Oranje has turned the corner after the defeat against England, partly thanks to a boat trip on Lake Thun. Sherida Spitse and her team believe in a European Championship miracle. “We need to be very good.”
Oranje suffered a setback on Wednesday due to the chanceless defeat against England (4-0). Part of the team tried to wash away the hangover the next morning at the Italian restaurant Riviera in Spiez, a fifteen-minute walk from the hotel.
The staff provided them with coffee, tiramisu or ‘grandmother’s cake’, but still saw disappointed faces. Not surprising, because after the good European Championship start against Wales (0-3 victory), Oranje was brought back to earth by Sarina Wiegman’s team.
That reality sank in on the terrace in Spiez, but after an evening with family and a boat trip on Lake Thun, they’ve turned the corner. “You have to move on,” says Spitse.
“We can keep dwelling on: we didn’t do this well and we didn’t do that well. But in the end, there’s another top match on the program, so we also have to switch. It’s that simple.”
‘Maybe the tactics weren’t clear enough’
Before focusing on Sunday’s match against France, Oranje reflected on the match with England. After the match, Jonker said that the plan was not well executed by the players. When Spitse is asked two days later whether the tactics were clear enough, she gives a telling answer. “Maybe not. Because otherwise it would be executed, right?”
She thinks that both the players and the staff did not perform well. “We didn’t do it well together. It all has to do with each other: if the players don’t execute it or if the staff doesn’t explain it well. I think it’s too easy to point the finger: it’s because of this or that. We shouldn’t do that.”
According to Spitse, Oranje did not work hard enough against England. “We didn’t feel like we rolled up our sleeves and did everything we could to make it difficult for England.”
“You don’t want that feeling against France. If we have done everything against France and we win 1-0, then it’s hard that we don’t continue. But then you can go home with peace of mind. Because then we have done everything.”
“We know it will be difficult. We need to be very good, but we believe in it. Otherwise, we might as well take the plane tomorrow. We don’t do that, because we also know that we can do much better than we have shown.”
“We have to start playing from our strength, so not hanging in the sixteen-yard box. Because that is not our strength. Our strength is that we put pressure forward. That we grab them by the throat and don’t let go.”