As a born and bred Englishman who supports the Oranje, it’s been fun since Saturday night. Being constantly told I’m not actually Dutch, while reminding mijn Engelse vrienden that the only living England manager to win anything is Dutchie Sarina Wiegman is obviously A1 bantz.
But when your heart is with windmills, tulips, fast-food vending machines, bespreekbaarheid (the famous Dutch directness) and jumping from left to right there can only be one winner on Wednesday night. So Hup Holland Hup and let’s hope for a gezellig avondje from Vlissingen to Groningen.
I’ve been fascinated by the Netherlands since the late 1990s. The people are hilarious and there is a pragmatism about the place borne out of keeping themselves afloat battling the water that is heroic.
The Delta Works, built after the North Sea floods of 1953 that killed 1,836 people in the Netherlands, is a remarkable piece of ingenuity, while introducing a cycling culture by basically building a shed-load of cycle lanes should be replicated everywhere amid the climate crisis.
The Netherlands shouldn’t be here, but here we are. Shorn of their two best midfielders – Frenkie de Jong and Teun Koopmeiners – through injury, the Oranje have battled and stumbled on through a combination of Dutch pragmatism, splattered with moments of genius and last-ditch defending.
It has been mildly amusing to hear Dutch commentators reckoning they’ve got a chance because England have been so bad and it is hard to disagree with the consensus that England have better players, but the Netherlands have been tactically better.
It’s been far from totaalvoetbal, but the mixing up of long and short passes has worked and they were the only team to win their quarter-final in 90 minutes.
Indeed, coach Ronald Koeman is a divisive figure in the dugout despite being such a great player and member of the 1988 European Championship winners.
The only man to have played for and managed all of the Eredivisie’s big three clubs of Ajax, Feyenoord, and PSV Eindhoven has got some calls wrong, but most of them have been right.
The main one he got correct was in goal. Bart Verbruggen was given the No 1 shirt despite not even firmly cementing his status as Brighton & Hove Albion’s starting shot-stopper last season.
But he has made stunning saves in every game and showed he deserved the nod over Brentford’s Mark Flekken – who can hopefully give him some tips if Ivan Toney has to take a penalty – and Feyenoord’s Justin Bijlow.
This, though, has been Cody Gakpo’s tournament. Wherever he has gone, the Dutch have gone. Poor in the first half of the 2-1 quarter-final win over Turkey, normal service resumed after the break and the Liverpool forward played a huge part in the winner to go with his three goals. And he’s strong.
The moment of Euro 2024 for the Netherlands has probably when Gakpo outmuscled Radu Dragusin down the byline to set up Donyell Malen in the 3-0 last-16 win over Romania.
The midfield has been OK. Tijjani Reijnders, the AC Milan man who subjected Dundee United to the biggest thrashing handed to a Scottish team in Europe playing for AZ Alkmaar a couple of years ago, has been inconsistent, but serviceable.
And Jerdy Schouten has been a star. He’s no Koeman, despite the blond locks, but – unlike England’s midfield – will pass the ball forwards. It was the PSV Eindhoven man who sparked the move that brought the Oranje’s tournament to life. His raked pass to Xavi Simons, led to Simons finding Gakpo, whose near-post finish put the Dutch 1-0 up against Romania.
Up front, Memphis Depay remains a conundrum. The Netherlands’ second all-time leading scorer has spurned chances with a lack of composure in front of goal. But there may be a place for him out wide on the right, from where he crossed for Stefan de Vrij’s equaliser against Turkey.
The defence, thought to be a strength, has been a bit dodgy. But there is depth there. De Vrij, Denzel Dumfries, Nathan Ake and Micky van de Ven have had their moments, but they are vulnerable if England are willing to have a go.
But let us all hope that doesn’t happen and Koeman’s jongens evoke the spirit of the song “Hup Holland Hup”: don’t put slippers on the beast, don’t let the (Dutch) lion stand in his undershirt, because the lion in football boots can take on the world!
The fans behind Dortmund’s ‘Orange wall’
By Oliver Young-Myles, i football reporter
On Wednesday for one night only Borussia Dortmund’s iconic Yellow Wall will become the Netherlands’ Oranje Wall.
The iconic single-tiered stand that escapes into the sky and looms formidably over the pitch below will be filled with buoyant, bouncing Dutch fans for their country’s Euro 2024 semi-final against England.
It is a fitting stage for a fanatical fanbase. Major tournaments are made more colourful by the Netherlands’ presence; fans are not expected to wear orange, they are practically obligated to do so.
Henk van Beek will be one of the supporters in attendance. He is the president of the iconic double-decker “Oranjebus” which has led the Dutch fans throughout Germany’s host cities towards stadiums, just as it has done for every senior men’s tournament since Euro 2004 and every senior women’s tournament, bar the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, since 2017.
“That stand has such a special name. Like in Liverpool, you have the Kop, in Dortmund, you have the Yellow Wall,” Van Beek tells i.
“It’s awesome that we’re there. I’m very lucky to be there and really looking forward to it. The players in England are used to [intimidation] from fans but we’ll do our best! But always in a positive way.”
The Dutch party will begin long before the match gets underway, though. The Oranjebus will set off for the Signal Iduna Park over four hours before kick-off and Van Beek has an important part to play in getting the celebrations started: he has a secondary role as the Oranjebus resident DJ and is responsible for blaring out Dutch dance classics during the strolls to the stadiums.
One of the songs that has become synonymous with the Netherlands’ tournament is Links Rechts by Snollebollekes. You’ve seen the videos of fans dancing along to it by now, bouncing energetically from side to side as one giant, vibrant mass like bubbles from an upturned Fanta bottle.
“I live in a small village in Holland and we had a big party and the act who was doing the song, Snollebollekes, were performing,” he recalls.
“They were not at all big at the time but I thought it was a nice song and a year later we played away in Sweden in 2016 and we had a little fan walk to the stadium. I thought to myself let’s give it a try and see what happens and the people started to dance from the left to the right.
“That was basically the first time. It’s not like what you see now but they loved it and in 2017 we had the Women’s Euros in our country and won the tournament and every time I played the song the Dutch fans went crazy! That’s when it started to grow and now it has become something unbelievable. I guess Snollebollekes are quite happy with us!”
CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF THIS!
— OnsOranje (@OnsOranje) July 2, 2024#NothingLikeOranje #CreateHistory pic.twitter.com/Oc3reu9Zj9
Footage of the Dutch fans bopping to Van Beek’s beat have been used by the Dutch Football Association’s official social media channels and turned the Oranjebus into a viral phenomenon. Before Euro 2024 began, the Oranjebus’ official page on Instagram had just under 2,500 followers; now it is closing in on 60,000.
“I remember before the tournament we had a video that had 5,000 people watching and we were like “woah! that’s huge” and now we have movies with like three million views. We’re just football fans who have a bus like this and are doing everything we can to keep it rolling!”
The fan marches have been an integral part of the Dutch football fan experience. According to Van Beek it started at the 1998 World Cup in France and has snowballed into something they couldn’t have dreamed of. The Dutch FA helps to co-ordinate them by liaising with city councils and police forces to ensure a smooth and safe journey for all.
Tomorrow’s march stands to be the biggest one yet. Dutch fans would have travelled in their tens of thousands anywhere around the continent to give their backing to Koeman’s squad, but the proximity to Germany has tempted even more to make the trip.
Van Beek estimates that between 110,000 and 120,000 fans could descend on Dortmund to soak up the atmosphere ahead of their Dutch men’s team’s first semi-final at a major tournament in a decade.
Expectations before the tournament were relatively low, particularly after Koeman’s first-choice midfield pairing of De Jong and Koopmeiners were both ruled out through injury on the eve of their opening game.
Confidence didn’t particularly grow during or after the group stage either when the Dutch squeezed into the last-16 after finishing as one of the best third-placed teams.
However, belief is beginning to accelerate ahead of the England showdown with Gareth Southgate’s side yet to live up to their tag as pre-tournament favourites.
“I think that both teams, are not playing very good at this tournament,” Van Beek says. “It’s absolutely a 50-50 game and we’ll have to see what happens.”
One thing’s for sure, the Dutch fans are not ready to return home just yet. Van Beek and the rest will hope that the bus has one more trip to put into its Sat Nav: to Berlin’s Olympiastadion for the final on Sunday.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/PHGgc3O
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