Netherlands national football team
2
The Netherlands national football team is the national football team of the Netherlands and is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB). They won Euro '88 and reached three World Cup finals in 1974, 1978, and recently in 2010. They lost both finals in the 70's however, to their respective host nations, West Germany and Argentina. At the peak of their success in the 1970s, the team was famous for its mastery of Total Football and was nicknamed Clockwork Orange for its precision passing. In the Netherlands the team is colloquially referred to as Oranje (orange), a tribute to the Dutch Royal Family, the House of Orange-Nassau. The team is frequently referred to as Holland, even though Holland is only one region of the Netherlands.
The Netherlands played their first international match in Antwerp against Belgium on 30 April 1905. The players were selected by a five-member commission from the Dutch football association. After 90 minutes, the score was 1–1, but because the match was for a trophy (the "Coupe van den Abeele"), the game went into extra time, in which Eddy de Neve scored three times, making the score 1–4 for the Dutch side. The Netherlands made their first appearance at the World Cup final tournament in 1934, and after coming back in 1938, the Dutch national team entered the wilderness of world football. They came out of this wilderness in the 1970s with the invention of Total Football (Dutch: Totaalvoetbal), pioneered by Ajax and led by playmaker Johan Cruyff and national team coach Rinus Michels. The Dutch made huge strides, qualifying for two World Cup finals in the decade. In 1974, the Netherlands beat both Brazil and Argentina in the second group stage, reaching the final for the first time in their history. However, the team lost to West Germany in the final in Munich, despite having gone 1–0 up through Johan Neeskens' early penalty kick before any German had even touched the ball. However, supported by the crowd, a converted penalty by Paul Breitner and the winner from Gerd Müller led to a victory for the Germans. Despite losing the final, Clockwork Orange and Johan Cruyff
History
Total Football