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.
Lineup, per VI:
Verbruggen; Van de Ven, Van Dyke, De Vrij, Dumfries; Q. Timber, Gravenberch, Reijnders; Gakpo, Zirkzee, Simons.
Zirkzee playing like Manchester United… 75th minute and still no changes in the team..
Wow, looks like the oranges are happy with a 1-1 result. Against Germany we will suffer a lot, no strikers that can finish, not even a simple header (Brobbey).
I, too, was surprised that they made no changes until the 75th minute, too.
Germany didn’t look great against Bosnia either. With so many games, there are bound to be bad, uninspired performances if the same guys are playing game after game. Both teams were likely looking forward to Monday. I imagine the NT will be better in Munich.
Top two teams will qualify, so no reason not to rotate players as much as possible in these games. Its win/win. Maatsen, Frimpong, Kluivert, Hato, Malen, Wieffer, who don’t usually start would have provided more energy out there today, Koeman could have seen them all on the field, and the other guys would have been rested for Monday.
OT. Johan, When I come on to the site, I can’t see if there are any comments unless I log in. Previously, you could see the comments just by coming on to the site, no need to log in.
Hi Andrew, ok I saw the problem as well that you need to be logged-in, i made a change in the settings of the blog, please confirm that its ok now at your side please….
Hi Johan. Problem fixed. All good.
great, thanks for the feedback and help.
Halo there folks. I don’t think koeman is the right man to lead the team to World Cup. My take from the game. Won’t go on the players but koeman is not the man to lead this team to the WC.
I will start with both coaches and I have said this several times when koeman meets up with a good coach who can counter his tatical game, he always finds himself gasping for air. Marco Rossi is not a household name coach but he has really made a name for himself being the coach of hungry team since 2018. When the game started it looked like it was going to be another of those one way traffic game where the NT look in control and with poessesion . But they got pegged when hungry scored on the side playing defensively and that was tatic that hungry deployed. I think their GK deserves a laud of applauses for his performances.
I still don’t understand why koeman is persistent with this tatic of centering things around dumfries. The same old,one flanks is offensive and the other defensively and which only shines vs average teams. Yes he came up with the goal and was probably the man of the match but these are the typical games where you expect him to give those type of performance especially when hungry defended throughout the game and until the red card. My point here is this. First of all koeman tatic of having him play high and LB Ake/ Van der ven dropping to back three will crumble if dumfries is not avaliable or gets injured and then the back up players Frimpong and make shift likes of Geertruida which is often the case are neither on the same page or have the same grip in the team given minutes played and are often one step down. This is the very reason why every time there is injuries, the team is in a disorientation state. The balance offsets. I mean you look at Frimpong situation, if dumfries gets injured, what do you expect him to do. Then koeman comes up with pussy excuses depicting injuries to hide his blemishes.
I mean if you think about it and did watch the games, the Hungarian were vulnerable on ariel balls but they played to koeman tatical back and lateral passing game and which they defensively and compactly closed of well. When gakpo took over the set piece duties then it came to light what was the best way to counter the Hungarian defensive tatic and again koeman came out second best in the tatical battle of the coaches.
Secondly I think it’s well proven in games when dumfries is stuck at the back defending and especially when the poessession is not in their favour, that’s when you see him shouting and yelling because this is when that tatic of his simply crumbles. Then he resorts to the bench but only to complicate things more and if not hope for weghorst to pull something out of the hat . unfortunately he left him out this time.
Koeman used the same tatic at euros. One flank offensive and the other defensive and it again flourished with average teams and dragged vs big opponents and he still is continuing trying to prove what? Why not look for RW. Kluivert and Lang are both technical enough to play on the right and this is one area he shud be build on but he he still focused and persistent with that one flank offensive and one flank defensive tatic. How he subbed on til is beyond my humanly imagination.
I was reading an article on how the Dutch critics were against these nation leagues games citing it as useless and burden on players. To think about it the FIFA has regulated the 5 Subs rule so why not take advantage of this but the problem is koeman just sticks to the same recipe and same line up.
Imagine if this game would have been in a tournament. It’s gonna happen again and again. His tatic is becoming obvious building around dumfries. Once vs teams dumfries gets defensively occupied more, this tatic of his will crumble down like house of cards. Like Spain vs cucurella and Williams, Italy, Dimarco.
The other thing to note is how other teams are rotating their players and building good depth. I was watching Spain and portgual. Injuries aside they are using extensive squad with rotation. Especially with the top players they have all around. If you compare this to NT and koeman , look at Frimpong and Maatsen situation and how dumfries role dictates the tatic and lineup. Once again the day dumfries gets injured or with teams gets pegged at back. It’s gonna be the same old story.
The problem is that our strikers don´t play or hardly play or play poorly, Gakpo hardly plays because he is second on his position, Brobbey is struggling at Ajax, Zirkzee is Manchester United, nobody has been playing great lately.
Dumfries always brings a lot of energy, he made already 8 goals for the national team ! He is an extra weapon that any coach likes to use, at PSV it was like that, now in Italy as well.
Koeman did change the team very late to get a result, the problem is there is not a good Dutch coach available to replace him. He is one of the top3 Dutch coaches that would fit the Dutch NT, Slot currently at Liverpool and Bosz at PSV. Ten Hag needs to get back on track in a different environment so no option for now.
In the end we will go to 2026 with Koeman leading, 2 more years to get better players, but this has to be done at the clubs, not the national team…. We need a killer striker, the rest has lots of potencial, Brobbey needs to get his act together and start delivering ( to start with against Germany plz) ,
Let’s see how the team copes with Van dinks absence ence and let’s see what will koeman excuses after the game.