The Robben replacement at the EC2004

The infamous moment in Portugal, four years ago.

You’re only as good as your last game, record, movie, book, joke…whatever. It applies to all trades. Teachers, stock-brokers, investors, wine-experts and football federations.

When Louis van Gaal, The Louis van Gaal (the best of the world one, the golden boy from Ajax and Barca) failed to qualify for the WC2002, the KNVB was in shambles.

They gambled their reputation, finances and future on a big mouthed, arrogant, non-compromising dominant “success coach” who not only had the intention to make Oranje World Champs but in the meantime set out to change the way the whole nation coached and trained.

We all know how that ended. Louis was a joke! As much as I admire him as a club coach and as much as I like the man personally ( I met him, you know, and he’s a good egg….).

Louis was a joke, because 1) he had a tremendous group of players, 2) he had the qualification in the pocket, leading against Portugal away 0-2 and 3) he gave it away by attempting to crush the Portuguese and bring two extra strikers with 10 minutes to go… We all know what happened: we forgot to defend and after 90 minutes our friends came back to 2-2. Game over!

And then I’m not even mentioning his brilliant move to put Reiziger in as left back against Portugal at home…

Tactical blunders by the biggest tactical brain we had in that job for a long time… His press conferences were even better. It went from: “I have changed. I won’t be insulting journalists anymore. I understand exactly what the KNVB needs and I can do it.”…

To: “SO YOU’RE ALL HAPPY I HOPE? WE DID”T QUALIFY??? SO YOU CAN WRITE WHAT A DUMBASS I AM? IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!!!”

The KNVB was in shock. What to do? We tried it with a dominant “winner” (after never having had the cojones to appoint JC) and now what? We can’t ask Co Adriaanse. He is as dominant, non-compromising and confronting as Louis…. We don’t think Willem van Hanegem will play the game with us either…. One of the young blokes? Koeman….Gullit… To big a risk… Martin Jol? Nah…too fat…

Well, there’s always good ol’ Dick. Advocaat. He did it before. He won’t win titles for us, but at least he’ll go middle of the road. He won’t rock the boat. He won’t stir things up at the office in Zeist. People will feel save with him. The Jan Peter Balkenende of Dutch Football…

When Dick was appointed, fans, media, experts and even players frowned their heads. Him? Didn’t he take us into the last 16 in the WC1994 and tried to tell us all that that was a great result?

Isn’t he the guy who’d rather bring an extra defender? Isn’t he the one who’d rather not lose instead of rather win?

The KNVB reacted immediately. They decided to win the hearts back of the nation by selecting a people’s hero as Dick’s assistant team manager: Willem van Hanegem. De Kromme looks back on his decision to say “yes” as a mistake. He now realizes he was used to silence the crowds. In the beginning, Dickie told everyone that “Willem and I will do this jointly”… Not much later, in the run up of the actual EC, Willem was banned from doing press and found himself relegated to carrying the balls onto the training pitch. He recalls: “I was ready to call it a day, but I didn’t want to let the group down. I had the chance to work with the best of the best and spending time with Van Nistelrooy, Cocu and Seedorf on the training pitch was a joy. I decided to make the best of it.”

Advocaat was getting himself in several pickles. He’d promised Seedorf a starting position. During the preparation however, Clarence realized he was being played. Willem van Hanegem: “I spent quite some time talking to Seedorf. I could empathize with him. I told him he shouldn’t demand a spot with his words. He’d have to show Advocaat on the trainings.”

Advocaat also took some youngsters along, the likes of Van der Vaart and Robben. The latter, no big surprises here, was injured going into the preparation. Still, it became clear that Dickie hedged his bets on the experienced players. Even Patrick Kluivert was part of the group.

The fans and most of the expert analists saw the problems coming. The choices Advocaat made were predictable. Willem’s role was unclear. And Dick Advocaat’s press-conferences brought back memories of Louis van Gaal. Everytime a critical question was asked, Advocaat would hide behind the backs of others. On one occasion, Oranje conceded a goal from a corner kick. When questioned about it after the game, this is what went down…

Interviewer: “Dick, we conceded a goal from a corner. And yet we knew they were dangerous from set-pieces.”

Dick: “Hey, I know. I told the group many times before the game that they were dangerous from corner kicks, so you can’t blame me!’

Interviewer: “I am not blaming you nor anyone else… I’m just saying…”

Oranje played Germany in the first group match. And we played well. But didn’t win. 1-1 was the endresult and the Czech Republic was the second opponent. Advocaat needed Robben. And used Robben. And the rest is history.

Holland – Czech Republic would go down in history as one of the finest matches played on any EC.
The Dutch played good football, and so did the Czech Republic, led by Pavel Nedved.

Thanks to Arjen Robben, Oranje led 2-0 to lose 2-3 when Dick Advocaat decided to sub our best man, Robben, for defensive midfielder Paul Bosvelt. Bosvelt, a capable consistent player, but also in the autumn of his career, was also tasked with marking Nedved.

Advocaat’s decision baffled everyone. The fans. The media. The analists. And even the players. And assistant coach Willem van Hanegem and not in the least: Robben himself.

Holland needed a win against Lithuania and needed to hope for a good result of the Czech against Germany.

Oranje would beat Lithuania (3-0, twice Van Gol and Makaay) and a second-rate Czech team beat Germany.

Holland was through and would write history against Sweden! For the first time in decades, Oranje won the penalty-series against the tough Swedes. Arjen Robben scored the winner.

Oranje and Advocaat were through to the semis and Dickie thought the fans would forgive him his Robben replacement. They didn’t.

Holland went mad. Led by the media and some expert analysts it appeared some mob would want to lynch the team manager when Oranje returned to Holland. There were even questions asked about it in the house and the Dutch prime minister had to intervene to calm everyone down …

Willem van Hanegem later admitted that he was shocked when Dickie ordered Robben’s jersey number to come off. “I made a mistake there. The minute I saw what he was doing I should have knocked him unconscious…”.

Advocaat stepped down right after the EC, totally distraught with the unfair manner in which he was manhandled by the media and supporters.

“Jose Mourinho understood my replacement of Robben,” Dick Advocaat whines, four years after the infamous tactical move of the Dutch team manager in the EC2004.

“I still support that replacement, although in hindsight it didn’t pan out too good. But, some coaches – among others Mourinho – understood this chance perfectly. But, everybody has it’s own opinion.

That’s football. We were kicked out of the tournament later and everybody criticized me for that Robben exchange. The whole nation was upset. I took Robben off simply because he hadn’t played for three months.”

Advocaat also explains about his relationship with Willem van Hanegem, who was Advocaat’s assistant a the EC. “The working relationship with Willem could have been better. I admit. And that was also my fault. But, you know, you can’t win against Willem. The whole nation loves him. I think we were a very good combination, but he felt he was only picked for the job to entertain the masses. I think if our cooperation would have gone well, we’d still be in charge. Actually, Willem and myself would be ideal as team managers. But, it wasn’t to be.”

The rest is history of course. Top dog Van Gaal had failed, old-school old-hand Dick Advocaat screwed up…what to do? Rijkaard wasn’t available, so the KNVB quickly smooched with Johan Cruyff who pushed his apprentices Bassie and Schippie. And the rest is history.

In 2006 we won the world title, with a Seedorf on fire and in 2008 we even won the EC, pushed forward by Mark van Bommel.