Category: UEFA Nations League

WinnerNetherlandsSpain

World Cup qualification draw puts Dutch team in bizar situation in Nations League

It goes against everything sport stands for: losing on purpose. But if the Dutch national team wants to qualify for the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States via the easy route, it would be advisable to lose the Nations League quarterfinals against Spain on March 20, 2025 in Rotterdam and March 23, 2025 in Spain. Crazy right?

What’s the case. In the draw for World Cup qualification, Oranje were paired with Poland, Finland, Lithuania and Malta in the event of Nations League elimination by Spain in March 2025.

Whereas in the event of reaching the Nations League Final Four in March at the expense of the Spaniards, countries of better caliber must be sidelined: Turkey, Georgia and Bulgaria.

This is dictated by UEFA, which is keen to give more weight to the Nations League and therefore makes the results in it count for World Cup 2026 qualification.

Oranje’s start of the qualification series for Canada, Mexico and the United States also depends on the result against the European champion.

If they win, qualification begins in September 2025 and involves six matches, while if they lose, Koeman’s team must complete eight qualifying matches starting in June 2025.

What remains is that only the winners of the 12 groups qualify directly for the 2026 World Cup. The runners-up, together with four still unseeded teams from the Nations League, will compete for the last four European tickets to the 2026 world finals.

World Cup qualification schedule not yet known

The playing schedule for the 2026 World Cup qualifying tournament will be announced later. The World Cup itself will be played for the first time in three countries with 48 participants.

The 104 duels will take place from June 11 to July 19, 2026. Canada has two playing cities and 13 World Cup matches, Mexico three and 13 World Cup matches and the United States 11 and 78 World Cup matches.

The opening match will take place at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City and the final will be played in New York/New Jersey. The first match of the day is at 7 p.m. Dutch time while the last match of the day is scheduled at 9 a.m. ET.

Koeman too proud to lose to Spain

By the way, it will be beyond the honor of Ronald Koeman and the internationals to lose to Spain in order to achieve a better starting position for World Cup qualification.

Given the opponents, the Orange should be able to qualify for the World Cup without any problems anyway. Nevertheless, in a top sports organization like UEFA, it remains particularly strange that you can take sporting advantage of losses.

Results drawResults draw

Fifa World Ranking

Also based on the FIFA world rankings, the winner’s pool seems considerably stronger. In it you will find the numbers 28, 68 and 82. In the other pool it is numbers 35, 69, 142 and 169.

And there is not much room for error for the Dutch: only the number one of a pool qualifies directly for the tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico. And so an easier route toward the World Cup is nice.

 

 

 

Oranje’s year fizzles out….

These matches “for the beard of the emperor” or “for the cat’s pussy” as the Dutch call it, are dreadful to watch.

Uninspiring venue. Bad pitch. Nothing to play for but honour (“what…? Honour? What is that exactly?”) and a team of misfits who have never played together in this team before. A band apart. Kluivert, Hato, Flekken, Brobbey, Zirkzee, De Ligt as LCB.

Skipper De Vrij had his first horror back pass in the first minute and would complain about the state of the pitch after the game.

First half was ok. Oranje in control. Koopmeiners in a central role, demanding every ball and having had more touches than any player (except for the two centre backs). At Juve, he’s a 10. In this Oranje, Koeman wants more security as opposed to the Hungary line up where Gravenberch and Reijnders played in front of De Jong. In this match, Wieffer and Koopmeiners were both in the engine room and Koopmeiners in particular demonstrated his will to convince Koeman.

I”m sure Kluivert and Zirkzee wanted to do the same, but they sadly failed to make an impact, although Zirkzee could have/should have scored his chance.

The only bright light, apart from Koopmeiners, was Noa Lang who had some flashes of creativity and that special cross for Brobbey’s first Oranje goal.

The second half was a tough watch. Bosnia Herzegowina fought opportunistically to give their fans something after the Germany thrashing and they ended up doing so. In the final minutes, Hato had a massive chance to secure the winner but his attempt cleared the bar.

Even with Gravenberch, Gakpo and Weghorst in the team, Orane wasn’t able to find inspiration to kill the game as the players will have tried to keep their legs intact for their upcoming club games.

Lets focus on a more fun topic. Next post will cover the Legend Match Ajax – Real Madrid.

 

Decent win Oranje, still headaches for Koeman

While the Ajax legends would dazzle in the Johan Cruyff Arena on Sunday evening, it was the legends-to-be playing Hungary in the Arena on Saturday. More on the Ajax – Real Madrid game later.

Expectations were high: Frenkie was back and we would be able to qualify for the final round in the NAtions League, if we would win. But… Hungary would take our place, if they would win it!

Where is the box?

Koeman made some wholesale changes. The tactical solution with “the box” in midfield was abandoned. Koeman’s favorite tactics work well against strong opponents, but when the other team parks the bus with low blocks, making sure the centre of the pitch is full, it might not be the best solution.

No box in midfield. Playing a 2-5-3 system it seems…

Players like Xavi Simons, Calvin Stengs or Steven Berghuis as right wingers will always come inside and join midfield, making it harder to play through the opponent. With a proper 4-3-3 and keeping the width, Oranje expected to have more attacking joy and for this reason Koeman also picked his target man in Weghorst, who would be serviced with crosses into the box (or so was the plan from the outset.

Koeman also surprised with Van Hecke as the central defending partner for Virgil van Dijk, as the Brighton man impresses regularly with his vertical passing and dribbles into midfield. Koeman clearly expected a defending Hungary, waiting for a counter opportunity.

Constant man-more situatio, with Reijnders and Gakpo completely open.

Once can imagine Koeman’s (and our) horror in the first 15 seconds when an opportunistic Hungary got some lucky touches and was able to get a player through on goal, one v one versus Verbruggen. The Brighton goalie was able to block the attempt and the ref stopped the game for off-side, but it was an early warning!

Hungary CHANCES?

Was Hungary playing all attack? Did we prepare for the wrong game?

We were off to a shaky start, as the coordination between Timber as left back and Van Dijk was wanting at times, while Van Hecke had a nervous beginning with some sloppy touches. Koeman must have implored his lads to make sure we start well. “Not starting well” is an ongoing theme for Koeman and his teams. And again, we look off the pace and in need of some quick fixes.

Four Hungarians versus two defenders…. oops!

And this rest-defence topic would stick to the team for the whole game. Yes, we scored four and kept a clean sheet, but Hungary could have scored three goals on the break themselves if their final ball was a bit better. Still a lot to improve for Koeman.

Here we go, two versus one here

Having said that, that midfield does swing. Gravenberch and Frenkie together is very nice on the eyes. I also thought Malen and Dumfries worked really well on the right ( Dumfries with a goal and an assist, well done!). The switch from side to side worked well and Van Hecke got himself into the game well, with his passing and dribbles.

Second half, we played them like a Boa Constrictor would, sucking the oxygen out of them but still they found too many changes to break through of defence. At one time they got flagged for off side which in my view was level.

Work to be done!

Still work to be done for Koeman, but I think he will not use this midfield trio in the next round, when we play Portugal, Spain or France. I do assume it’s back to the midfield box then, with a Schouten to shield our backline. When Dumfries or Frimpong are in the team, they can definitely take that right flank and a more controlling midfielder can sniff out the danger in time to protect us.

There was a medical incident in the first half, which will have had an impact on the Hungarians: their assistant coach Adam Szalai got unwell and lost consciousness and panic broke out on the sidelines. Obviously, the ref stopped the match and it took the medics 15 minutes or so to deal with the situation. When the poor chap was back on planet Earth and on his way to the hospital, the match resumed with a penalty, as a Hungarian defender had just handled the ball.

So the double punch of the assistant coach potentially in life threatening situation and a goal conceded right after will have had impact on the Magyars. Weghorst scored and decided to celebrate his lion claw celebration which was frowned upon on social media, by people believing he should not have done that.

I personally think it’s a bit over the top. The Hungarians decided to play on and then it’s just another match again and of course you can celebrate your goal! Is my view. As if celebrating more modestly would help the guy more in his rehab?

It was great to see Frenkie again, considering he has hardly played after being out for so long, he did amazingly well and would be my Man of the Match ( the media picked Denzel). You can see he is still a bit rusty, but what a joy to have Gravenberch and Frenkie in that engine room.

I secretly wonder if the NT coach will consider player Frenkie as left centre back once Virgil retires, allowing for a midfield with Gravenberch, Schouten and Reijnders, while Frenkie can play out from the back like Baresi/Scirea/DannyBlind/Beckenbauer used to do… Put Van der Ven in as left back as he can cover for Frenkie with his speed.

But that is for later….

Bosnia Line-up?

The Tuesday match versus Bosnia will not be very relevant for the competition so I hope we’ll see some interesting changes.

I would play Frenkie again, for a half, so he can build up his rhythm a bit more, but otherwise I would go for:

Oranje Hungary for success!

And here we go again chaps! Time for Oranje banter. Stop hiding and come out and play!

If Frenkie de Jong is back in the squad, why aren’t you back here?

Oranje only needs to win the Hungary game on Saturday to qualify for the final round of the Nations League. I personally don’t get super enthusiastic about the Nations League, but I do love to see my team play well. The World Cup is where it’s at for me!

This Nations League round, we had a very decent and at times impressive first international break, in which we played a really good half against Germany and the second international break was the opposite, with a pretty lacklustre Oranje playing a terrible half versus Germany.

We scored 5 against Bosnia, kept Germany at 2-2 in Holland, then we drew against Hungary away, and lost 1-0 in Germany versus our Easterly neighbours. One win, one loss and two draws.

But the most important factor we should be looking at is: how did we play?

How did we play?

Did we dominate? Did we manage chances? Were we able to bring our danger men in to the game (Gakpo, Xavi, Reijnders, Brobbey). Did we see any flow?

We all remember the disappointing campaign in the “Covid” Euros, the dreadful World Cup campaign under Van Gaal in Qatar and in part the flat Euros under Koeman.

Remember the Euros under De Boer? We did well in the group stages and ended up seemingly in a comfortable chair on our way to the finals, only to be ousted by the Czechs in the first knock out game?  I remember the circumstances: Oranje only flew to the humid mid European venue the day before the game and the team did seem very leggy. De Ligt got red-carded. Malen missed a sitter. And we ended up losing.

Or the Qatar World Cup. Playing 5 at the back. Never really impressing, until…. the last 15 mins of the Argentina game when Van Gaal played 4 attackers. Immediate results. But in the extra time, Van Gaal directed his men back to defend again. And Koeman also had an easy route to the finals and is probably proud to have made it to the semis, but the quality of the football was under par.

Our squad

So, out with the old guard: no more De Roon, Blind, Wijnaldum and – for now – Memphis.

With exciting players like Lang, Gakpo, Brobbey, Xavi, Reijnders and more, we expected to see some joyful and adventurous play. And we did, in that first week. But not even close in that second international break.

During the presser before the Hungary game, Koeman was asked about it. “I too felt the drop in quality was a bit much. But we were dealing with two issues: the plan didn’t work and the individual quality of the players let us down. Germany in particular played differently and we had trouble adapting to the game and finding the free man.”

Koeman also mentioned the lack of football intelligence: “Don’t forget we used to have a number of “captains” in the team and we missed Ake, Van Dijk, Frenkie for these matches while before this campaign we had Daley Blind and Gini Wijnaldum as well who would be able to read the game. And in those situations you can easily look like it’s all really bad, but it is sometimes just a little tweak that is needed to get a better performance.”

Memphis Depay

Memphis performances in Brazil were mentioned and the question was: why isn’t he in the squad now? He plays his games, he is important for Corinthians… Koeman: “Well, not good enough yet and not fit enough. I am watching his games, I am frequently in contact with him and I get his data too so I know. The timing is not right now. Also, I started this campaign with these players and I don’t want to interrupt our process.” Asked whether bringing Memphis back in the future would be for Depay’s ambition to become Oranje’s top goal scorer, Koeman said: “That will definitely count for him, but not for me. Although…. if he scores 6 or 7 more goals, that will be good for me as well of course.”

Frenkie was a question mark on Sunday, when he had to abandon Barca’s game after taking a hit. Koeman: “Yes, I have to say, I did check in immediately via the app and luckily he messaged me to say he thought it would be fine. Just a knock on the shin I believe. He will train with us and we’ll check him and keep an eye on him but he should be ok to play.”

Who will play

Koeman and the reporters kept on returning to the midfield question: who will Koeman play? Is Gravenberch/De Jong/Reijnders the logical combi? Or De Jong/Koopmeiners/Xavi? And don’t forget Timber. Koeman agreed we are doing well in the midfield area.

Apart from the available players, there is also still Veerman and Schouten, while Koeman also called Ken Taylor of Ajax. “He used to be part of the squad and I was critical on him, last season. I thought it was only fair to let him know that I felt he is doing well again and he’s not forgotten.”

The reporters asked about Feyenoord talent Milambo, the 19 year old wizard who impressed so much in this season. “Yes, there is him but I can see others as well, I think Sem Steijn at Twente and Mijnans at AZ Alkmaar are interesting lads to follow, but there are only 3 or sometimes 4 spots available, so it’s not easy.”

There were some critical questions about the strikers. Brobbey having a dry spell, Zirkzee not scoring much…. The national team manager didn’t agree. “I think Brobbey is playing really well and that means the goals will come. He scored a zinger this weekend, right?

And Zirkzee, he’s another type of player and also didn’t play that much this season. And at times, you also need to look at the players around them. What service do they get?”

Lastly, Koeman was asked about the value of the Nations League. Is this a good way to prepare players? The former Barca coach was clear in his response: “It’s a prize. Another trophy. So even though it doesn’t yet have the allure of a World Cup, it will count on your CV. And it’s a more serious way of organising games, as opposed to the friendlies we used to have. We’re in Group A and we have been there from the start. Only Group A teams can make it into the finals and win this. And don’t forget, this is also a backstop, for teams that can’t qualify for the World Cup, the Nations League finals allows for participation in a series of play-offs allowing you a ticket for the World Cup. That is nice to have, eve if you don’t really expect to need it.”

Line-up

I think Koeman will play with a strong team versus Hungary, as we want to win and need to win.

Verbruggen

Dumfries – De Vrij – Van Dijk – Timber

Frenkie – Gravenberch

Simons – Reijnders – Gakpo

Brobbey

I think we’ll win this 4-1 allowing for Oranje to experiment a tad versus Bosnia Herzegovina.

We might see Olij make his debut against Bosnia and a return to the team for Koopmeiners and Lang.

Nations League

Nations League matches Oranje 11 and 14 October

For the Dutch national team, the new Nations League cycle started with a win over Bosnia-Herzegovina and a draw against Germany. Some say it’s a glorified practice tournament, but there’s definitely money to be made. This is what’s at stake for Oranje.

What can be won in the Nations League?

In short, the Nations League is a safety net in case the Netherlands does not qualify for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada or for the play-offs. In December 2024, the European qualifying cycle will take place. The Netherlands then finds itself in a group of four or five countries. Only the 12 group winners qualified for the World Cup.

The group number two was eliminated in the playoffs. Should the Netherlands finish third, fourth or even fifth in the group qualification, the Nations League might offer a way out. The top four group winners in the Nations League (excluding all divisions) who failed to qualify for the World Cup qualifiers were still allowed to play in the playoffs.

A total of 16 European countries are represented at the World Cup. The twelve group winners of the qualification plus four teams from the playoffs. The play-offs thus consist of the twelve numbers two from qualifying, supplemented by four Nations League teams.

How high should the Netherlands finish in the Nations League?

The format of the Nations League is different this time than in previous years. In previous editions, only the number one in the pool qualified for the Final Four (the semi-final). This time, the Netherlands will have to finish in the first two in the group. The first and second teams from each group advanced to the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals will be over two matches. The draw was held in November 2024. The semi-finals and the (consolation) finals are one competition.

The number four in the pool are relegated directly to Division B. The number three enter the playoffs to try to avoid relegation. But if the Netherlands wants to have that safety net behind them, it must be first in the group, preferably with as many points as possible.

In addition, a place in the quarterfinals provides an extra advantage. The quarterfinalists of the Nations League end up in the World Cup draw in Pot 1, thus avoiding other top countries. This is why it is important for the Netherlands to finish in the first two in the Nations League pool.

The selection of Oranje for the nations league

Keepers: Mark Flekken, Nick Olij and Bart Verbruggen.

Defenders: Virgil van Dijk, Denzel Dumfries, Jeremie Frimpong, Lutsharel Geertruida, Jorrel Hato, Matthijs de Ligt, Ian Maatsen, Micky van de Ven and Stefan de Vrij.

Midfielders: Ryan Gravenberch, Tijjani Reijnders, Xavi Simons, Guus Til, Quinten Timber and Mats Wieffer.

Attackers: Brian Brobbey, Cody Gakpo, Justin Kluivert, Donyell Malen and Joshua Zirkzee.