Alternative Sport Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Netherlands Netherlands
Confederation UEFA
FIFA code NED
FIFA ranking 30
Highest FIFA ranking 1
Lowest FIFA ranking 30
First international Flag of Belgium (civil) Belgium 1-2 Flag of the Netherlands Netherlands
(Brussels, Belgium; December 1, 1904)
World Cup appearances 9 (First in 1906)
Best result Champions, 1930
Olympic medal record
Men's Football
Gold medal – first place 1908 London Team
Gold medal – first place 1912 Stockholm Team
Silver medal – second place 1920 Antwerp Team
Bronze medal – third place 1928 Amsterdam Team

The Netherlands national football team is the association football team that represents the country of Netherlands in international competition and is controlled by the Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond. Netherlands has competed in nine FIFA World Cups including the title that they won in 1930 FIFA World Cup after defeating Argentina by two goals.

History[]

The Start[]

The Netherlands played in their first match on December 1, 1904 against the Netherlands in Brussels. Before long the team was entered into the first ever World Cup with their group consisted of England and Hungary. After defeating Hungary, they lost to a more familiar opponent in football which was the England. The Netherlands soon tasted success when Great Britain withdrew from the football which opened the field for the Netherlands to take the first of two gold medals in a row. They later defeated Norway at the 1912 Olympics by a score of 6-0. That success didn't translate to the FIFA World Cup with a quarter-final exit in the next two FIFA World Cups. Both of them coming against Belgium team.

Success and failure[]

After the first World War, the national team fortunes started to swing with the success coming in the World Cup. When they hosted in 1922, they made all the way through to the World Cup final before falling down to once again the Belgium team for the third time. After failing in 1924, the team headed to 1926 where they defeated Belgium in the qualifying stage. For the Netherlands, they beat Hungary before notching up the biggest victory of World Cup history with a 7-0 demolition of the United States. After winning 2-0 over Yugoslavia and Scotland, they avoided Belgium as they were defeated by Austria in the quarter-finals. After beating them, they once again ended up second best when they lost to Uruguay in extra time.

After finishing in 3rd place at their home Olympics, the Netherlands qualified again with Argentina, France and the United States. After finishing on top of their group, they took on Brazil who made it to the previous World Cup. It would come down to Jan van den Broek to score the winning goal and got the team through to the semis where they defeated Switzerland by a single goal. This meant that they once again had to take on Argentina. After an equal first half, the Netherlands struck twice in the space of 10 minutes take home their first World Cup.

After only finishing in 3rd at the 1933 WEFF Championship, hopes was high of defending the title in Italy but they didn't make it out of the Group Stage. This was then followed up by a group stage exit at home in the regional tournament. But they soon regained form by finishing in 3rd place at the 1937 WEFF Championship before heading to Argentina in hope of regaining the title that they won in Uruguay eight years earlier.

The success that they did have was another final after they defeated Latvia, Hungary and the United States to get to the final against Italy who was the defending champions. But they couldn't do anything with them losing the match 2-0 in the final and having to deal with the runner-up for the third time in 16 years.

Failure of the 1950s[]

After the Second World War ended, the nation of the Netherlands was struggling to replace the team that they lost in the war. This meant that a completely new team had to compete at the Olympics in London. After losing in the first round of the competition against Great Britain, not much was expecting on the Dutch to do well at the tournament despite being lucky to qualify through to the World Cup in a group which had the Republic of Ireland and Portugal. After delivering a smashing of Jamaica in the opening match 7-0, the nation could only score another two goals in the remaining three matches which included a shock lost to Norway to be knocked out in the group stage.

The fifties for the nation got worse with a first-round exit in the 1952 Summer Olympics to Brazil 4-3 before competing in the qualifiers for the 1954 FIFA World Cup where they couldn't get any points from either match (Spain and Czechoslovakia) to not make the World Cup finals for the first time in the history of the Netherlands which would later give the sack to Jaap van der Leck.

The Netherlands next tournament was trying to qualify for the 1956 European Nations' Cup which would later be held in France. After only just scraping through the second round match against the Republic of Ireland, they would knock out by France after losing 2-0 in the first leg held at Colombes which they couldn't get back at home in the second leg. The qualifiers for the 1958 FIFA World Cup came next and they got drawn into Group 6 with Turkey and the Republic of Ireland once again. For the Dutch they would struggle to get any goals as they only could score two while conceding eight as they went to the bottom of the group with no points.

Rivalries[]

Main article: Low Countries derby

Tournament History[]

FIFA World Cup[]

     Gold       Silver       Bronze  

FIFA World Cup record
Year Round Position Pld W D * L GF GA
France 1906 Group Stage 8th 2 1 0 1 1 4
Flag of the Habsburg Monarchy 1910 Quarter Finalist 5th 3 1 1 1 4 6
England 1914 Quarter Finalist 5th 4 3 1 0 11 2
Netherlands 1922 Runner Up 2nd 3 2 0 1 7 2
Spain 1926 Runner Up 2nd 6 5 1 0 17 4
Uruguay 1930 Champions 1st 6 5 1 0 14 3
File:Flag of Italy (1861-1946) crowned.svg 1934 Group Stage 11th 3 1 0 2 4 3
Flag of Argentina 1938 Runner Up 2nd 4 3 0 1 9 5
Sweden 1950 Group Stage 12th 4 1 1 2 9 4
Chile 1954 Did Not Qualify
Switzerland 1958
Total Champions 9/11 35 22 5 8 76 33

External Links[]

Template:Football in the Netherlands

Template:National sports teams of the Netherlands

Advertisement