I’m sure some of you will have seen the plethora of news items and social media postings from home and abroad about the disgraceful exit of the Dutch?
People like Ibrahimovic, Van der Vaart, Van Hooydonk, Van der Gijp and more are completely baffled about the Koeman tactics and Pieter Zwart, the best football analyst of the Netherlands posted a powerful clip on socials explaining how Koeman did exactly what Cruyff always said you shouldn’t do.
“Always aim to have a midfielder more than the opponent. The midfield act as the scales of a team.”
So where Koeman might have needed to play 4-4-2 and use a player like Timber instead of Brobbey, with Reijnders as false nine, Koeman decided to take a midfielder off and add a defender, rolling out the red carpet for the Atlas Lions. We gave them the midfield and essentially, we gave them the game.
As De Speld quipped: “The Dutch have successfully avoided playing France in the quarter finals”….
The idea was to allow Frenkie to be higher up the pitch, but the result was that we all saw Frenkie drown.
The man has left. He made (or his publicity team) a nice farewell post for socials and good riddance.
What bothers me though, even more than Koeman (because I am ok with one idiot), is that we also had assistant coaches with significant pedigree (Erwin Koeman, Wim Jonk, Ruud van Nistelrooy) and players with a lot of aura (Virgil, Frenkie, Denzel, Cody, Reijnders) who apparently all supported Koeman’s outlandish tactics??
How is that possible, right?
Who is going to be the new coach?
Anyway, the KNVB TD Nigel de Jong will have to scout a new team of coaches.
- Arne Slot – Highly regarded for his high-pressing, energetic style inspired by Klopp/Guardiola. Led Feyenoord to the Eredivisie title and deep European runs with a dynamic 4-2-3-1 or similar. Let Liverpool to to EPL title in his first season. Victim of dramatic season at LFC due to various reasons. Excellent man-manager, communicator and tactician—already linked to bigger jobs.
- Pascal Jansen – Highly respected coach, former youth coach at PSV. Ample international experience. Great communicator (English his first language), former AZ Alkmaar coach with a reputation for organized, attacking football and youth development. Tactical flexibility and good results against bigger sides make him a solid national team prospect. Pleasant personality. Currently at New York City (City Group).
- Kees van Wonderen – Former international, ex Go Ahead Eagles coach—pragmatic yet principled tactical approach, often punching above weight with disciplined setups. Stern and serious, highly regarded in the football world. Currently available.
- Dick Schreuder – Younger brother of Alfred, took the long way to coaching. Associated with aggressive attacking structures (sometimes called “Dickie-taka” for 3-4-2-1 or fluid systems at smaller clubs). Focus on rotation, fitness, and high-output attacking play. Introverted coach, not enjoying press events and known to be headstrong and unmovable. Currently at NEC and in high demand.
- Alex Pastoor – in his late 50s, former midfielder with experiences as coach at AZ, abroad and at Heerenveen. Loved by players for this direct communication, clarity and enjoyable training sessions. Great communicator and assisted Patrick Kluivert at the Indonesia National Team. Great tactician.
- Patrick Kluivert – former super striker, was considered a huge coaching talent at FC Twente, went to work in technical management roles at PSG and Barcelona and took NT coaching role for Indonesia.
- Clarence Seedorf – tremendous auro, Messi like fame across the globe. Did have a torrid relationship with the NT in the past. Had several coaching roles but has not demonstrated to be a good coach.
- Ruud van Nistelrooy – impressed at PSV as youth coach and head coach. Highly principled, good communicator, builds strong relationships with players. Impressed at Man United in a short stint but was unable to keep Leicester up. Is tainted by his recent stint as Koeman’s assistant at the 2026 WC.
- Mark van Bommel – hardheaded disciplinarian with amazing career, good relationship builder with players and can look back at good stint at PSV Eindhoven. Assisted Van Marwijk at NT role for Australia and Saudi Arabia. His Bundesliga gig didn’t end well, but in Belgium at Antwerp, the Van Marwijk son in law rehabilitated himself. A combi with Van Marwijk is an option.
- Robin van Persie – world class striker, impressed as youth coach at Feyenoord, had a mixed short career at Herenveen and a decent season with Feyenoord, securing CL football, but a change of management cut his coaching role short. Available, in other words.
- Michael Reiziger – former international, former Ajax 2 coach, current Young Oranje coach, widely respected as a more than decent people manager, tactician and good relationship with players.
- Hedwiges Maduro – former international, former assistant at Ajax and head coach at Almere. Long considered the crown prince of Dutch coaches. Failed at his first coaching job though. Good communicator and great analyst.
- Fred Rutten – seasoned club coach, highly regarded, good tactician and player favourite. Introverted and considered a less than mediocre public speaker (interviews, press conferences).
I think that a good combination of personalities might work. Kluivert/Seedorf? Van Bommel/Van Marwijk? Maduro/Pastoor? Jansen/Van Wonderen? Van Nistelrooy/Rutten?
What is your view? Any favourites? Or… do you want to get a coach from abroad ?
Pep? Rangnick? Glasner? Pocchetino? Zidane?
Pep, no one else if possible
Good man!!
Looks like the DfB already approached Kloppo. To me, it shows the decision maker is decisive.
While the pipe dream is generally Pep Guardiola, anyone knows if the other Pep (Lijnders), is also being considered? He was more than just Klopp’s sidekick at LFC, which played with high intensity and pressing, to me, they were like “Total Football on steroids” because of the emphasis on speed, ball possessions and physicality. Ironically, 180 of what we displayed vs Morocco (now I am getting depressed again)
Anyone has any views on Lijnders and how he is oerceived in the Netherlands?
Jan: Let’s be realistic here. You’ve left off the most obvious candidates for the job:
Louis van Gaal
Dick Advocaat
Frank de Boer
Ronald Koeman
🎠🎠🎠🎠
I think Erwin Koeman might do it with Ronald as his assistant?
Haha! That seems like the most likely scenario of all! A change, but no change.
If nothing else good comes from this 2026 tournament, at least I’ll have the image of Ronald Koeman as a frightened rabbit forever etched in my brain. A picture is truly worth 1000 words!
A lot of names on that list, but the ideal person will need to check off a lot of boxes. For me, where have you succeeded? What track record do you have? I am against fresh managers with no experience. Oranje regardless of our failures to win a WC or a Euro in a long time, is still a widely followed global high profile brand in international football. Same with being a manager for Brazil, or Argentina, England, Spain etc. It is not where you start your job, but be rewarded for achievement. All these other countries have at least won it at one point, but for us it’s always about ‘is this the year?’
Anyways, from the names above, there isn’t anyone that leaps out as the clear favorite for me. Arne Slot did well at Feyenoord and won the PL in his first season. Huge credit for that, but that was Klopp’s team. If he had survived that second season, we would have learned more about him. I wouldn’t be neutral if he was appointed. But my guess is that he will be looking to stay in club football. I’m sure he can find something somewhere. Not sure if any of the Top 6 in the PL need managers now. So it will have to be some mid table team if he stays in the PL.
Pep, Klopp, Zidane would be my dream coaches. Who knows Pep may do it for sentimentality reasons of his relations with Cryuff. Zidane most likely will take over that stacked French team after Deschamps. He’s won everything as a player and coach. Only thing left is a WC for him. Klopp would require a significant pay bump. Maybe he takes the German team after their recent poor showing
The US federation solicited billionaires like Ken Griffin and other large commercial sponsors to pay Pochettino millions beyond their budget. We may need to try something like that for a foreign high profile manager, assuming of course it is all legal.
I can understand the names Klopp and Zidane and Pep but the rest of your comments, I don’t agree with. The NT manager role should NOT be a reward for someone who did well at club level. Club coaching and NT coaching are hugely different jobs!
A club coach is keen on signing the players he need for his vision. An NT coach must use the players at his disposal and forge a team and a tactics that match the profiles of the players.
A club coach works with his team every day. An NT coach does not.
Massive differences.
Coaches like Low and Flick for Die Mannschaft had no massive club career. Rijkaard and Van Basten: same.
Van Gaal failed miserably in 2002. So your theory doesn’t hold.
As for Arne Slot, I don’t like the “it was Klopp’s team”. If it was, why didn’t Klopp win it 8 times? Or at least before Slot came in? Klopp finished 3rd! Slot re-invented Gravenberch which was a key aspect to Liverpool’s title winning season as was the impact of Gakpo.
Slot’s second season was marred by Jota’s accident, the lack of CB signings (Leoni was a signing for the future), Isak’s injuries and Salah’s drop in form. He still managed to reach CL football, which was the minimum goal.
The owners decided they regretted the shift from Klopp style football to Slotball under pressure from the fans.
They did to Slot what Palace did to Frank de Boer. Bringing him in for a change in style, and then bowing for the will of the fans.
Sorry, I had to rant
I opened a petition on change.org for KNVB to hire Pep. Please sign a nd spread the word.
https://c.org/7DvCf5xCbh
done
Done
I found the Dutch media to be very hypocritical. For 4 years everyone saw that Koeman wasn’t going anywhere with this team. The data was in our face but said anything until Monday night. Matter of fact the media used to call him a Dutch hero. Just because you were a good player doesn’t mean you could be a good coach.
Now everyone is talking about how bad he was. Very hypocritical!!!!
Oh Jan
I remembered you said that Win Jonk was this great tactician that was going to help Koeman figure it out
But they all sat there Monday night did nothing. All the substitution made no sense. What happened to Win Jonk? He was there.
That is the question I asked Pieter Zwart actually, chief editor of the VI. I agree, where the F was JC adept Wim Jonk. I don’t agree with your “media is hypocritical” rant.
During the campaign before the WC, Koeman seemed to be doing the logical thing. Granted, the Memphis love affair became silly, but other than that, he didn’t make too many errors in terms of selection and line ups.
We all believed we would “grow” into the tournament, as per usual.
The two friendlies we played before the WC were not great, but we did create chances, but forgot to score. That is better than not creating anything.
I still believe the back 4, the midfield and mostly the attack was fine. I don’t like Koopmeiners as RW or Memphis as striker but otherwise, I was fine. We knew Summerville was heavily on the radar but got injured twice during international breaks.
And we all hoped, believed the team would start swinging at some point.
See, my frustration is less with Koeman, as I never rated him, but I expect players like Frenkie, Virgil, Dumfries and Reijnders to speak up when he comes up with outlandish tactics and claims.
Like the assistant coaches as you mention, how is it that didn’t see the errors of his way after 25 minutes of playing football???
There were enough critical noises from the media, but as long we qualified for the WC, we all felt that the players would step up despite the coach.
What you said about the players and assistants supporting Koeman is spot on. Today, VVD even posted a long farewell message thanking Koeman for giving him his opportunity with the Netherlands and making him captain.
To me, that sums up the entire problem.
The KNVB keeps making poor decisions, the national team keeps recycling the same coaches, and the players continue to support them. Instead of seeing Koeman as someone who wasted the golden years of this generation, they see him as an upgrade over Blind and FDB. That says everything.
There is no drive to be the best. They are comfortable with where they are. It is a small-nation mentality. Being among the top 32 teams in the world seems good enough. That mentality also explains why they are so poor in penalty shootouts and why they keep conceding late goals. The longer the match goes and the more pressure builds, the more they shrink because they are simply not mentally prepared for those moments.
Robben, RVP, and Sneijder may not have always liked each other, but they constantly pushed one another because they wanted to be the best. That competitive edge is gone.
Who is unhappy with the current state of Dutch football? Mostly the former players. But even they have done little to change it. They complain, yet they keep producing the same ideas. Blind, FDB, Heitinga, RVP, Van Bommel, Cocu—the list goes on. They rarely develop into coaches who bring something genuinely new.
Out of all the Dutch candidates, I think Slot is the only one who would be a genuinely good appointment. Even then, I’m not convinced that is the right move. After 12 years of stagnation, I think this nation needs fresh ideas from the outside because it has shown it is no longer capable of innovating from within.
Agree …. Funniest thing with this “small nation mentality” is we also always appeared to be “arrogant”, which is a very confusing contradiction .
I saw half of the Croatia vs Portugal match and realized our squads (not only this year’s) just do not have that “fire”. Croatia tonight, US last night just have that “fight” factor we do not have, even though on paper our team has bigger names than these teams.
As much as I want Klopp or Pep to be our next head coach, I don’t know if they can change the mentality and mindset of the players. Our players need to be shown – again and again – old videos of the 1990 Germany team. When we have the “dog fight” like that, we will be unbeatable, regardless who the coach will be.
Definitely agree with this part as one of our issues. That fight and 90+ min of aggressive focused football seems to missing. Frenkie, Gravenberch, and Reijnders are all top players. But they don’t play with that energy the whole game. They have moments when they shine, and then they disappear for long stretches.
I also don’t see the same fire in this team that you see in some nations and their players with this immense pride and expectations of playing for their country. I’m not doubting anyone’s patriotism but I rather see that as an added motivator than this casual attitude that it’s just another game they need to get thru.
Why do we think is it? I am not Dutch but I used to work for a Dutch company and interacted with a lot of Dutch people. As you said, I also don’t doubt anyone’s patriotism but maybe – in general – Dutch are more “easy going” and “happy go lucky” people? I never fully understand this “psychological” aspect. Every 2 years, my Dutch friends and I will exchange texts or emails with both sides saying “oh well …. We’ll get it in 2 years”
I was too young in 1978 but have been really supporting the Oranje since 1988. Every 2 years, I always think we will lift World Cup or EURO trophy. Never a doubt from “talent” perspective but seems like the “mental” or “in-house drama” have always been the issue, except for maybe 1998 (which I believe to be our best squad post 1988). I thought this year we (finally) had the harmony, only to be betrayed by “tactic”?
Obviously I have been wrong for almost 40 years now!
Frenkie came out with an Insta post which clearly indicated he was not very happy with Koeman’s tactics.
Jan, I think we should look abroad this time around. Though you wonder if talks already started w/ Arne Slot or even Erik Ten Hag.
Unflortunately, Glasner already committed to Forest. Poch might very well extend w/ USA. Same with Rangnick for Austria.
Pep is the outlier because how he is indebted to Cruyff & Dutch Footballing Culture. Other than his high salary, I feel that Pep will be looking at both the current WC squad & those who are poised to make the move up to NT. The question will be who’s are next Ballon d’Or level star among our Next Gens. Is it Kees Smit? Poku or Addai? We definitely have Centerback depth that’s for sure lol
Valente. Sean Steur. Kees Smit, that Twente centre back. And with Frenkie, Gravenberch, Summerville, Timber x 2, Gakpo, Brobbey, Taylor, Kluivert, Meerdink, Young Van Persie and more, we should be doing ok.
Defense is already world class with other upcoming talent. Midfield is already top notch in terms of CDM positions (De Jong / Gravenberch) but we are missing imo the right CAM – however very promising players are coming up in this position as Jan mentioned. Attack is where I have a problem – wingers okish, but regarding striker, the new coach has to start experimenting with other players. In general, we should be in a very strong position to challenge for Nations League and Euro2028 – we just need a coach that does not mess up this chance.
What happened to Emegha? He’s tall, strong, with excellent ball skills and very fast. He seemed to be doing well in France enough for Chelsea to scoop him up. I’m not a fan of Dutch players going straight to top PL teams. Especially Chelsea that has this habit of collecting young players and see who pans out. More than likely, they’ll be warming the bench at a crucial time in their early 20s. Got to Germany or Spain and prove themselves first. Get regular playing time than find out you’re not good for a top team. But sadly, the money is too tempting to pass up for them
Injured.
Croatia done in by VAR and ball chip technology. They played defensively too during most of the contest, but battled back heroically! And despite seeming to have the ball most of the match, it was only a 60/40 split in possession in favor of Portugal, and relatively even total shots. I don’t care if Morocco goes on to win the whole thing, we still had no business playing like that against them!
This is an interesting commentary on the current team by Frans Hoek, assistant coaching staff for both Van Gaal and Koeman at the 2014 and 2022 WCs. I agree with a lot of the things he said.
https://www.flashscore.com/news/soccer-world-championship-column-frans-hoek-on-the-netherlands-world-cup-so-far-how-to-handle-penalty-shootouts/6wma1A9m/
That’s a great article, Forza! I think we all felt similarly heading into the Morocco game. I actually met Frans Hoek in the US when he came as an instructor to a coaches convention. He ran a training session on how to manage back passes to the keeper, and he had the top U19 players in our state participating for his demonstration. What struck me more than anything was how demanding and precise his instructions were, and how intolerant he was of technical errors 😉
All that said, I really liked this portion of his approach in the World Cup described in the article:
“Before the knockout stages, I went to all the players, asking them what they wanted. “Do you want to take one? Even if it’s late in the tournament? What number do you want to be? Do you want to be the first, the second, the third?” So they all got a chance to think about it, and I then made a full plan, and the players had a commitment up front. We did something similar in 2014, but it was not as clear and as strict as in 2022.”
Personally, I don’t feel that everything needs to be so thoroughly planned out, as things inevitably will go awry, but preparing the players mentally for what may come about, and helping them be comfortable in the circumstance, is usually what encourages the best performance
I think Koeman‘s ultra defensive approach in Morocco inadvertently undermined the team’s confidence and comfort level, and probably made the situation worse than it had to be. Everyone looked uncertain, slow to react, hesitant in responding and understanding where they were supposed to be and when. It was just too much of a change from how we’d been playing previously and destroyed the fluidity that we had been developing
That’s awesome you met the man in person JB. This is how things should be done. Nothing should be improvised or left to chances. Take your time and do the research that will give you an edge. It’s so disappointing to read that Noppert basically ignored all the information his was given and end up not saving a single penalty in losing to Argentina! Koopmeiners and Weghorst made their shots, while Berghuis and Van Dijk missed.
I’m not sure we would be favorites against France in 22, but we would have had a decent chance against Croatia if we had gotten past Argentina. But then Messi would not have been with a WC trophy.
Looking at this 26 team, they’re actually an upgrade over the 22 team. Van de Ven over Blind, Gakpo replaced Bergwin on the LW. Gravenberch replaced De Roon, and Verbruggen over Noppert. Sadly it wasnt meant to be.
@ Jan
I remember having this debate about being clinical upfront and goals winning your games. Counter argument offcourse being defense winning u tournaments. I hope u realize now this is not the case especially when koeman with that defensive approach and thinking that was enough. I said it back then and im saying again. You need cutting edge upfront and to see a player like lang rotting on the bench is just heart breaking. Once again another tournament has come and gone. Same persistence on player preference and eventually being outclassed or foolishness. How ever you wanna interpolate.
Lang, Simons, kluivert, Summerville , Brobbey, probably Van bommel and if Addai development goes well in serie A is way forward. They have to invest in a striker going forward from nations league. Any new coach opting to go with Van dijk, dumfries, Malen, gakpo and Frenkie shud be terminated. I think with three, four tournament you can’t expect ANYTHING extraordinary from these guys any more. Maatsen, Frimpong shud be way forward as well.
For midfield like I said if Matusiwa stands out in epl next season. He shud be called up for nations league. I wanna see a combo of him and koopmeiners. Or smit. Frenkie shud be benched and called upon if needed regardless of him playing at barce. People still can’t see in NT set up he simply needs to be the focal point and this intent becomes a back drop when vs quality team, he is pinned down. Turns here and there , lateral and back passes dropping back few interceptions only. At barce, while pedri pulls the strings, Frenkie gets that freedom and space to move up and link up with forwards and this is probably what koeman wanted but then Gravenberch is not pedri and to think that Gravenberch will standout in two man midfield was just amateurish from koeman which I’d again why he is not a top coach. Again on Gravenberch, it was debated in depth what he brings and what he can’t.
Simons- Brobbey- summerville
Kluivert
Koops- Matusiwa
Hartman -Van der ven- Van heckie- Timber
VB
Do you want to retire Frenkie de Jong??? Gakpo??? Ok, you are terminated.
Agree completely! We are an entirely different team with Frenkie in the lineup vs not, and we really don’t have anyone waiting in the background to replace him. That said, this WC tournament was probably the best opportunity for this current generation.
Dumfries, Ake, Memphis, Weghorst, de Roon and Van Dijk are all over 30, and certainly won’t be back for 2030.
Wieffer, Van Hecke, Malen, Kluivert, Lang, Gakpo, Reijnders, Koopmeiners, Til and de Jong will all be 30+ at that point too.
Thankfully, Brobbey, Summerville, Simons and Gravenberch should all be in their prime still, but we will need lots of reinforcements to be competitive for a World Cup title then!
The new coach will have a good group to start with the upcoming 4 year cycle
Just looking at a lineup of 30 and under:
GK: Vebruggen; lb: Hato, Maatsen; J. Timber (if necessary); lcb Van de ven; rcb: Timber; Van Hecke; rb: Timber, Read, Geertruida, Frimpong; mf: Gravenberch, Simons, Smit, Valente; lw: Summerville; cf: Brobbey; Emegha; rw: Frimpong/Summerville.
Probably others i’m not thinking of at the moment, and, hopefully a breakout or two not on the radar.
And this doesn’t include the over 30’s, those mentioned by JB; several of who likely will be fit and still playing at a top level. I’d sure like Lang to break in. he has the ability to break a defense down off the dribble, so important.
Lang, Frimpong,Maatsen, smit as super subs
This is the way forward. If not another four years in waiting and the same despair.
Another name I wanna add is Van ewijk who also will be playing in epl next season under lampard . Hope he explodes. And can be a back up for Timber. I haven’t watched read so can’t comment how good is.
Agree with Jan as well on that Ajax and Twente kid respectively. Good talents which is not enough though. They need to take in to next level.
Also forgot to mention super subs doesn’t mean they only come of bench. Time to time they have to rotated. I mean again and have repeated this many times. Look at how emery has used Maatsen and digne. This is what u wanna see coaches doing.
Watching Egypt and Australia and getting irritated that one of these teams is going to advance further in this WC than us. That said, there’s something very aesthetically pleasing to watching two teams in fully contrasting jerseys, shorts and socks playing on a pristine green field with officials in all black.
The German federation is supposedly in negotiations with Klopp. It would be interesting to see how he does with that team
Messi, not surprisingly, with an excellent controlling touch on his goal vs Cape Verde after a nice pass from Lisandro Martinez.
Cape Verde without much in attack so far, but they seem to be playing Argentina fairly straight up and are not panicked at all.
Maybe we should take a look at their coach, or Morocco’s or one of these other teams that just comes out to play without worry or fear!
And the Blue Sharks are rewarded for their audacity for trying to play soccer against Argentina! 1-1! This is what belief allows!
What a game! What a performance from Cape Verde
How could a team like Cape Verde play like that vs Argentina and we played like what we did vs Morocco? They did not show any fear vs the defending champion. And for Argentina, obviously it was not easy when a team like Cape Verde leveled 2x against them.
Cannot convince me our (ongoing) issue is not mental toughness.
Cape Verde’s performance in this WC should provide a lesson to all teams. There’s no need to hang back and cower in fear because you’re playing a team with a greater reputation. If you’re out there to compete and try to score goals and win, go for it and put your best foot forward and see what you can achieve. There’s nothing worse than watching a team of talented players hold themselves back, or be held back by their coach because of “tactics”!
Btw, a number of young attacking players were mentioned, but the one that excites me most by far is Jayden Addai who joined Como last year in Serie A – he has already built a reputation there and if he continues to develop in this manner he can probably join a big Italian club as from next year, or possibly make the leap to Premier League right away.
I would love to see him progress as you suggest, but this is one of the problems that we have in developing Dutch players — the “leap to the Premier League.” How many of our players such as Memphis Gakpo, Reijnders, Zirkzee, etc., have seen their career stagnate because they join a Premier league club and don’t play regularly or don’t fit tactically with what the manager is looking for. Summerville was a revelation in this tournament, and he’ll likely transfer to a different Premier League team, but his current club got relegated. I just don’t see the Premier league as the be all end all for our players, but it is where all the money and attention is right now.
I’d rather have them play in Germany or Italy or Spain and improve as players and get real playing time and better tactical training.
what happened to the prediction or the sucker who made the prediction that NT will win this WC
You mean the economist? He told his model never consider the coach Ronald Koeman as a factor. Tat’s very legit. Hahahaha.
Hahahahahaha
It will be interesting to see how Canada approaches Morocco in their match today. Will they learn from our mistakes or will they go the opposite direction. And if they play very open and get destroyed, will Koeman then say “See, I told you so”?
10 minutes in Canada is totally taking the game to Morocco. They’ve got them back on their heels and they’ve had numerous good scoring chances. Morocco can’t even get out of their own end. Not sure if this can continue, but Canada has come out on fire playing with aggression and tempo! I wish we’d approached the game this way!
Now at the 20 minute mark, Morocco has 6 completed passes in their attacking half. Canada has 33 and has already created 4 shots. Morocco has none. Things certainly can change, but Canada is looking great right now. They just need to finish!
At the half, still 0–0. I think Canada has lost some energy, but their pressing has made Morocco look downright mediocre. The Moroccans have just resorted to flopping to maintain possession. Never thought my Fourth of July bingo card would’ve included wishing the Dutch would play soccer like the Canadians 🤯
And one free kick changes everything! Morocco now leads five minutes into the second half. How will Canada adapt? It seems like their current style should keep creating opportunities for them, but it’s going to be uphill sledding from here, and they are going to regret those early missed opportunities when they were running the game!
Canada is making plenty of mistakes themselves when they have the ball, and they just can’t seem to finish effectively, but they’re forcing Morocco play at a pace that they are not comfortable at, and it’s creating lots of misplaced passes and turnovers.
I have to say I haven’t seen packs of players relentlessly hunting and descending on the ball in the press like this since peak Barcelona. Canada doesn’t have the attacking quality, but they are making life miserable for Morocco.
And Morocco puts it away after a 4v2 break and a nice finish! One too many misplaced passes by Canada led to that opportunity. Ultimately, this result is sort of the opposite of how our game went — in this case Canada’s tactics worked very well, but the players’ quality wasn’t able to achieve the final result. In our match vs Morocco, we had plenty of quality, but we were held back by our tactics!
Canada collapsed in the 2nd half. If you look at the goals Morocco scored, they counterattacked into a wide open field. That is basically their game plan. Congrats to Morocco. When teams do stupid things, take advantage and make them pay.
I agree in part. I think Canada‘s tactics were working, but once they fell behind, they started to play more risky passes and brought more and more players forward, which left them exposed at the back. The last two goals weren’t really relevant to the outcome, but Canada‘s inability to finish their opportunities early really let them down. It certainly was a nice contrast though to see vs how we played against Morocco.
Morocco was hugely over-estimated by Koeman. I would have replaced Dumfries with Geertruida because he’s more disciplined to stay and defend rather than ran around and leave space. That would have been enough to handle our right flank. My other option would be to take off Summerville or Brobbey and play with 2 up front since Gakpo is untouchable in Koeman’s system. Or add Koopmeiners as the DM to handle Saibiri and plug the gap between Van Dijk and Van Hecke. With that formation, just go and play your game. No need for a complete shell formation and giving the entire possession to them.
Anyways, Morocco is a good team, not a superstar team like France. There was no need to give them such deference. What has happened can’t be undone now. It’s sad we had to go out like that.
Defeat changes the score, not our pride. Respect to Morocco, loyalty to Oranje, always.
Time to stop whining and look forward to new glory times. Koeman is history, gone, lets move on…
Hup Holland Hup
Well said!
https://chatgpt.com/s/m_6a4a0eb2574c8191866c42fb491ed6d3
Interesting ranking of nations by appearances in last 4 of the last 30 years of World Cups. We are 2nd layer with 3 appearances second only to Brazil, France and Germany. And above Spain, England, Argentina, and others.
I made this to show that we are not that bad compared to the big nations, for those who think that our players do not push all the way. We forget how random football can be and sometimes it takes only very very small details to make a qualification to SF or Final. Consider also that the Dutch results were achieved in spite of the horrendous penalties track record where we could have made it to final four or even to the final on some occasions. For me the thing that hurts most is the tactical approach with Morocco – this was our choice and could have been avoided. Otherwise I am proud as ever to have supported the Dutch for the last 40 years 🙂
That’s a nice chart. Croatia has been performing well.
Totally ceding all initiative vs Morocco was shameful while we had the superior quality at least on paper. Man to man, we have a clear edge over them. But unfortunately, we chose to gamble on a game plan that is not really our strength or identity. It is difficult for that team to all of a sudden play that way and win a game. Koeman would have justified it if we had eliminated Morocco. Italy won 4 WCs playing suffocating defensive football. That is their style of play thru out the years. But they also had clinical and world class finishers to take advantage of it on the counter.
What Koeman should have done was find a balance. Yes, Morocco is a lethal team on the counter, and we needed to make certain adjustments to control that. Maybe bring in a DM and take off one of the front 3 to start the game. But he made the team play something they were not used to, or have executed successfully in the past.
As far as penalties, it has been our curse. Such a dismal shameful record and nothing gets better.
This is probably one of the most disappointing WCs for me. I went into the tournament thinking that we were really nothing special this year and we would probably just have an average performance. But after watching the opening round and seeing so many different players contribute, I began to think that we might have something, and started to get my hopes up a little bit. That was my mistake!
Every tournament, I look at our overall talent level and strengths and weaknesses and ask myself “Do we really have a chance to win this time?” This year, I thought we were relatively decent in most areas, but didn’t really have creativity in the midfield, especially with Simons out.
But Summerville was fantastic, Reijnders and Gravenberch showed improvement and de Jong was back, and Gakpo and Brobbey seemed like they could at least provide some finishing. And the back line seemed competent still. Are any of these players top five in the world in their position? Probably not, but together they’re all pretty decent. And there are plenty of teams with top five players at their positions that are no longer playing.
There’s always a balance, and sadly when we’re particularly strong in attack, we often seem lacking in defense, and vice versa. But here we had a fairly balanced, well-rounded, above-average team with young players and veterans that looked like we could go pretty far, so it’s just ultra disappointing that we were knocked out as early as we were!
It’ll be interesting to see how other teams progress in the tournament. While some teams like France, Morocco, the US and Norway maybe in the midst of a golden generation (and Colombia and Egypt to a lesser extent), others like Spain, Portugal, Brazil and Belgium are either not quite at their peak or somewhat in decline. And then England, Mexico and Switzerland are more of a mixed bag like us. And of course Argentina will remain contenders so long as Messi is playing.
At the end of the day, I really think it’s going to come down to finishing. It seems kind of obvious to say, but teams that take their chances are going to advance, and so I think it’s going to depend in their forwards’ performances — on any given day, Messi, Mbappe, Kane, Haaland, Vinicius or even Balogun can make all the difference
And just like that, Balogun is back!
Haha, you know who… may have pulled some strings. I’m not complaining. But hey, hope it’s a great match. Belgium really haven’t clicked well. They were down 2 to Senegal and just scraping by. Team USA can’t complain now if things don’t go right.
I’m from the U.S., and I’m complaining. That decision is a disgrace.
The moment this happened, I said the US should appeal it, because it was not a red card offense. Then I heard that it wasn’t appealable. Then I heard that suspensions arising from red cards had been overturned or postponed.
In my mind, the teams and the organization as a whole should want the best product possible on the field. What Balogun did was not intentional, reckless or intended to cause injury. It was not a cumulative offense. It was an accident that occurred at a time when neither player was in possession of the ball. His punishment was totally disproportionate with his act on the field, and the US team was already forced to play almost the whole second half a man down.
I get the whole integrity of the game thing, but this was a red card that should never have been given in the first place. In fact, the standards for giving cards these days have become so arbitrary and capricious that it’s just silly.
When I played, to get a yellow, you had to do something pretty bad that was deliberate (big slide tackle, pulling shirt, tripping from behind, etc.) or show disrespect to the official. A red card was given for a deliberate intent to injure or harm a player or an action that was so reckless that that was the likely consequence.
Nowadays, the same foul occurring moments apart gets a yellow for one player and nothing for another, and the fact that a player is already on a yellow has a significant impact on whether they get another one. Nowadays, an attacking player can deliberately place their leg in front of a defender, not in an effort to play the ball, but to just draw contact so that a foul is deemed to occur, and in many of those cases, the player is shown a yellow for essentially doing nothing wrong other than inadvertently making contact with the opponent. And often this type of contact occurs where neither player is in possession and so it’s unclear if even “a tackle” is being made.
But for the sport itself to devolve into this type of prissiness — where minimal contact is met with maximum outrage and removal from the match — is what really tarnishes the sport. It’s what leads to so much diving and play-acting to gain advantage and makes soccer look ridiculous.
So I totally get the “we are changing the rules to advantage of the host country” argument, but in this case it was a red that never should’ve been, and I think the whole card giving process needs to be thoroughly re-examined along the way
Agree. As far as the red card itself, I did not agree it was a straight red. It looked bad on replays and in frozen still pictures. Balogun’s studs do graze the Bosnian player. But when you looked at it in real time, it was not a malicious or serious harm.
The problem is that FIFA referees this year have been particularly bad. Messi in their first game for example hit an Algerian player in the back of his leg with his studs. Wasn’t intentional, but by the same standard, it should have been a straight red. Or at least a yellow. But the referee waived it off as nothing.
And the France/Paraguay game was horrible. The Paraguayans did almost everything they could to rile up the French players and get them to over react. One especially ridiculous non-call was when Mbappe was dribbling towards goal and was slapped hard in the chest by a Paraguayan player. Right in front of the referee. And this was approaching the box. Nothing was called.
The Moroccans tried a lesser version of it during the game vs us. So many flagrant and intentional non calls.
Anyways, my bigger issue is FIFA and their referees applying and officiating games inconsistently. They do make post game changes after a game is over. Other leagues like the NFL, NBA etc also have that power. But it shouldn’t be done openly by direct political intervention in the way it did.
So interesting to watch different teams’ choices from a tactical standpoint. Norway apparently has decided they’re going to out 1v1 Brazil! They are controlling the game generally, but every duel they lose has created a dangerous opportunity for Brazil.
Since moving to Man City, Haaland seems less and less involved in interplay, and just lurks as a finisher.
Odegaard has 50 touches so far in the first half. Haaland has 8
Watching Norway is sort of like watching the “Lob City” Clippers of the NBA. Odegaard plays the role of Chris Paul, and has to be constantly involved in everything. But for the most part, Haaland is playing more like DeAndre Jordan than Blake Griffin.
Brazil continues to have near-miss chances, and you have to figure that Vinicius or Martinelli is going to get one eventually. Ryerson is actually holding his own vs Vini but Ajer is completely at sea. Nyland has been repeatedly bailing Norway out! He’s gotta be the man of the match so far!
Haha Lob City! Some late drama with Neymar scoring the penalty, but Brazil is going home. Ancelotti bringing on Neymar who has been ineffective is an understatement.They just haven’t created any good chances all day. That’s been going on for over a decade now. Lot’s of action on the left with Vini jr but well defended by Norway.
Haaland is just one the most deadliest finishers in the game today. Just one touch in the air or on the ground is enough. Defend well and give it to Haaland. That’s their formula. They play the winner of Mexico/England. Mexico would be the easier team for them at least on paper.
Nice cross-sport reference! I never liked Halaand because of Manchester City but he is built differently. Just physically very imposing but also seems to know how to position himself well. Didn’t they say something about 90-100 touches total so far for 7 goals?
After watching Capo Verde, Canada, Paraguay (who were way below France but still – literally – “fought”), I just realized maybe we all Oranje fans have been seeing the match vs Morocco in an opposite way. We all think Koeman fielded a cowardly tactic vs Morocco but maybe it was Morocco who was courageous vs the team who was on paper superior. These teams stepped up.
Strangely enough, did Ancelloti just do a Koeman? I don’t think I have ever recalled a Brazil team who played so much below, as if they were trying to let Norway to attack them, very much like what we did vs Morocco. At least they still had couple chances.
Just a shift in the balance of power between the countries, I suppose …. Would be interesting to see how Mexico will play England tonight and US MNT playing Belgium tomorrow.
Lastly, looks lije Germany is getting Klopp. Hopefully the KNVB will act decisively and in out of the box way, or we will be left further behind.
Norway is putting on a show with the Viking drums and rowing. Even the Brazilian fans are staying back and watching
Flow kingz are going to go platinum all over again!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oYJWkDFzEXA
Haalandinho became a footballer to promote his music! Comments are the best!
This Mexico – England match is incredible! What an unbelievable atmosphere, and both teams just completely going for it at this point. Mexico with three near equalizers just at the end of the half!
Outside of that momentary defensive lapse to concede 2 goals in 2 mins, Mexico fought and gave it their all for 100+ mins. Raul is a good player, but the service from the Mexican wings and midfield didn’t connect for much of the game. They kept trying lots of crosses and corners, but the English defense clearly had the height advantage in the box.
England really showed poise and solidity under extreme duress. Playing with 10 men in that kind of atmosphere and winning the game was amazing. They have quality top players in key positions, but they also have a lot of average players. Their only problem is that they sometimes don’t know what to do for large stretches of the game. They revert to that typical English football where they lob it forward and Kane does something about it. But overall, they look like a tough team for anyone. Norway in the QFs or Argentina, maybe Colombia in the SF? We shall see
I didn’t understand either team’s strategy after the red card. Tuchel bunkered in and brought in his tallest defenders and gave up any sort of effort to attack whatsoever, which meant they would spend the rest of the match in their box, invite intense pressure and likely constant diving to try to draw a penalty. And imagine if they’ve gone into extra time with the 10 men in that lineup.
But Aguirre said hold my cerveza, and offered no attacking strategy other than lobbing balls into the box against a clearly bigger and stronger English defense. On top of that there was no overloading on the wings, and the players making the crosses were often under great pressure just to get the ball off.
After such a frantic match, it was just extreme stubbornness and lack of creativity on both managers for the last 35 minutes of the match 🤯
Down to 10 men Tuchel made that call to bunker as you said it. It was a risky gambit. Now if Mexico had won, he would have been crucified like Koeman. But lucky for him, it worked. If England win the WC, most casual fans won’t remember that game in 10 years. Most people care about winning and moving on. You live to play another day, and play well in the next game. 1 game out of 8 was bad, but the 7 others were good if you win the championship.
And Mexico itself as you said was just doing the same thing over and over again. Both just wanted a win by whatever means possible. Creativity wasn’t part of their plan at that point. It was desperation. It worked for one team
Watching R16 made me wonder which team will be scared of us? It might be only Canada.
When we lost 2002 qualifier to Portugal, we thought we were too arrogant and underestimated them. But then Portugal went ahead and became stronger and consistently beat us in every occasion. We slipped from top 4 to top 8 to top 16 and now top 32. We saw other teams like Belgium, Switzerland, Croatia and Morocco consistently performed better than us.
Soon Norway, USA and Senegal will be stronger as well. We will normalize being top 32 as the new baseline.
Talents now see Morocco as a better option. They are stronger team, easy to get in first team if you are talented (a 18 year old started for them).
My prediction: KNVB will appoint Reizeiger. The clubs are a closed isolated circle from outside ideas. Oranje will slip further down the football ladder. Slowly but surely.
Portugal has so much talent, and is so boring to watch. They just can’t seem to figure out how to manage their personalities and play with any fluidity. Spain has just been increasingly become a team of relatively interchangeable central midfielders, and the only time anything exciting happens is when one of their wings or wing backs creates an opportunity.
This matchup had so much promise and has just been very dull from a neutral standpoint.
Agreed. It feels like Portugal has been playing a cagey, defensive style in major tournaments for awhile now, despite their talent. After that great second half of the match with Croatia, I was hoping for more. Not to be, though.
I think part of their problem is the perceived need to cater to personalities — Ronaldo, Fernandes, etc. You get the sense that they would be better off letting the younger midfielders just create and interchange to create more fluidity, make it less about who scores and more about actually scoring. Just like with us, the manager seems to be holding them back rather than enabling them
They had the same problem of Netherlands. They have Martinez as their coach. Unbelievable choice given he wasted golden Belgium generation.
Yes, Ronaldo is like LeBron where he wants to dominate what the coaches do and bend to their will. When these players get to legend status and are approaching the ending arc of their careers, they don’t want to be told what to do. They fashion the teams on how they want it to best function around their interests.
I’m neutral on Ronaldo or Messi. I like them both to the point that they’re great players. Messi used to take huge criticisms after exits at Copa America or the World Cup. He endured years of negativity where he even contemplated leaving the national team after their second successive Copa final loss. But he finally found Scaloni to build the team around him and maximize his effectiveness.
Martinez on the other hand is not really a tactical genius. He did win the Nations League with Portugal, but Ronaldo started becoming a burden to the team as he started to age. He lost his explosiveness that made him tick in his peak. He got subbed in their game vs Croatia. The team actually scored after his exit. But you could see how pissed off he was when he was leaving the field. And after the loss against Spain, the Portuguese players were not talking to him. They were just avoiding him. Neymar on the other hand was being hugged and consoled by the others. Not taking a shot at Ronaldo, but I don’t think the others really see him as a benefit to the team in their hearts and also know that he runs the team. Again casual observation from afar. The truth may be different, but that’s my take just looking at things.
Anyways, it would be a new beginning for them now. I think Martinez has quit, so get a new coach, get rid of the old guard like Fernandez, Silva, etc and start crafting a new rebuild. Exactly what Oranje needs to do. Give chance to any potential players and not freeze them out with favoritism. Start a new chapter since both teams have tons of good players and a good future if things are done right.
The US looks thoroughly unprepared for this matchup, like they didn’t take Belgium seriously 🤯. The back line looks very shaky, and Dest is just a liability at the moment. Pulisic and McKinney need to step up big time in this game if they expect to be considered stars of the US team.
Just when the US was starting to work back in the game with Reyna helping in the midfield, just an egregious error from the US keeper 🤯🤯🤯
The goalkeeper kicked the ground instead of the ball 🙂
The US underperformed and were a bit naive tactically against Belgium. But that third goal just destroyed any chance they had of staging a comeback! What US fans don’t realize is that they went out in the same round as Brazil and Portugal and lasted longer than Germany, Croatia and the Netherlands. Those are teams regularly competing in WC semis and finals! Even those nations don’t get it right every year, and most of the US “stars” are really just above average players in Europe. The US continues to progress and can now more than ever compete straight up with contending teams. But they need to be crisp and completely in sync and have to have their tactics just right to really have a chance. None of those conditions existed tonight vs Belgium.
Yes, they got carried away after decent wins against lesser opposition. They got exposed defensively. In one of the early goals, Ream was basically giving De Ketelare a free header. Same mistake Gabriel did vs Haaland, and same thing Van Dijk did vs the Morocco equalizer. And that blunder by Freese was shambolic. I just can’t understand what he was trying to do? A GK #1 job is safety. Do the basics. Don’t try to be cool. At 2-1, there was a chance of a comeback. Then things took a drastic turn with Pulisic injury and team breakdown.
Anyways, it is a good lesson for the team. I would keep Pochettino around. The team showed glimpses of progress and unity. He couldn’t do anything about individual blunders giving away the game. He needs to make the defense more solid and structured. Keep attacking and keep building the midfield. Less reliance on players like Pulisic and start a new rebuild.
“Yes, they got carried away after decent wins against lesser opposition” Exactly. Two teams in different tiers. Tielemans was fantastic.
Happy for Belgium (sorry US fans), the coach USA should not have started with the red card guy as a statement, my feeling that it took all the concentration away from them.
It had a very bad smell of corruption, happy to see that the whole world saw clearly what happened around the red card….
After Blatter we need another round of cleaning up the corruption, we don´t need tournaments in Qatar or Saudi Arabia. I would vote for playing in the UK, where soccer is at its all time high…
@Jan: sorry for late response. You said FDJ post a message on Instagram that shows he is not happy. What is it? Is this the one?
“Now, a few days after the game, the lump in my stomach and the disappointment is still the same.
“It’s a huge honor and a great responsibility to play for the Dutch national team. If we can’t fulfill our own expectations and those of the people, the disappointment is extra big. We gave it all we had but it clearly wasn’t good enough.
“Four years of waiting for another chance to bring home the first world title for the Netherlands feels like an eternity.
“But we’re going to use the coming time to come back stronger together, so that we can live up to our own expectations and those of our fans in the next final tournaments.
“Thank you for all the support and support. That was great and we definitely felt it.”
If it is, then I do not think there is any reflection here. Especially, this piece “We gave it all we had but it clearly wasn’t good enough.” When you do not try your best and you do not demand others around to do so, this is this kind of reflection I expect. Not saying it is his fault, but I am saying he is not the leader. Perhaps, we have none which is sad.
No, it was a post straight after the match. I’ll try and find it but perhaps he deleted it?
From Grok:
I found references to Frenkie de Jong’s comments after the Morocco loss.
After the Netherlands’ Round of 32 exit to Morocco (on penalties), de Jong gave interviews and posted on social media where he expressed disappointment and pointed to tactical issues:
He mentioned feeling the team was numerically disadvantaged in midfield (“we played with only two midfielders against Morocco’s strong midfield”).
He noted it was “really difficult” and “disappointing,” while acknowledging it was the coach’s plan and they tried to follow it.
These comments were widely reported and interpreted as implicit criticism of Ronald Koeman’s setup (e.g., a more defensive or crowded midfield approach that left de Jong isolated).
The “Deleted Post”
It seems the specific social media post (likely Instagram or similar) was either deleted, edited, or taken down quickly.
No archived screenshot or full verbatim post is easily available in public searches, which supports your recollection that it was removed because it could be seen as throwing the coach under the bus.
The core sentiment leaked into interviews and media coverage anyway, leading to discussions about player accountability vs. tactical choices.
This isn’t uncommon after big losses — players sometimes soften or remove candid comments to maintain team harmony. De Jong has a reputation for being honest and tactically aware, so his frustration with being “crowded out” fits his playing style (he thrives with space and possession).
Agree with him on the fact that they were being overrun in midfield. These are the kind of things you would discuss and fix during halftime, or now during hydration breaks to make in game changes. One of the front 3 had to make way for a midfielder to compensate. Whoever was the least effective. But Koeman I guess ruled like a dictator in that dressing room.
Thank you for finding it Jan! It is great that he has the reflection and saw the disadvantage. Like Forza said, it would be better if they decide to speak up during half time. Watching the ship sink and not saying anything is not exactly leadership material.
Ten Hag unavailable as head coach of the Dutch national team
His name is frequently mentioned, but Erik ten Hag will not be available as head coach of the Dutch national football team for at least the next two years.
“At this moment, for the next two years, I am not available,” Ten Hag told RTV Oost. The man from Twente will ‘simply’ remain technical director of FC Twente.
“I chose this; it is a conscious decision,” he states. “I weighed the options in that regard. I stepped in here and I am working to help Twente move forward. I am going all out for that.”