Euro 2008 Team Profile: Netherlands

Nickname(s): Oranje, Clockwork Orange,
Orange Crush, The Orangemen. You see a theme there?

Jersey: Oranje, of course. Powder blue for away days.

FIFA World Ranking: 10th as of May 2008. 8th out of 16 Euro 2008 teams.

Fixtures/Schedule: Group C (of death and all that)
9th June vs Italy (Berne) 20:45
13th June vs France (Berne) 20:45
17th June vs Romania (Berne) 20:45

Coach: Marco van Basten.

Did it all as a player, including winning Euro 2008 ‘88 (well spotted chubby!) Hadn’t done a great deal as a manager before taking the big job (Ajax reserves counts, but only a little). Made the bold move of picking players from outside the big three and not being afraid to drop big names.

Was criticized for dropping goalmachine Ruud van Nistelrooy for the big World Cup 2006 Second Round game against Portugal (Netherlands lost) and has lost the services of Clarence Seedorf this summer after failing to accommodate the Milan man in the team.

You can look at MvB two ways: Either he’s a brave boss unafraid to ruffle some star feathers for the good of the team, or he’s a bad man manager who falls out with too many important Oranje footballers.

Will be quitting after the tournament take over at Ajax.

Expectations: Loaded with talent and definitely good enough to win it. Plus there are all kinds of similarities between 1988 and 2008. But it ain’t called the Group of Death for nothing folks.

Key Player: Plenty to choose from, but I’m going to argue Edwin van der Sar.

I’m going to argue that on pure form he’s the best keeper in the world right now, especially after just winning the Champions League for Man Utd with a penalty save. From a French striker. VDS is also key because one his backups, Henk Timmer, looked a bit dodgy recently.

Other Key Players: Take your pick. Ruud van Nistelrooy will score the goals, if MvB gives him the chance. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar can do the same, and Robin van Persie will provide an extra dimension if he recovers in time to play. Wesley Sneijder will pull the strings in midfield, ably assisted by Rafael Van der Vaart. Maybe not as strong at the back as going forward, but Mario Melchiot and Tim de Cler will be important at right and left back respectively.

X-Factor: Robin van Persie. If he’s fit and on form, this could be his tournament. If not, it won’t (well, duh.) Team morale is also important, will MvB’s hardline approach produce discipline and team spirit? Or mutiny and anarchy?

Squad:

Team Blogger: Jan mans the legendary Netherlands blog. Here’s his take on the team’s chances:

Oranje (that’s what we call the Dutch team) has a couple of challenges this tournament. In the first place, in order to play Dutch Total Football, one needs world class defenders who can build up. Like we had in the past, with Koeman, Blind, De Boer and Rijkaard. The problem today is, we don’t have players with these qualities. Still, the Dutch team manager, Marco van Basten, and the Dutch fans still want Oranje to play like Oranje always played… So that will be a challenge, to say the least.

Secondly, some of our key players are still slightly injured ( Robin van Persie) or just back from injury (Robben, Van Nistelrooy, Van der Sar). That could be an advantage - the players are well rested - but could also be a major disadvantage ( rhythm).

On top of that, there is the level of expectation issue. We, the Dutch, always feel we are the best. We rather lose a tournament (which we did many many times with success) in style than win it like…well…Italians. That arrogance, sometimes gets the better of us. See 1974, 1990, 1992, 2000, and so on….

However, despite the lack of quality at the back, we do have some of the finest creative players in Europe. Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben, Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder, Ibrahim Afellay… And that’s even without Clarence Seedorf… Combine these ingredients with work horse Dirk Kuyt, tropical surprise Ryan Babel and goal scoring machines Van Nistelrooy and Huntelaar and we could have a recipe for success…

Holland is in the mother of groups of death. Italy and France played the World Cup finals two years back and Rumania may seem easy in this group, they did top the qualifications in their group. Which was, by the way, also “our” group. So…anything can happen. Fact is, that at least one of the three “big nations” (France, Italy or Holland) will go home after the group stages. It will all depend on details, on the form of the day and maybe on a referee mistake.

There’s a fine line in this tournament between winning the title and being sent home without a point.

Time will tell what this EC has in store for us. In 1988 however, coach Michels changed his game plan after the first game and brought slightly injured Van Basten on in the second game. The rest is history. And history does have the tendency to repeat itself.

In all honesty: I don’t care too much if Oranje will win yes or no. I truly hope we’ll get a good tournament with exiting football and “may the best team win”. If it’s Oranje: great! If it’s not, too bad. My biggest wish is that we won’t see too many referee blundering and diving like we saw in the WC2006…

Have fun, all….

More from Jan at the Netherlands Blog.

Random International Moments:

That famous Marco van Basten goal from the Euro ‘88 final, Dutch football’s finest hour:

The Cruyff turn. Hated by fullbacks everywhere.

Bergkamp’s wondergoal vs Argentina in the 1998 World Cup quarterfinal…

And the semifinal penalty defeat vs Brazil in the next round. Netherlands rival England for penalty shootout misery.