (3:1), Ireland (1:0), West Germany (2:1), and the Soviet Union
(2:0) in the finals, to win the European Championship for the first time in history. The
Netherlands played their championship matches fast, proactively and effectively. The
players that received the highest praise included Ruud Gullit, captain and most
universal player of the Oranje team, and forward Marco van Basten, the tournament’s
top scorer (five goals), and winner of the award for the best player of the tournament.
The team entered the next World Cup in 1990 with the same composition, but they
were conflicted and divided: a few weeks before the tournament the players had
again enforced a change of coach. They were subsequently accused of arrogance and
pride, lack of commitment to the game and errors in their preparations for the World
Cup. As a result the European champions exited in the 1/8 stage. Their overall
championship appearance that year included three ties (for example, with Egypt) and
one defeat. After the tournament, Rinus Michels once again returned to work with the
national team. And once again the coach trusted the players with whom he had won
the European championship in 1988. But during this European championship the
Dutch dropped out in the semi-final: after winning the group (with Scotland and
Germany), they met with Denmark in the match deciding their advancement to the
final, to be defeated 5:4 on penalties. Euro 1992 was one of the last tournaments
where the image of the Oranje was led by the generation of the Euro 1988 winners,
and the last to feature the holy trinity of van Basten, Gullit and Rijkaard.
During the 1994 World Cup, the Dutch reached the quarter-finals where they lost to
Brazil 3:2. After the tournament, coach Dick Advocaat was criticised for a lack of
independence, being influenced by Michels and the older players, and leading the
conflict with Ruud Gullit. Despite unsatisfactory results, he was not dismissed and
began preparations for the Euro 1996 qualifiers. Under his direction the national
team won decisively twice with Luxembourg (4:0 and 5:0), but also tied twice, with
Norway (1:1) and the Czech Republic (0:0). At the end of 1994, Advocaat resigned
from the KNVB and left for PSV Eindhoven. A couple of days later, he was then
replaced by Guus Hiddink, who hadn’t worked anywhere for over a year.
Hiddink began his latest stint with the national team by losing friendly matches to
France (1:0) and Portugal (1:0). The Dutch also lost two matches in the Euro 1996
qualifiers (first to the Czech Republic 3:1, and then to Belarus 1:0). Only victory over
Norway at the end of the qualifiers ensured second place in the group for the
Netherlands and their advancement to the play-offs, where they turned out better
than the Irish. Hiddink explained the team’s generally poorer condition by their
radical rebuilding. He had included younger players on the squad, mainly from Ajax
Amsterdam (the Ajax that had defeated AC Milan 1:0 in the Champions’ League final
on the 24th of May 1995 at the Ernst Happel Stadium). The players selected for Euro
1996 included goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, defenders Michael Reiziger, Frank de
Boer, Danny Blind and Winston Bogarde, and midfielders Ronald de Boer, Peter
Hoekstra and Edgar Davids, with Patrick Kluivert playing forward.
The Netherlands inaugurated the Euro 1996 group phase with a goalless draw with
Scotland. In the second match, Hiddink chose defender Johan de Kock, left-wing
Gaston Taument and Edgar Davids for the substitution bench. Davids took offence at
this and left England a few days later. In the first half of their match with Switzerland,
making their debut in the European Championship, the coach removed the
hot-tempered Seedorf from the field too. Some of the black players took advantage of
these two facts and mutinied against Hiddink, accusing him of racism. Disputes inside
the team and the whims of individual players meant that the last match against the
tournament host, England, ended with a severe 4:1 defeat – their worst defeat since
1975. The Dutch managed to remain in the tournament thanks only to Kluivert’s
solitary goal, scored in the 78th minute. Before the quarter-final match against
France, Hiddink introduced several tactical and personal adjustments, and according
to many commentators, the Dutch subsequently played much better than in the
previous matches. But despite having two opportunities for goals in the end (in the
84th minute Phillip Cocu hit a goal post, and four minutes later Seedorf lost a
one-on-one clash with Bernand Lama), the match and the extra-time ended with a
goalless draw. The Tri-colours proved better in the penalty shootout, and the only
player in the Netherlands team to miss his penalty kick was Seedorf (his shot was
stopped by Lama).
After the championship, Hiddink was accused of not being able to create the right
atmosphere in the team, and the issue of divisions related to the skin colour of
players was raised particularly strongly. Other mistakes by the coach were to include
the omission of the 20 year-old Patrick Kluivert in the first line-up (he played from the
first minute only in the last match against France), and the selection of Dennis
Bergkamp, who was out of shape. Other actions considered mistakes included the
selection of Ronald de Boer as captain and excessive trust in the skills of Edwin van
der Sar, who had conceded four goals in the match against England. Guus Hiddink’s
position was seriously threatened but eventually, in the middle of August 1996, the
coach managed to hang on to his contract and he began preparations for the 1998
World Cup qualifiers, where the Dutch came out in first place.
Right before the World Cup, in the last sparring matches, the Oranje won 5:1 with the
other finalists from Paraguay and Nigeria, so the goalless draw in the tournament’s
inaugural match against Belgium was a surprise. The Dutch remembered their high
form in the next match with South Korea, where they secured five goals without
giving any anyway themselves. At the end of the group phase, the Dutch had gained
one point from their match with Mexico (2:2).
The Dutch came in first in the first round, so they did not encounter Germany in the
second round and played the lower-ranked Yugoslavia instead. The meeting ended
with a lucky win for the Netherlands (2:1). In the 40th minute of the match Predrag
Mijatović failed to take advantage of a penalty kick, and the winning goal (scored by
Edgar Davids) came instead in the last minute. In the next matches, the quarter-final
with Argentina (2:1) and the semi-final with Brazil (1:1, penalties: 2:4), the Oranje
scored the decisive goals (firstly for the victory and secondly for the draw) in the last
seconds of the match. On their way to the final they encountered players like Mário
Zagallo, who proved to be better at penalty kicks. The Dutch lost the match for third
place 2:1 to Croatia.
Despite this, according to some commentators the Dutch were the most impressive
team in the 1998 World Cup, and their semi-final against Brazil was one of the best
matches of the whole tournament. After the tournament, it was noted that for the
first time in years, the players had not argued during the games, and that the fourth
place achieved in France should be the beginning of a streak of success.
In 2000 the Netherlands co-hosted the Euros, so their participation in the tournament
was secure. They had a new coach, 37 year-old Frank Rijkaard, who took care to
cultivate a good atmosphere within the team. At first Rijkaard’s work brought little
benefits in terms of results. From October 1998 to November 1999 the Dutch played
eleven friendly matches without winning a single game. Rijkaard’s players took their
first victory as late as February 2000 in a friendly clash with the current European
champions, Germany, which they won 2:1.
The Netherlands’ group rivals in Euro 2000 included the European Championship
runners-up Czech Republic, the current World Cup champions France, and Denmark,
quarter-finalists of the last World Cup. In their first group match the Netherlands
defeated the Czech Republic 1:0, but the goal was scored in the 88th minute after a
controversial penalty kick awarded by Italian referee Pierluigi Collina. In the following
match the Oranje defeated Denmark 3:0, and in the struggle for first place in the
group they proved better than the French (beating them 3:2), who, being certain of
going through, played their reserve line-up!
In the second round Rijkaard’s team won 6:1 with Yugoslavia. Then, in the
semi-finals, the tournament’s co-hosts encountered Italy. Although the Netherlands
played the greater part of the match with the advantage of one player, their ninety
minutes of play brought nothing more than a goalless draw. During match time,
referee Markus Merk awarded two penalties to the Netherlands, but neither Frank De
Boer nor Patrick Kluivert managed to turn them into goals. Eventually, their
advancement to the championship final depended on a penalty shootout: De Boer
missed once again, to be followed by mistakes from Jaap Stam and Paul Bosvelt.
Ultimately, they connected with only one out of their six penalty kicks, and the more
precise Italians went through to the final.
Just a few short hours after the Italy match, Rijkaard resigned as coach. On the 7th of
July 2000, Louis van Gaal, the most titled Dutch coach of recent years, was appointed
his replacement. In 1995 he had led Ajax Amsterdam to victory in the Champions’
League, and expectations for van Gaal were riding high, and he himself emphasised
that it was him ambition to win the championship.
His first goal was to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. Group rivals were Portugal (third
place at Euro 2000), Ireland (absent from a major tournament since 1994), Cyprus,
Estonia and Andorra. Half-way through the qualifiers the favoured Dutch occupied
third place, losing three points to their two higher-ranking rivals. They tied with the
Irish (1:1) in Amsterdam, defeated Cyprus 4:0, lost 2:0 and tied 2:2 with Portugal.
Later they won their matches with group-weakest Andorra and Estonia, and the
return match with Cyprus, but then lost the deciding match to Ireland 1:0. After this
catastrophe, journalists were quick to write about disgrace and failure – for the first
time since 1986 the Netherlands had not qualified for the World Cup, and could not
even qualify for the play-offs.
Pundits had several theories as to why the team who had reached the semi-finals of
the last World Cup, and the European Championships, had dropped out as early as
the qualifying stage. Emphasis was placed on the lack of a captain as good as either
Roy Keane or Luís Figo had been for the English and Portuguese, as well as the
frequent injuries of key offensive players (Roy Makaay and Ruud van Nistelrooy).
Van Gaal’s coaching methods also met with considerable criticism. He was accused of
excessive promotion of a risky playing style, over-optimism, inexplicable personal
and tactical reshuffling during matches, and a too-rigid approach to tactics.
The atmosphere around the national team had gone wrong again. Despite good work
with their own clubs, the expected players were not called up for the national team,
and they publicly stated that the composition of the national squad depended on
private relations and connections with the van Gaal. What’s more, some of the
players from the first eleven were then involved in doping scandals. In the summer of
2001, team captain Frank de Boer and Edgar Davids were suspended for this reason.
At first, despite fierce criticism, van Gaal did not intend to resign and reminded
everyone that he had signed a contract with the national federation until 2006. He
could not be dismissed, because he was not only the coach, but also the technical
director of the federation, so he would have to dismiss himself. But, after a series of
unfavourable articles and a long conversation with President Mathieu Sprengers in
December 2001, van Gaal resigned from his post. His final account balanced at eight
victories, four ties and two losses.
The first candidate to fill the position was old hand Dick Advocaat, who had worked
for nearly four years with Glasgow Rangers. Although he initially declared that he was
not interested in returning, in December 2001 he resigned from his work at Rangers
and, asked again about coaching the national team, he accepted the offer.
Advocaat did not introduce many personnel changes, but with time younger
footballers, born at the beginning of the 1980s (like Andy van der Meyde and Rafael
van der Vaart), began making their debuts on the national squad. The team’s
skeleton remained unchanged, as Advocaat still placed trust in the old warriors who
several years earlier had led Ajax Amsterdam to victory in the Champions’ League. In
the first year of play under the direction of Advocaat, the team did not lose once,
instead beating, for example, World Champions Germany, Spain and Argentina, and
drawing with England and Portugal in friendly matches. Their first loss came in
September 2003 in the last match of the Euro 2004 qualifiers against the Czech
Republic (3:1), forcing them to take part in play-offs with the Scottish national team.
Advocaat’s players lost that away match just 1:0, but a week later they won 6:0 and
advanced to the tournament on points.
The line-up for the 2004 European Championships included seven men who had
played for Ajax in the Champions’ League final in 1995: van der Sar, Reiziger, Frank
de Boer, Seedorf, Davids, Overmars and Kluivert. Apart from Kluivert, they were all
considered for the first eleven, where Advocaat also saw a place for 20 year-olds like
van der Meyde, Robben, Sneijder and van der Vaart (the last two went to the
tournament as substitutes). In the inaugural match of the championship, this team
encountered Germany and lost 3:2. The Dutch media immediately blamed the failure
on Advocaat, who at 2:1 had substituted the best player on the field, Robben, with
defensive midfielder Paul Bosvelt, which forced a retreat and subsequent focus on
defence. Eventually, the Dutch advanced from the group and met Sweden in the
quarter-finals, which ended with a goalless draw. In the last three tournaments, the
Oranje had been eliminated after failing their penalty kicks, but this time they won
the shootout 5:4. Sadly though, their path to the final was then closed by the event’s
host, Portugal (2:1).
Before the championships the Dutch had been considered major favourites. The
causes of their premature drop-out from the championship were put down to personal
and tactical mistakes by Advocaat, as well as his conflict with Clarence Seedorf, who
publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that he hadn’t been placed in his
favourite position as offensive midfielder.
From 1994 to 2004 the Dutch had twice reached third place in the European
Championships and one fourth place in a World Cup. In each of the tournaments they
had started off as favourites to win the main trophy. Over time, the players moved
from Ajax to the best European clubs, earning rankings as some of the best players in
Europe, but usually failing when they came home for their national team. This led
sports fans and commentators at the turn of the century to dub them “the lost
generation”.
Marco van Basten, a former forward for Ajax and Milan, stepped up as the new coach
of the Netherlands national team. Van Basten built a much younger side, comprised
of young and inexperienced footballers who played for national clubs, or older players
that had been passed-over by previous coaches. Personnel changes introduced by
van Basten went so deep that journalists started to write about an “orange
revolution” in the national team. During Marco van Basten’s rule the struggle for a
place on the national team was won by such players as Khalid Boulahrouz, Joris
Mathijsen, Wesley Sneijder, Robin van Persie and Dirk Kuyt, with Arjen Robben
growing into the captain’s boots. A summary of van Basten’s four year’s labour would
be dominated by a certain insufficiency; the Dutch dropped out in the second round
from both the 2006 World Cup and the Euro 2008, despite having crafted decisive
victories over World Cup champions Italy and runners-up France.
Van Basten was succeeded by Bert van Marwijk, who took the team to being
runners-up in the 2010 World Cup with a squad he’d largely put together himself
(including Mark van Bommel and Gregory van der Wiel). Media opinion emphasised
that although van Marwijk was continuing the concepts created by van Basten, he
also used the offensive potential of his players more effectively than his predecessor.
Van Marwijk’s tactics were successful, and – for the first time since 1978 – the Dutch
played in a World Cup final. But as before, they came home runners-up, this time
having yielded 1:0 to Spain.
In the EURO 2012 qualifiers the Netherlands played in group E against Sweden,
Hungary, Finland, Moldova and San Marino. The Oranje left their opponents with no
illusions, garnering 9 victories and one defeat.
During the championship tournament in Poland and the Ukraine, the Dutch will play
in Group B. They will face Denmark (9th of June, 6 pm Kharkiv, Metalist Oblast Sports
Complex); Germany (13th of June, 8:45 Kharkiv, Metalist Oblast Sports Complex), and
Portugal (17th of June, 8:45 Kharkiv, Metalist Oblast Sports Complex).
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