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Lucky Orange in 1988

May 18th, 2008 | By: Jan | 13 Comments »

No one fares well without luck is a oft-used Dutch expression. And that was certainly the case in the EC1988. There were at least 5 moments were Lady Luck helped Oranje. If we want to analyze Oranje’s performance of 1988, one should always look at those 5 moments and realize that success can be fragile.

1) At the qualifications draw, Oranje was in the so-called third tier, due to the disappointing results in the early 1980s. Oranje could have drawn England, France, Spain, Italy or the USSR as main opponent. But Oranje got lucky. The weakest teams of tier 1 and tier 2 would become Oranje’s partners in the qualification: Hungary and Poland. Both nations had a good run in the 1980s but by now their value had decreased and were in “renovation-mode”. This group would prove to be the easiest on the road to the EC1988.

2) Oranje failed twice at home, against Poland and Greece. Oranje couldn’t allow more point-loss. The Poland away game would be crucial to reach the final tournament. Poland had played 0-0 against Cyprus, so Poland was without any hope for the big one. The Polish Football federation decided to give their Olympic team all the focus and the Oranje opponent turned out to be the Polish B-side. Stars Boniek and Smolarek were allowed to stay at home. A highly motivated Oranje won in Poland 0-2 and secured the qualification for the EC 1988. Later however, Oranje played at home against Cyprus when some idiot chucked a bomb on the pitch. The anxiety after that match (I believe we won 12-0 or something with five John Bosman goals) was big! What would the UEFA do? Suspend Oranje? Deduct two points (making qualification impossible)? Good diplomacy by Zeist resulted in a re-match without fans. Oranje won that bizar game 5-0.

3) In the actual EC tournament, Oranje starts with a loss against the USSR and has to win all two remaining matches. The second game against England would be like a finals. The English start strong and dominate in the first 30 minutes. Gary Lineker hits the post and not much later Glenn Hoddle hits the post. Oranje trembles but just before half time it’s Marco van Basten who scores the 1-0. Rijkaard fouled Lineker just before that goal but the Italian referee decides he didn’t see that.

After the break, England equalizes. But it’s Van Basten with two goals who secures the win. The second goal appears to be off side and the third goal is scored from a corner kick that wasn’t really a corner kick… Lady Luck was seated firmly in the VIP-stands.

4) The most famous lucky moment is without a doubt Wim Kieft’s goal against the Irish. The goal was scored just before the end of the game, and although that situation wouldn’t be off side now with our current rules, in those days it was clearly off side.
McGrath headed a ball against the post when the score was still 0-0.

5) Marco van Basten’s winner against West Germany in the dying minutes is the first goal in the tournament by Oranje that isn’t questionable. A wonderful set-up. Gullit creates space, Wouters passes the ball exactly in Van Basten’s run and the current team manager does the only thing he could do: a low slicer in the corner. Oranje equalized from a penalty kick that wasn’t one. It wasn’t even a foul. If you analyze the footage, you can even see that after the German tackle – that floored Van Basten – Marco quickly gets up to play on. When the whistle sounds, Van Basten looks up in surprise.

In the finals against the USSR, Oranje has a tough first half hour. The Russians counter their way to Van Breukelen and Oranje is lucky not to concede in that phase of the game. But it goes too far to call that luck. That’s the extra power a team gets when it knows it can’t lose…

Holland enforced their own luck and finally won their first and only prize.

Once more… Marco… Because it’s such a beauty!

Tags: Background stories, Euro 2008, marco van basten, Oranje, Rinus Michels, Ruud Gullit, Wim Kieft

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Comments

By Marc | May 18th, 2008 at 7:52 am

hey jan! once again greta blog and articles. i have never had so much info on the dutch national team since ur blog. really well done. but im quite curious on how holland is preparing themselves for this euro… its quite silent back here in switzerland and all we hear is the darn french squad and hhow serious theyre taking things… Would u mind filling me in on tactics, whats happening with the squad and how well they r preparing cuz that would be very nice. Im getting rather worried not hearing anything… feels almost as though marco van basten isnt doing anything. take care

Posted from Switzerland

By sublimesk | May 18th, 2008 at 8:22 am

Great blog entry about 1988, but you forgot one crucial goal that was a textbook example of luck: Wim Kieft scoring in the dying minutes of the last group stage game against Ireland with a (offside) header that passes Bonner with an impossible curve. This allowed Oranje to advance to Munich and beat West-Germany in that classic match. I think the Dutch used all their luck for the next 20 years in that tournament..

@marc: A quiet Oranje is a good sign most of the time (and highly unusual), but it could be the calm before the storm…

By sublimesk | May 18th, 2008 at 8:24 am

sorry, you have that moment.. it’s still early here in the US…

By Rob | May 18th, 2008 at 8:58 am

No doubt we’ll need the same sort of luck this time around, with such a dodgy defence, but I genuinely believe it could happen - there are enough special players knocking about whose time has come to shine on the biggest stage of all.

I’d also like to congratulate Jan - I’ve followed Oranje for quite a few years now, but it’s very difficult when you live in the UK (and now Japan…!). This blog is about as comprehensive as it gets and I’ve learnt a shitload - cheers Jan!

Posted from Japan

By Peter vdL | May 18th, 2008 at 9:37 am

no ajax in this years champions league =(

By sublimesk | May 18th, 2008 at 10:18 am

and last year, and the year before that…. hopefully Twente does survive the qualifying round..

By goose | May 18th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

Jan, you forgot prob. the most lucky moment of them all… remember the ‘bom uit Oss’, the bomb wich was thrown on the pitch by an Oranje supporter during the match v Cyprus (cant find a tube), the game was ended (8-0 win, think Bosman scored 5) and at first the Uefa gave a very heavy punishment; a 3-0 loss….after the KNVB begged the Uefa the punishment was changed and we had to play the game without fans (think we won 3-0?)

we were very close NEVER playing the EC88

things are pretty quiet in Holland… even very few Oranje steets at the moment…guess it really starts after the Cham. Leg. final (what a boring game that is gonna be, lets just hope vdSar comes out of it unharmed)

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | May 18th, 2008 at 5:19 pm

Thanks all :-). Goose, the bomb story is in there mate… Check again…

Marc, as for the current news, I am funneling the information as I get it. And there is not a lot. The main items were the dtopping of some players Friday and the inclusion of Boula in the training camp. Most of these news flashes are put in the blog as comments to other stories, so keep on checking my comments (and others of course) and you will pick up the little news flashes.

In the next weeks, more and more news will come through. As written earlier, the Dutch play offs were still on so a lot of exposure is/was on that.

Posted from Australia

By Ramy | May 18th, 2008 at 8:19 pm

What a scorcher of a goal !! Sneijder scored today. Wow.. the commentators of goltv went berserk.. was a nice end of season game for Real.. 2 for VNistelrooy, and one beauty for Wes.. All three stars of Real are looking sharp, which is really what we need them to be for the buildup of the EC.
Vdv also ended his season on a high, leading hsv to a 7-0 rout of karlsruhe.. that was good to see.

Feeling optimistic about or chances, even more so about our performances.. The upcoming friendly games will definitely give us a clearer picture.. Cant wait.

Posted from Canada

By goose | May 19th, 2008 at 1:25 am

@Jan; sorry bout that.. i should have know you wouldnt have missed that

btw; fc Den Haag has promoted!!!

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | May 19th, 2008 at 4:11 am

No worries Goose. Yeah, I read that. Happy?

Posted from Australia

By goose | May 19th, 2008 at 9:15 am

not really sure Jan, on the one hand; ofcourse im happy that we will play the big teams next season
BUT
as you know Andre Wetzel is gonna take over from William Vloet… im pretty sure he made a plan for Den Haag for the comin 5 years expecting to start in the eerste divisie… than we would have had time to built a decent team with youth and promote within a few years
NOW
im very concerned that we will loose many games in de eredivisie, the fans will riot, the KNVB will give us big fines and well be back in the eerste divisie next year without any structural progress at all

so im not too sure if im happy…but it was nice to have almost 13.000 fans in the new stadium

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | May 19th, 2008 at 10:46 pm

Good point Goose. Let’s hope they do well.

Posted from Australia

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