Oranje’s history at the ECs in pics….

December 6th, 2011 | by: Jan |

Time to have a look at the circus that is the European Cup for Nations. The EC, in shorthand, or the “EK” in Dutch. As perennial World Cup runner ups, at least we won one of those. Once. A long time ago actually. I’m getting older. But I still remember having been there when we did win it! Yea! But it’s a bloody long time ago.

So, in the coming months, expect long and fascinating look-backs at all those times.

As a warm up, here is some pics.

Ek76

Yugoslavia, 1976. Oranje was one of the four nations to compete. What? Only four teams. We came out of the 1974WC as the winners ( mentally, emotionally, spiritually) and the world expected us to win this. We lost the semi finals against the Czech Republic, 1-3, after extended time. Johan Cruyff cheers the Oranje goal, which was scored by a Czech defender. Willem van Hanegem and Johan Cruyff got famously red carded in this tournament. The Czechs would win this tournament – against West Germany – and Panenka scored his famous Panenka. Which was a term that was not known at the time. As the term was derived from this particular penalty.

EK80

Italy 1980. Oranje is exited on the basis of goal difference in the group stages. Oranje wins against Greece (1-0) but loses against West Germany (3-2) and draws against the Czechs. This might well be the post-74 generation Oranje but it did have quite some quality players. Rep, Krol, Van de Kerkhof were still there and AZ supplied a number of top players from their title winning team: Jan Peters, Pier Tol, Kees Kist and Hugo Hovenkamp. Feyenoord skipper Wijnstekers was the attacking right back. West Germany beats Belgium in the finals: 2-1.

On the photo, Frans Thijsen, Ben Wijnstekers and Willy van de Kerkhoff demonstrated dreariness at the pool.

EK88

1988 in West-Germany. God, I’m getting old! Oranje wins a title at long last. The first game brought a defeat ( Michels played 4-3-3 and changed the tactics to 4-4-2 bringing Van Basten and Erwin Koeman for Bosman and Van’t Schip). In a very even game against England, we score while they hit bars and posts. We score an offside goal against Ireland with some luck but we totally deserved the semis win over West Germany, with a late Van Basten winner. The finals was a dream game: sensational goals ( Gullit’s wasn’t shabby either), a penalty stop and end to end action. The nation explodes. On the pic the winners with a number of no-name players like Wilbert Suvrijn and Wim Koevermans who never took off their trainers. This is a good bunch, as tv’s Theo Reitsma quipped.

EK92

Sweden, 1992. And as per normal, Oranje entered the tournament as faves. The Milan Three, Barca’s Snowflake, Jan Wouters but also new talents Bergkamp, Rob Witschge, Frank de Boer and Bryan Roy. Holland played sensational against Germany and expected to cruise to the finals, only to be stopped by the camping team of Denmark ( who got the ticket after Yugoslavia was banned). The 1988 star Marco van Basten missed the crucial penalty against Schmeichel and didn’t score one goal at this tournament ( or any tournament since 1988 ). The Danes went on to win it beating Germany 2-0 with manly football.

EK96

1996 England. And again Oranje enters the tournament faves. And why not? New comers Peter Hoekstra, Edwin van der Sar and Jaap Stam were part of the squad. In 1996, Oranje had players like Seedorf, Kluivert, De Boer bros and Davids and could have and should have done better. For an indepth analysis, watch this space for posts to come . We were ousted in the quarter finals on penalties (…) against France. But the worst defeat was the spanking we received from England. At Wembley, Shearer and Sheringham whipped our arses and sub Pat Kluivert scored the all important consolation goal ( 4-1) helping us proceed on goal difference.

On the pic, Shearer beats Van der Sar.

EK00

2000, Holland/Belgium. This was supposed to be ours. We had a sensational squad. A super coach. We played at home. What could go wrong? Holland cries. We played good games this tournament and trash Yugoslavia 6-1 as an example. But the semi finals against Italy is a horror scenario. No Hitchcock. But Rob Zombie. Or Stephen King. After 20 minutes, Italy was down to ten men. We got 2 penalties in the game. And missed them. We didn’t score in normal time, despite all the opportunities. We didn’t score in the extra time. Frank de Boer, Jaap Stam and Paul Bosvelt missed. Holland cries. Frank Rijkaard cries and resigns in disgust. France beats Italy in the finals 2-1.

On the pic: the Man of the Match in negative sense can’t believe it!

EK04

2004 Portugal. Oranje plays the semi finals and is without hope against Portugal. The wind is out of Oranje’s sails after a dramatic sub by coach Advocaat in the game against the Czechs. Arjen Robben is back from injury and plays the game of his life. After 60 minutes, Advocaat subs Robben and the Czechs turn the game around. The players are flabbergasted, the media doesn’t know if they should laugh or cry and assistant coach Van Hanegem was quoted saying he was ready to knock the light out of Advocaat’s eyes if he’d ever dare a replacement like that again. Oranje gave a 2-1 lead away and the Czechs won the game 2-3. Portugal would beat a deflated Oranje in the semis and Greece would shock the football world by beating hosts Portugal.

On the pic: Dick Advocaat explains to his many fans – the media – what flash of genius made him make his infamous replacement.

EK08

2008, Switzerland/Austria. We recently discussed the Boulahrouz tragedy. After playing tremendous games in the group stages simply dazzling France, Italy and Romania, Oranje deflated again. This time after an off-pitch tragedy: defender Boulahrouz losing his premature born daughter during the tournament. The team spirit was gone and wobbly legs couldn’t stop Arshavin & Co on fire. Guus Hiddink beat Van Basten and the latter made place for Bert van Marwijk.

On the pic: Arjen Robben scoring a scorcher against France from an impossible angle. Despite the unfortunate exit of Oranje, this tournament holds many great memories.

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 81 comments.

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By Mohamed | December 7th, 2011 at 4:38 pm

Fuck that portuguese refree !

By ajacied_23 | December 7th, 2011 at 4:38 pm

completely robbed. i am so upset.
bring in some form of technology uefa. tennis show us exactly how it can be used!

Posted from United Kingdom

By Jeff | December 7th, 2011 at 4:43 pm

This is a fucking joke. We had the chance to go far this year. Now watch Ajax will disintegrate. Thanks Johan for creating havoc this year and for what? So he can have his way. My idol is just an egomaniac. I blame him as much as I blame the corrupted UEFA. And guys be prepared, it will be the same outcome at the Euro, out first round because after the WC nobody wants us to advance. We don’t have the players anymore. This is so sad, I am so depressed, it is totally crazy.

By Jason | December 7th, 2011 at 4:45 pm

Oh man, the Europa League is going to be stacked now….

Posted from Canada

By Jason | December 7th, 2011 at 4:50 pm

I know this is dumb but the coaches should be allowed to challenge a bad decision like they do in the NFL. They have three challenges to start, if their challenges are overturned, the lose their right to challenge. This of course works in conjuction with video replay.

They do this in every other damn sport.

Posted from Canada

By Marc | December 7th, 2011 at 4:58 pm

@Jason I completely agree… Refs are far too costly and they cost clubs millions of dollars on terrible calls, and it is a joke sometimes.

By jake | December 7th, 2011 at 5:02 pm

poor ajax, I’m speechless

Posted from Australia

By Simon | December 7th, 2011 at 5:07 pm

It’s easy to get paranoid, but come on ~ Zagreb red card, Ajax 2 disallowed goals, 7 Lyon goals in 45 minutes, Holland in Group of Death, Sneijder not player of the year in 2010, 3 Dutch players in FIFA “shortlist” of 55 players …………….. arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

By Jeff | December 7th, 2011 at 5:08 pm

How could UEFA choose a Portuguese referee for such a match? Mourinho is Portuguese, Real has at least 3 Portuguese players, I mean give me a break. Aren’t there any other nationalities that UEFA could tap into?
I am devastated by this injustice. I don’t recall such a huge one in ages.

By Jeff | December 7th, 2011 at 5:08 pm

I agree Simon. I find all these things very strange.

By Eduardo | December 7th, 2011 at 5:21 pm

Advocaat was coach in USA 1994 an in 2004?? Why??

By RealDutch | December 7th, 2011 at 5:22 pm

Poor Dutchies and sympathizers. Let’s face the truth Ajax were not good enough. Same thing going to happen to Holland at the Euros. And you won’t have the total football myth anymore. Simply ugly and not good enough.

By primo | December 7th, 2011 at 5:23 pm

Ajax should sue UEFA for 25 million Euros. But seriously though, Ajax should sell Eriksen on January 1st. He has absolutely no grit, no desire to win and definately no fighting spirit. Pretty boy prima-donna that shows amazing things against VVV, NAC and RKC but anytime there is even a bit of challenge he shits the bed.

By Marc | December 7th, 2011 at 5:35 pm

@primo… i think you have not been watching eriksen at all. he has been our best, most consistent performer for the past year and a half. And did you not see his performance against denmark? We should sell Vermeer, Blind, Ebecilio… Our players that actually play horribly. Not the ones that carry our team, and have the odd bad match.

By Marc | December 7th, 2011 at 5:36 pm

Also to make matters worse Lyon scored 2 blatantly offside goals…

By jake | December 7th, 2011 at 5:49 pm

this is conspiracy to get lyon qualified, red card in 30′ and 3 goals scored in less than 5′ in second half.

Posted from Australia

By Ilir | December 7th, 2011 at 6:08 pm

And Platini is going to replace Blatter?1?! From bad to worse. It’s like Malta-Spain 1-12 all over again. How such obvious things can go unpunished?

By primo | December 7th, 2011 at 7:21 pm

@Marc,

I watch every Ajax game. I question whether you do the same if you think Eriksen is anything that even resembles consistent.

He shows neat little flicks and tricks every once in a while but when push comes to shove and Ajax need men in the midfield who fight for every ball and push the team on to victory then he is not it. If you think otherwise than that’s your right, but really you are only deceiving yourself by seeing what you want to see as opposed to what is reality.

You describe him as a ‘carrying’ player. Where was he against Real Madrid, Lyon, utrecht, NAC (where he lost possession foolishly and allowed them to tie the game at the death), AZ, PSV, Feyenoord. Do you want me to continue?

Posted from Canada

By Kelvin | December 7th, 2011 at 9:00 pm

I pretty much agree with primo but at the same time I would say Eriksen is one of the best player in Ajax this year so far.

Maybe that’s why Ajax is not performing.

Posted from Hong Kong

By Ilir | December 7th, 2011 at 10:06 pm

The bookmakers after what happened today will take notes and France odds for the EC will change drastically. Now France, pardon Platini, will be a force to be reckoned with. Forget Spain and Germany, France will play “exceptional” football with 14 men on the pitch and go and finish as champions.

By Marc | December 7th, 2011 at 10:37 pm

@Primo, “when push comes to shove” Eriksen’s role in the team is not to win possession back and win headers… his role is to create chances and maintain possession which he does regularly in every game.

And yes he is one of the players that carries our team. You clearly agree with me that at least he carries our team against the so-called mediocre games, but these games are very important as well… as noted by AZ’s draw today against Excelsior that still keeps us with in touching distance of them.

And frankly, in the bigger matches he still plays quite well. In most of the big games he creates numerous chances, but they are not always scored, and then since our defense is atrocious at the moment the other team will score, and we may lose or tie the match, but his teammates’ lack of ability to score or defend consistently is not really his fault. (I remember specifically the away match vs Lyon where he created 2 or 3 golden chances for Sulejmani, but he failed to score them, and so we tied, and thus we did not qualify for the round of 16)

You also say we need real men in midfield, and I agree 100%, but our lack of men and grit cannot be put on Eriksen’s shoulders. We need our other midfielders to step up, and be more aggressive because without Eriksen in the team we are 1 or 2 levels worse.

And for me, a player that needs to show more grit and who has struggled, in general, is Jansen because he has been forced to play deeper than what he did at Twente, so “when push comes to shove” he is the one that is supposed to track back and win possession but he does not do this at all.

It is not entirely his fault because he has been forced to change from the player he was at Twente, but still he should be trying to accomplish his new role in the team.

By primo | December 7th, 2011 at 11:41 pm

Janssen is the least fit for that role out of all the midfielders at Ajax. He drinks, he smokes, and he’s over 30. At Twente he didn’t have to track back as much, he had Brama doing the dirty work for him.

I am not saying Eriksen should go back and be an Enoh or De Jong but he just doesn’t fight. Most of the game is played without the ball and when he doesn’t have the ball he doesn’t do much. He’s incredibly phlegmatic.

You can say I’m wrong and you can list all the nice passes he’s made all season but it won’t make change a thing. Ajax has not been in form all season and having said that, it’s a miracle they aren’t farther behind than they already are.

By Marc | December 8th, 2011 at 5:24 pm

@primo I agree and I think most of our issues have come from having no real defensive midfielder. Defensive Mids are a crucial part of a 4-3-3. Like Busquets, Song, De Jong. At Ajax we play with Jansen there and he is lazy and can’t really move so we can’t dominate the midfield very well.

By primo | December 8th, 2011 at 9:23 pm

At least lately its been Enoh, with Janssen playing farther up the field. I wonder what will happen when S. De Jong and Sigthorsson are fit again though.

By primo | December 8th, 2011 at 11:13 pm

You’re going down this weekend in Fantasy League btw.

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