Captain Sherida Spitse is proud of the fighting spirit that Orange showed against France on Sunday. But after the 2-5 defeat and the quick elimination at the European Championship, the captain must conclude that her team has disappointed in Switzerland.
The Dutch national team played a strong first half against France and took a 2-1 lead. As a result, there was some hope for a miracle in Basel, but after the break Orange turned out to be very vulnerable again. France scored three goals in six minutes, which decided the match.
“We have to be honest: the whole tournament was not good enough,” Spitse said after the match against the NOS. “Apart from the match against Wales, but that is – with all due respect – a team that is qualitatively less than us. We have to go home and that hurts.”
Orange started the European Championship with a 3-0 victory over Wales, but then things went badly wrong against England. The team of departing national coach Andries Jonker played a very bad match and lost 4-0. As a result, the European champion of 2017 had to win against France by three goals to advance to the quarter-finals.
Orange showed improvement in the first half against the French. The team played well and got a lot of chances. “We can be proud of that,” said Spitse. “The basis is always fighting for each other, rolling up your sleeves. We did that before the break. But in the second half we give it away in about ten minutes.”
Spitse doesn’t know yet if she will stop with Orange
According to Spitse, Orange suffered far too much simple loss of possession after the break, just like against England. “In such matches you shouldn’t play easy balls to the wrong color. That happened in the second half. And then every chance they had was a goal.”
“Before the break we were strong in the duels, strong with the second balls and economical in possession. I’m a bit pissed off that it went wrong in the second half. But it happened. We fought for it, but we were eliminated. That’s a shame and sour.”
The 35-year-old Spitse played her 247th international match on Sunday. She did not want to say after the match whether it was her last. “I’m not saying now: I’m stopping with Orange. I’m going to think about that calmly.”