Mini football figure - Netherlands
Miniature football player with kit of the national team of the Netherlands.
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The Dutch national football team is the football team of the Netherlands. Since 1905, 761 players have played for the team organised by the Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbal Bond. In 829 matches, the Dutch national team has won 420 games, drawn 182 and lost 227. They have participated in ten World Cups and ten European Championships. Their greatest successes were the European Championship title in 1988, as well as three World Cup runner-ups in 1974, 1978 and 2010. Furthermore, the national team won three bronze medals at the Olympic Games in 1908, 1912 and 1920 and came third at the World Cup in 2014. On 24 August 2011, the team topped the FIFA world rankings alone for the first time. Due to the orange jerseys that have been traditional since 21 December 1907 and the royal house of Orange-Nassau that rules the Netherlands, the team is also referred to as Oranje elftal (orange eleven) or Oranje for short, in German also incorrectly in the plural as Oranjes.
The 1980s - the road to the only title
With the 1980 European Championship, after the stars of the successful generation had ended their careers or passed their zenith, the glory years of the Dutch national team came to an end. A rather old team - the mainstays like team captain Ruud Krol and midfield strategist Arie Haan had already passed the age of 30 or were close to it like René and Willy van de Kerkhof and Johnny Rep, only Romeo Zondervan and John Metgod, who did not play, were born after 1956 - did not find its way back to its former tournament form in Italy, especially in the group match against Germany.
In this match, W. van de Kerkhof was unable to get a grip on his brilliant direct opponent, midfielder Bernd Schuster, which proved to be the deciding factor in the match. The 20-year-old Schuster set up two of Klaus Allofs' three goals. Even though the Netherlands came within 2:3 with an unjustified penalty kick by Rep, caused by 19-year-old substitute Lothar Matthäus, and a goal by van de Kerkhof in the last ten minutes, the German victory was never in danger. In the final group match against the ČSSR, the eleven needed a win to at least make it into the third-place match, but played without inspiration, especially in the first half, and only managed a 1-1 draw in a game that was hard fought by the Czechs and Slovaks. "My players seem to have been on holiday in their minds," said Bonds coach Jan Zwartkruis after the match.
Zwartkruis' time as coach came to an end with the mini-World Cup in Uruguay at the turn of the year 1980/81, which was not very successful for the European teams overall. In the spring of 1981, Kees Rijvers took over the team to lead it to the 1982 World Cup. However, the Netherlands had to concede the World Cup to France and Belgium and even finished fourth in their group behind Ireland after losing the decisive match in Paris 2-0.
Two years later, the qualification for the 1984 European Championship ended in a shock for Rijvers, his team and the whole country: after a 12-1 victory by Spain in the last match of Group 7 against Malta, the European Championship participation that was thought to be safe went to the Spaniards - and that with the same goal difference only because of two more goals scored. The qualifying campaign for the World Cup 1986 also ended under Beenhakker with what Enzo Scifo called a "very close call" against the Netherlands: they had to concede to their old rivals Belgium, of all teams, in two relegation matches due to the away goals rule - after Georges Grün scored the final goal in the 85th minute of the second leg in Rotterdam.
It was only under Bonds coach Rinus Michels that the Netherlands returned to the limelight in 1988 with success at the European Championship in Germany and their first footballing title. The cornerstone of the team was the trio of Frank Rijkaard in defence, Ruud Gullit in midfield and top scorer Marco van Basten in attack, who were also successful together at AC Milan.
1988-1994: Last years of the 1988 generation
Since winning the European Championship in 1988, the Netherlands have played in every major tournament except the 2002 World Cup, but never made it past the semi-finals in the next 20 years. In the qualifiers for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, the Dutch national team faced Wales, Germany again and Finland. The Netherlands qualified for the finals as group winners ahead of arch-rivals Germany, where the eleven met Egypt, England and Ireland in the group stage. With three draws in all three games, the Dutch eleven qualified for the round of 16, where they were eliminated with a 2-1 loss to arch-rivals Germany. The round of 16 match against West Germany was remembered for Frank Rijkaard's spitting attack on German striker Rudi Völler, with both Rijkaard and Völler seeing red cards. In the following qualification for the 1992 European Championship in Sweden, Oranje played in a group with Portugal, Greece, Malta and Finland. The Netherlands qualified for the tournament as group winners and met Scotland, the CIS and Germany in the group stage and qualified for the semi-finals after a draw against the CIS and two wins against Scotland and Germany, where the Netherlands met Denmark. The Netherlands twice equalised goals from Denmark's Henrik Larsen through Dennis Bergkamp and Frank Rijkaard, and after 90 minutes the score was 2-2, with no decisive goal for either team in extra time, so a penalty shoot-out had to decide in favour of one of the two sides. Marco van Basten missed, so that the Netherlands lost 4:5. In the qualifiers for the 1994 World Cup in the United States, the Netherlands played Norway, Portugal, Turkey, San Marino and England. The Dutch qualified for the finals in the USA in second place behind the Norwegians and ahead of England. The Netherlands played in a group with Saudi Arabia, Belgium and Morocco. Equal on points and with the same goal difference as Saudi Arabia and Belgium, the Netherlands qualified as group winners for the round of 16, where the Dutch team won 2-0 against Ireland. In the quarter-finals, the selection was eliminated by eventual world champions Brazil with a 3-2 defeat.
Penalty defeats and home European Championship (1994-2001)
In the following qualification for the 1996 European Championship in England, the Dutch national team finished second in a group with Luxembourg, Norway, the Czech Republic, Malta and Belarus. A 1-0 win in the deciding match against Ireland qualified the eleven for the finals in the "motherland of football". The Netherlands were drawn in a group with Scotland, Switzerland and hosts England. A goalless draw was followed by a 2-0 win against Switzerland. Despite a 4-1 defeat in the final group match against England, the Netherlands qualified for the last 16 as group runners-up ahead of the Scots, who were level on points, and with the same goal difference as Scotland because the Dutch national team scored more goals. In the quarter-finals, the Netherlands were eliminated by France on penalties. The Netherlands then played in the qualifiers for the 1998 World Cup in France in a group with Wales, Belgium, San Marino and Turkey. With a one-point lead over their neighbours from Belgium, the Dutch team qualified for the tournament in France and played against Belgium again in the group stage as well as against South Korea and Mexico. With one win and two draws, the Dutch qualified for the last 16, where they beat Yugoslavia 2-1 with a late goal from Edgar Davids. In the quarter-finals, the Netherlands met Argentina and won again 2-1. In the semi-finals, Guus Hiddink's team was eliminated by Brazil on penalties. The Netherlands automatically qualified for the 2000 European Championship as co-hosts. In the group phase, the team now coached by Frank Rijkaard played against the Czech Republic, Denmark and France and won the group with the full score of 9 points. In the quarter-finals they beat Yugoslavia 6-1 and were eliminated in the semi-finals on penalties against Italy, with Frank de Boer and Patrick Kluivert each missing a penalty in normal time and de Boer again, Jaap Stam and Paul Bosvelt failing to score in the shoot-out. The Dutch national team failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea after finishing only third in a group with Ireland, Cyprus, Portugal, Andorra and Estonia. Louis van Gaal then resigned as coach.
2001-2008: Rise of the generation Robben, van der Vaart, Sneijder, …
Dick Advocaat, who had already coached the team until 1994, created a rebuilding process. This included the integration of van der Vaart into the regular team. In the qualifiers for the 2004 European Championship in Portugal, the Dutch team played Belarus, Austria, the Czech Republic and Moldova. The Netherlands finished second in their group after losing 3-1 to the Czech Republic in the penultimate match and met Scotland in the play-offs between the group runners-up. A 1-0 first leg win in Glasgow was followed by a 6-1 thrashing in the return leg in the Netherlands. The Netherlands were drawn in the group stage with arch-rivals Germany, the Czech Republic and Latvia. In the opening match against runners-up Germany, the Netherlands had been trailing 1-0 since the 30th minute through a goal by Torsten Frings before van Nistelrooy equalised; this was the same as the final score. In the second match against the Czech Republic, the Netherlands were 2-0 up before losing 3-2. A 3-0 win in the last match against outsiders Latvia and the simultaneous defeat of the Germans in the parallel match against the Czech Republic qualified the Netherlands for the quarter-finals, where they beat Sweden on penalties. In the semi-finals, the Netherlands were eliminated by hosts Portugal. Bondscoach Dick Advocaat resigned after the tournament. Under his direction, Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben, among others, made their debuts in the Dutch national team. In the qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the Netherlands faced the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Finland, Andorra and Romania as well as Finland. With only two draws against Macedonia in ten wins, Oranje qualified as group winners for the finals in the country of their arch-rivals and met Serbia-Montenegro, Ivory Coast and Argentina in the group stage. The Netherlands won the opening game against Serbia-Montenegro with 1-0 with a goal by Robben in the 18th minute. In the second game, the eleven won 2-1 against the Ivory Coast with goals by van Persie and van Nistelrooy. A goalless draw against Argentina meant that the Netherlands missed out on winning the group and met Portugal in the last 16. In the "Battle of Nuremberg", in which several Portuguese and Dutch players saw cards, the Dutch side lost 1-0, with Khalid Boulahrouz and van Bronckhorst seeing yellow cards. On the Portuguese side, Costinha and Deco were sent off.
Although the Elftal suffered only two defeats in 12 matches in qualifying for the 2008 European Championship, their rarely convincing performances drew criticism at home. In the so-called "Group of Death" C at the European Championship, the Dutch first defeated world champions Italy and runners-up France as well as Romania with a "B eleven" and were thus considered favourites for the title. However, they were eliminated in the quarter-finals by the Russians, coached by Dutchman Guus Hiddink, with a 3-1 defeat.
Runner-up title in 2010 and two missed tournaments (2008-2017)
After the 2008 European Championship, van Marwijk took over as Bonds coach as planned. There were initially few changes to the squad, apart from the resignations of van der Sar and Ruud van Nistelrooij. Not surprisingly, van Bommel made his comeback, playing in defensive midfield in his first international match under the guidance of his father-in-law. They drew 1-1 with Russia in Moscow and lost 2-1 in the second friendly against Australia in Eindhoven, where Stekelenburg – the successor of van der Sar as number one - was shown the red card, giving Henk Timmer his sixth Oranje appearance. Ryan Babel returned to the team after injury. Huntelaar took van Nistelrooij's place as the top man in the first few games.
In the World Cup qualifiers, the first match was a 2-1 win in Macedonia. In the second match, Oranje defeated Iceland 2-0, with Edwin van der Sar celebrating his "comeback" in Rotterdam and thus his 129th appearance for the national team. Van Marwijk had convinced him to stand in for the injured Stekelenburg for two more games in the World Cup qualifiers. Dirk Marcellis was the first newcomer of the Van Marwijk era to make his debut for the Elftal, whose defence he also reinforced in the following match in Oslo. Thanks to a goal from van Bommel, the Netherlands won 1-0 against Norway after an unattractive match and thus remained without a point in their third World Cup qualifier. In the last friendly match in 2008 against Sweden, there was a 3:1 victory, Michel Vorm made his debut in goal. The goals were scored by van Persie and Kuyt.
In their first match of the World Cup 2010, they drew 2-2 with England after leading 2-0 at half-time. The team - without injured regulars van Bommel and van Bronckhorst - failed to match their pre-summer form in that friendly. A friendly encounter with Japan, who also qualified for the 2010 World Cup - the first international against the Asians and the first also in Enschede - saw Oranje win a flattering 3-0. The goals came in the final 20 minutes from van Sneijder, Persie, and substitute Huntelaar. With Loovens in defence and the substitutes Elia and goalkeeper Velthuizen after half-time, three players made their debut for the national team. Particularly because of the first-half performance, Bonds coach van Marwijk spoke of the "worst game under my management."
The Dutch also won their eighth and final World Cup qualifier with a 1-0 victory in Glasgow four days later. In doing so, they equalled the record set by the West German team in the 1982 World Cup qualifiers. The goal against Scotland was scored by substitute Elia.
They then drew 0-0 with the Socceroos in their first international match in Australia and Oceania, and the same result saw Oranje separate from the Italian team in Pescara in November in a benefit match for the victims of the Abruzzo earthquake in April that year. In the third consecutive goalless draw, against Paraguay in November 2009, Wout Brama and Otman Bakkal made their debuts with short appearances in Heerenveen. In early March 2010, Bonds coach van Marwijk extended his contract until after the 2012 European Championship, and the first international of the year saw a 2-1 win over the USA, with Ron Vlaar making his Oranje comeback after more than four years. For the World Cup in South Africa, the Netherlands were seeded as one of the group heads on the basis of the FIFA world rankings and were thus given preference over Portugal and France, who had performed better at previous tournaments. There, the Dutch played Denmark, Japan and Cameroon in Group E, against whom they emerged as group winners. As the only unbeaten team in the tournament apart from New Zealand, they faced Spain in the final, where their 1-0 win ended the Netherlands' unbeaten run of 25 matches, including 14 wins from all competition matches in the tournament, including qualifying.
At the 2012 European Championship, the team coached by van Marwijk was eliminated as runners-up in the preliminary round after three defeats. Van Marwijk resigned.
Around a week after van Marwijk's resignation, the Dutch FA presented van Gaal as the new head coach. In the Netherlands' first match at the 2014 World Cup, van Gaal and his team won 5-1 against 2010 final opponents and reigning European and World Champions Spain, won Group B without dropping points by beating Australia 3-2 and Chile 2-0, beat Mexico 2-1 in the round of 16 and Costa Rica on penalties in the quarter-finals (0-0; 4:3 ), but failed to reach the final against Argentina, also on penalties (0:0; 2:4). In the match for third place, the Dutch beat Brazil 3-0, with national coach van Gaal making a novelty by substituting the second substitute goalkeeper Michel Vorm in the 93rd minute. With this substitution, all 23 players in the World Cup squad had played at least one minute for the Netherlands at the tournament in Brazil.
After the tournament, van Gaal resigned as national coach. He was succeeded by Guus Hiddink, who now became Bondscoach for the second time.
2018: Rebuild by Ronald Koeman, Louis van Gaal and Frank de Boer
In February 2018, Ronald Koeman was introduced as the new Bonds coach. Koeman relied on a three-man or five-man defensive line. In March 2018, Wesley Sneijder retired from the national team; In September 2018, he celebrated his departure from the national team in a test match in Amsterdam against Peru, with 21-year-old de Jong coming on as a substitute midway through the second half. In Group 1 of League A of the newly created Nations League, the Dutch national team faced reigning world champions France and Germany after failing to qualify for the finals in Russia in the spring. The first leg against the German team in Amsterdam was won 3:0. On the one hand, it was the highest victory against Germany and, on the other, the first win against the German national team in 16 years. This was followed by a 2-0 win against world champions France in Rotterdam on 16 November, with goals from Georginio Wijnaldum and Memphis Depay achieving the first victory against the Bleus in ten years. The German national team was relegated to League B before the last match due to the Dutch victory. In the second leg, the Germans took an early lead with goals from Timo Werner and Leroy Sané and allowed few chances in their own half. The equaliser came in the 85th minute through Quincy Promes, and the powerful captain and defender van Dijk, who had been ordered into the attack by coach Koeman, finally scored on the volley in the 91st minute to make it 2-2. The team thus entered the final round of the Final Four as group winners with Switzerland, Portugal and England and reached their final after defeating England 3-1; the Elftal lost this 0-1 to Portugal.
The Netherlands met Germany again in the qualifiers for Euro 2021. Other opponents were Estonia, Belarus and Northern Ireland. As group runners-up, they qualified directly for the finals
In the preparation phase for the European Championship, de Boer broke with the 4-3-3 system that had been "sacred" to many Dutch supporters until then and had the team play with a three-man backline, which became a five-man formation if necessary with the addition of two attacking wingers. He relied on established players such as Daley Blind, Memphis Depay, Jasper Cillessen, Georginio Wijnaldum, and Matthijs de Ligt and also included young players such as Ryan Gravenberch ,Donyell Malen and Cody Gakpo, as well as Denzel Dumfries, who had been called up to the national team relatively late on under Koeman. The Netherlands took full points in the group stage, going two out of three games without conceding a goal; Cillessen, who was absent due to a COVID 19 infection, was replaced by 38-year-old Ajax keeper Maarten Stekelenburg. Full-back Dumfries was involved in the team's first five goals, while captain Wijnaldum scored the most goals for his country at the finals, as he had done in the qualifying phase. The team played its round of 16 match against the Czech Republic, and the first half was even. In the 55th minute, central defender de Ligt committed a handball in the penalty area, which was punished by the referee with a sending-off, after which Oranje were now facing at least 35 minutes of deprivation. De Boer did not improve defensively in the aftermath and, with the substitution of two attacking players, went for the lead rather than defensive cover. After a little more than an hour, the Czechs took the lead, and in the 80th minute they increased it to 2:0, which was the final score. In the aftermath of the elimination, the Dutch media made statements such as "All in all, this is a European Championship for which the Oranje coach and players should be deeply ashamed" or "Instead of building on Koeman's work, de Boer threw everything the Dutch school stands for into the Amsterdam canals a few weeks before the European Championship. In Budapest (the venue for the round of 16), the main price was paid for this unbelievable stupidity."Two days after the match against the Czech Republic, Bondscoach de Boer resigned from his post.He explained himself by saying "This pressure is now only getting bigger, and that's not a healthy situation for me", referring, among other things, to the reactions he had faced since taking office and also referring to an "unwinnable constellation" with regard to the upcoming continuation of the World Cup qualifiers. He was replaced by Louis van Gaer in July 2021.
At the end of July 2021, Louis van Gaal succeeded de Boer for his third term as coach, with former internationals Danny Blind and Henk Fraser (also coach of Feyenoord Rotterdam in parallel) appointed as his assistants.
Data sheet
- Continent
- Europe
- Heigth
- 61 mm
- Weigth
- 40 gramms
- Gender
- Man
- Material
- Metal