The first goal of national coach Andries Jonker has been achieved. The Dutch national team will participate in the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand from July 20 to August 20, 2023. To that end, a 1-0 win in the last qualifier in Utrecht against Iceland was enough. However, it is very doubtful whether Orange can participate for the main prize, just like in 2019. At the time, the Netherlands became vice world champion in France after a lost final against the United States.
The Dutch national team has not improved compared to three years ago, while other European countries such as England, France, Germany and Spain have visibly developed. England even conquered with the Dutch know-how Sarina Wiegman and Arjan Veurink won the European title in their own country. With this, the national coach and her assistant popularized football for women in England as it happened in the Netherlands in 2017 after the European Championship won by the Orange.
The Netherlands continued the line taken under Wiegman at the 2019 World Cup and confirmed that the team belonged to the world top. Last year, these ‘silver’ internationals failed to reward themselves with an Olympic medal at the Tokyo Games. This time, the aging United States was ready for demolition in the quarterfinals, but Wiegman’s team was eliminated after penalties.
After Sarina Wiegman left for the English Football Association, the KNVB made it unnecessarily difficult for itself by stating that it was looking for a ‘Sarina plus’. In other words, a coach who could lift Dutch women’s football to an even higher level. That was too much to ask of a new national coach. Far too much, as it turned out.
Also read: this profile of Orange national coach Andries Jonker.
Disappointing EC
After a long search, the KNVB came across the Englishman Mark Parsons, but he simply could never meet the high expectations. Parsons did not recover from a false start, missing the preparation for the start of the World Cup qualifiers. Parsons failed to build a new, successful formation before and during the European Championship and was dismissed by the KNVB after the elimination by France in the quarterfinals of the European Championship. The KNVB then ended up with Andries Jonker. A national coach who a year earlier thanked for the role of ‘Sarina plus’ and preferred to stay with the men of Telstar.
Jonker said he was now ready to work with the women. “An enormous challenge,” he called his new job during his presentation in Zeist. Two weeks later, the last crucial qualifier in Group C against Iceland followed. Jonker was convinced beforehand that the Netherlands would qualify. “If you think you belong in the top ten of the FIFA world rankings, then you have to have confidence that you will qualify for the World Cup against Iceland.”
The Eredivisie for women is a springboard to the four major competitions
It was extremely difficult on Tuesday evening in an atmospheric Galgenwaard Stadium. The Orange did not sparkle for a moment in a duel that had to be won. It turned out to be a viscous duel in which the Netherlands increasingly searched for a liberating goal and in which Iceland, supported by approximately two hundred supporters, was only interested in a draw. Esmee Brugts made the liberating goal in stoppage time – it was the 29th attempt by Orange, which had already hit the bar three times.
Also read: NRC followed Esmee Brugts in the run-up to this year’s European Championships. “In Orange the girls know that I like to make actions.”
Jonker now wants more. The former head coach of the men of Volendam, MVV, Willem II, Wolfsburg and Telstar wants to achieve results with the women of Orange with attacking football. With this he provides himself with a heavy assignment in a country where the expectations of the national team are unrealistically high. And that is due to the success of Orange in 2017 and 2019.
Since then, the Dutch national team is also ready for the replacement of older forces and the advancement of new talent. That is not an easy process. For example, keeper Sari van Veenendaal continued to be preferred, despite a series of blunders, based on her past.
Until, after an injury at the European Championships, the talented Daphne van Domselaar suddenly turned out to be a more than excellent alternative. The FC Twente goalkeeper proved again on Tuesday evening against Iceland with a solid performance that she is the future, Van Veenendaal has now also stopped playing football.
Jonker has an axis with keeper Van Domselaar (22), central defender Domique Janssen (23), midfielder Jackie Groenen (27) and striker Vivianne Miedema (26) with which he can continue for years to come. For those in his thirties such as Daniëlle van de Donk (31), Stefanie van der Gragt (30) and Sherida Spitse (32) he will slowly but surely have to fit in young people. Jonker brought in Esmee Brugts (19) and Fenna Kalma (22) in the 65th minute for Van de Donk and Spitse. The golden change Brugts eventually ensured that the Netherlands can go directly to the World Cup.
Jonker has to conclude that the Netherlands does not belong to the absolute top of the world. And with the increasingly professional leagues in the four major European countries, the gap is likely to widen rather than narrow. Those are concerns for the time being. Jonker will now first have to prepare the Dutch national team for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of September 7, 2022