Oranje is on the verge of elimination from the European Championship due to the painful 4-0 defeat against England. Once again, coach Andries Jonker’s team fell (heavily) short against a top country. “Other countries are growing faster.”
Sarina Wiegman explained on Wednesday evening how easy it was for her against the weak Oranje, after she was asked whether the Dutch national team is a top country compared to England.
“The difference between the countries is not that big,” Wiegman said. “This is a snapshot. We played well and the Netherlands didn’t perform as they usually do. But I think Oranje has a world-class team.”
Wiegman said it more than an hour after she had inflicted the biggest defeat ever at a final tournament (both women and men) on her home country, with which she won the European Championship in 2017.
It was by no means an exaggeration. England outclassed the Dutch national team on Wednesday evening in Zurich in tactical, technical and physical terms. Due to the defeat, Oranje has only a minimal chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
Vivianne Miedema had barely touched a ball when she realized that it would be a very difficult story for the Netherlands against England. “I already had that feeling in the tenth minute. It was very frustrating,” said the Oranje striker.
Wiegman proud of victory: ‘Netherlands has a world-class team’
‘We can reach that level’
After ten minutes, Oranje was still at 0-0, but the signs of a tough evening were already emerging. England was sharper and smarter from the start and continued that throughout the match. Wiegman’s team won 4-0.
What went wrong? Oranje mainly had no answer to the high English pressure and the balls behind the last line, and the Oranje players kept giving (wrong) passes in dangerous positions. “We expected more from ourselves. This is very disappointing,” said youngster Wieke Kaptein afterwards.
“We wanted to reach the quarter-finals tonight (with a victory Oranje was almost certain of that, ed.), but we didn’t succeed. We should have shown more guts and courage. You are at a European Championship, you have to enjoy it and you must not be afraid.”
That fear was visible earlier in Bremen, where the Netherlands lost 4-0 to Germany a month and a half ago. The match was considered by Oranje as “an incident”, but against ‘The Three Lionesses’ the same problems came to light.
“Yet I don’t think you can conclude on the basis of Germany and England that the level is not there,” said Kaptein. “It wasn’t good enough today. But we can really reach that level.”
Is Oranje still world-class?
But still, is it a coincidence that it went wrong again in a top match? Of course, the Netherlands played a good match against the United States at the end of last year, even though they lost 1-2 against the odds.
Does this Oranje actually still belong to the world’s top? “Potentially yes,” said Jonker. “Spain IS the world’s top. We are in the group of eight to nine countries that also belong to the top. Although we do have to achieve good results.”
Dominique Janssen does not think Oranje is world-class at the moment. “We are simply not at our best right now. You also notice that other countries are getting better over the years. You see that in Germany and you notice it with England.”
But still, Oranje ‘simply’ has starting players from international top clubs such as FC Barcelona, Chelsea, Olympique Lyonnais and Arsenal in the selection. How is it possible that these players fall through the cracks so easily? “We were not good as a team, from beginning to end,” said captain Sherida Spitse.
“But that absolutely does not mean that we have a bad team. We have all kinds of players from abroad,” said Spitse. “It is logical that we don’t just win from England. In those kinds of matches, everything has to be right. It has to be better than it is now anyway.”
‘Extremely grumpy in the coming days’
Everything has to be right on Sunday against France, if Oranje is going for a miracle against better judgment. If England wins against Wales, Jonker’s team must win against France by three goals to still go through.
Miedema, laughing: “Maybe Inge (Van As, the KNVB’s press officer, ed.) has something nice in store in the days before the matches… We are allowed to be extremely grumpy in the coming days and then we have to be ready again.”