Oranje Heartbreaks – UEFA Euro 2004.

Ever since I witnessed Holland win their first ever international title in 1988, being a fan of the Oranje has been nothing but heartbreaks and bitter disappointments. With the Oranje not being part of the 24 teams playing this summer in France for the European Championship, let’s revisit their previous disappointments in this tournament since 1988.

The Lead-Up:

Fresh from missing the 2002 World Cup, the Oranje made sure to qualify for the 2004 UEFA European Championship. Louis van Gaal was at the helm when the Oranje failed to qualify for the World Cup and stepped down. His successor was Dick Advocaat, who last coached the Oranje ten years prior at the 1994 World Cup, and was not a popular choice among the fans.

Holland qualified for Euro 2004 through the playoffs after finishing second in their group. They battled Czech Republic for first place but came up just short. Their other opponents in the group were Austria, Moldova and Belarus. Holland finished in second place, behind the Czech Republic with the difference being the Czech’s 3-1 victory over the Oranje in the penultimate group match which allowed the Czechs to win their group by just three points.

Therefore, Holland and Scotland would meet in the playoffs. Fears about missing a second consecutive international tournament reared its ugly head after Holland stumbled in the first leg in Scotland with a 1-0 loss. Fortunately, those fears were put to rest following a crushing 6-0 Oranje victory in Holland thanks to a hat-trick from Ruud van Nistelrooy along with goals from Sneijder, Ooijer, and Frank de Boer. It was one hell of a way for the Oranje to punch their ticket to Euro 2004.

Portugal were the hosts for the 2004 edition. Holland were in Group D with the Czech Republic yet again after facing them in the qualifying stages and the Euro 2000 group stage. Their other opponents would be their arch rival, Germany, and Latvia, who were making their first ever international tournament appearance. Group A consisted of hosts Portugal, Spain, Greece and Russia. Group B consisted of defending European Champions France, England, Croatia and Switzerland. Group C consisted of Denmark, Sweden, Bulgaria, and Italy, the team that eliminated Holland in Euro 2000. 

The Nike kit for that tournament was nice but ruined with the decision of having the shirt number inside a circle, thus resembling billiards balls.

Many players from previous Oranje teams such as Patrick Kluivert, Marc Overmars, Michael Reiziger, Jaap Stam, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Phillip Cocu, Edgar Davids, Frank de Boer, Clarence Seedorf, Edwin van der Sar, Boudewijn Zenden, Paul Bosvelt, Roy Makaay, and Pierre van Hooijdonk were still representing the Oranje. However, this tournament would mark the debut of many new Oranje players, with some who still represent the Oranje to this day.

After missing Euro 2000 because of injury and the subsequent failure of not qualifying for the 2002 World Cup, Ruud van Nistelrooy was now going to get his chance to represent the Oranje at the international tournament and be their new scoring threat. The new crop of players making their debut for the Oranje in this tournament were Wilfred Bouma, Andy van der Meyde, Rafael van der Vaart, John Heitinga, Arjen Robben, and Wesley Sneijder.

Holland kicked off their Group D with a 1-1 draw against Germany. Torsten Frings scored an early goal for the Germany but van Nistelrooy grabbed a late equalizer to salvage a draw in what was a rather disappointing showing by the Oranje. The Oranje’s next match was against the Czech Republic that saw the Oranje take an early two goal lead courtesy of goals from Bouma and van Nistelrooy after just 19 minutes. However, the Oranje allowed two unanswered goals from Jan Koller and Milan Baros before Vladimir Smicer scored the game winner two minutes from the final whistle.

Oranje fans were outraged by this result and blamed Advocaat for taking off the best player on the pitch that night, Robben, in the 58th minute. Holland never looked the same without Robben and the Oranje suffered a bitter loss while the Czechs celebrated winning the group with this result. Some fans were so outraged that they even bought Advocaat a plane ticket and left it with the front desk of the team’s hotel, so he could fly back to Holland. Even the assistant manager, Willem van Hanegem, when asked about the substitution in a news conference, his response was that if Advocaat tried to make any bad substitutions, “I will beat him down then.” Fortunately, Latvia surprised everyone when they held Germany scoreless and gave the Oranje some hope of making it to the knock out stage.

The final group match would see the Oranje face Latvia while the Czechs would meet the Germans. Germany and Holland had to win their respective matches, and also hope the other stumbles in order to advance. At first, it looked bleak for the Oranje when Michael Ballack gave Germany an early 1-0 lead after 21 minutes. Holland took the lead through a van Nistelrooy penalty in the 27th minute and things began to turn their way when Marek Heinz scored the Czechs’ equalizer. Ruud scored in the 35th minute and substitute Makaay scored in the 84th minute to give Holland a 3-0 lead. Milan Baros helped ensure the Oranje would advance to the knockout stage by scoring the game winning goal and thereby eliminating Germany from Euro 2004.

Holland’s second place finish meant their opponents in the Quarter-Finals would be Sweden. The Czechs would meet Denmark, Portugal would meet England, and defending European Champions France would meet Greece. Holland and Sweden played to a scoreless, and dull, draw which meant one thing; a penalty shootout would have to decide this. Holland had yet to win a penalty shootout and had exited four of their last five tournaments through a shootout.

Fortunately, the Oranje finally ended their penalty jinx with a 5-4 penalty shootout win. Cocu was the fourth penalty taker and the only one to miss for Holland. Zlatan Ibrahimovic missed his shot for Sweden and after Olof Mellberg missed the sixth shot, Robben stepped up and scored the decisive winner. That was one long overdue celebration as Holland finally got that monkey off their back and released a huge sigh of relief. Finally, they had won a penalty shootout. Once again, the Oranje were back in the Semi-Finals of a major tournament and their opponents would be the hosts, Portugal.

The Heartbreak:

Holland v Portugal was perhaps the most forgettable performance by the Oranje at this stage of a tournament. It was not a classic by any means. A young Cristiano Ronaldo gave Portugal the lead in the 26th minute when he was left unmarked to head in Deco’s corner kick for the opening goal. Holland almost struck back immediately when a minute later, Overmars struck a volley narrowly over the crossbar from a tight angle inside the box. That was the only chance Holland would see in that half as Portugal caused two big scares with van der Saar making an amazing stop to deny Pauleta from close range in the 35th minute and a few minutes later, Luis Figo’s effort struck the post.

Advocaat took off Overmars for Makaay at the start of the second half. However, Portugal came close to scoring a second in the 54th minute, when Pauleta was one-on-one with van der Sar at the edge of the box. Fortunately the veteran goalkeeper stopped Pauleta’s effort with his legs. Advocaat made his second substitution by taking off Bouma and bringing in van der Vaart in the 56th minute.

Sadly, any hopes of Holland getting back into the game were dashed after Maniche scored an amazing thunderous goal in the 58th minute to double Portugal’s lead. A Jorge Andrade own goal in the 63rd minute, when he flicked van Bronckhorst’s cross over his goalkeeper Ricardo, restored some hope. Holland’s final substitution was van Hooijdonk for Robben in the 81st minute. Holland’s other best chance of the half was a free kick whipped in by Seedorf that fell to the far post of Ricardo’s goal but sadly van Nistelrooy tripped over his own feet and failed to react in time to volley the ball on target.

The final whistle blew and Holland came up short yet again in a Semi-Finals. It was a dreadful performance with only five shots on goal and only one on target. Portugal did a superb job in stifling the Oranje but the Oranje also came out flat and lacked any sort of creativity. Overall, this team provided us with more frustration than joy during Euro 2004. The few positives was that some of the younger players gave us hope for a bright future for the Oranje, and that the penalty jinx had finally come to an end.

The Aftermath:

Greece surprised the world when they eliminated France and then the favored Czechs to reach the final before pulling off one last surprise by defeating Portugal in the Final. This tournament was the end for some of the Oranje legends. Although Kluivert was called up, he never got to play for Holland in this tournament and would not feature for Holland again at major tournament. His Oranje career ended with him by being the all-time Dutch scorer with 40 goals until that record would be surpassed in 2013 by Robin van Persie.

Overmars would retire from football altogether after this tournament, with a brief return in 2008 to play for Go Ahead Eagles for one season. Meanwhile, most of the old guard, excluding Cocu, van Bronckhorst and van der Sar, would not represent the Oranje in the World Cup two years later. Reiziger, Stam, Davids, de Boer, Seedorf, Zenden, Bosvelt, Makaay, and van Hooijdonk had played their final Oranje tournament. Young star van der Meyde would not represent the Oranje in another tournament, unlike his Ajax alums Sneijder and van der Vaart.

Fortunately, Dick Advocaat was not going to manage the Oranje in their World Cup qualifiers. That responsibility fell upon Oranje legend, Marco van Basten. There was hope that he could guide the Oranje to success while possessing the dangerous scorer in van Nistelrooy along with the revelation of the tournament, Robben, and the rising stars Sneijder and van der Vaart.

Euro 2012 to be the final great Euro Cup.

Get ready folks. Euro 2012 is coming up this summer and following yesterday’s draw, this will be another exciting tournament. Sadly, it will also be the final Euro Cup that will be considered great. In my opinion, UEFA’s decision to expand it from 16 teams to 24 teams for the 2016 edition will extinguish the flame that made this tournament great.

The draw for this summer Euro 2012 group stages took place last week and once again, the draw reminded me why this is my favorite tournament in football. Where else can you get a group with three European champions? Where else can you get arch rivals meet at the group stage? World Cup? Rarely. Copa America? Not that often. The Champions League does come close in terms of providing us a sort of the Best of the Best in Europe competition. However, nothing can top the Euro Cup.

My first ever football memories were that of Euro 88 when Holland finally won their first ever tournament and put to rest the despairs of their shortcomings in the past. Since then, I have been following them as they continued to break my heart in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008 Euro cups. In my opinion, this summer presents the final time that the Euro cup will be special. UEFA’s president, and former winner of the Euro cup, Platini will be expanding the Euro cup from the current 16 teams to 24 for the 2016 edition. I hope that somehow that will never be implemented but I don’t the chances of that happening any more than the chances of FIFA switching venues for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

I have always gotten grief about my belief that the Euro Cup is harder to win than the World Cup. I still stand by that statement. In the past, it was hard just to qualify for the Euro cup. Before 1996, only 8 countries qualified for the tournament. 8. Defending champions Spain failed to qualify in 1992 and even the Italian national team failed to qualify in 1992 along with three other times after winning the tournament in 1968. Can you imagine a World Cup or Euro Cup now where Italy and Spain are not present? For some reason, this one tournament that did not have its usual teams until it expanded to 16 for the 1996 Euro Cup. The change was needed after UEFA expanded from 33 countries to 47 teams after 1994.

16 teams did double the number of participants but it did not dilute the competition. Unlike the World Cup or the Champions League where more is not better, doubling the number of nations fighting for the Euro Cup was a boost. The big factor that differentiated between the Euro Cup and the World Cup were the group stages. The World Cup now might have one group of death but most of the time, we know which teams will advance from their groups along with the odd surprise such as France and Italy’s elimination from this past World Cup group stage or France and Argentina’s shock elimination back in 2002.

However, most group stages never pack a punch like the Euro Cup. Euro 88 gave us a Germany, Spain and Italy group.  Euro 96 gave us a group consisting of France, Spain, Bulgaria and Romania, 3 of which were in the knockout stages of the previous World Cup that France failed to qualify for.  Euro 2000 gave us a group consisting of then defending World Cup champions with Holland and Denmark while England was grouped with Germany and Portugal and Romania. Euro 2004 gave us a group consisting of Holland, Germany and Czech Republic while the last edition of Euro 2008 gave us a group consisting of Holland, Italy and France. How often do you get those types of group stages where the previous World Cup finalists are grouped together?

On top of that, how often do you get to see arch rivals such as Holland and Germany, or England and Germany get grouped together? Brazil and Argentina? Only during the World Cup qualifiers and that started this past decade when Conmebol scrapped the two group stages to keep Brazil and Argentina separated. As a fan of the Oranje, getting to see Holland face Germany in the group stages is something to get ready for. Holland’s group this year will pit them once again against Germany and also against Portugal, the side that knocked them out of Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006.

Those group stages are a killer to get out of and if you do advance, you still have other teams that are no pushovers. When France won it all in 2000, they had to defeat Denmark and Euro 96 finalists Czech’s before losing to Holland in the final group stage match. They then had to face Spain, Portugal and Italy to win the Euro Cup for the second time. Spain had to defeat Russia, Sweden and then Greece before having to beat Italy, Russia and Germany for the cup. Denmark’s amazing story in 1992 saw them get invited at the last second to replace Yugoslavia and they survived a group that featured England, France and Sweden before defeating Holland and Germany.

As much as we all love the World Cup for what it is, it does not generate that much excitement till the final group stage match or the knockout rounds. It is diluted with teams that some would consider minnows that are out of their league. Even then, sometimes the knocks out stages fail to deliver us big games. Looking back at the 2002 World Cup, Germany made it all the way to the final without defeating a single European country. They tied with Ireland in the group stage and defeated Saudi Arabia and Cameroon before knocking out Paraguay, USA and South Korea before falling to Brazil in the final. Heck, even Brazil made it to the final by playing Turkey twice, Costa Rica, China, Wilmots’s inspired Belgium, and England. France did have its work cut out for it in 2006 when they had to go through Spain, Brazil and Portugal while Italy had to go through Ghana, USA, Czech Republic, Australia, Ukraine, and Germany before defeating the French.

I know the World Cup is no easy task and I expect some rebuttals in that if the Euro Cup is harder to win than the World Cup, then how come Denmark, Holland and Greece never won the World Cup. That’s not the point. Comparing the two tournaments in terms of level of difficulty is what I’m getting at. We will never see a World Cup group stage with Germany and Holland or Spain with Brazil, or Italy with Argentina as often as we would like. World Cup keeps its mega powers away from each other whereas the Euro Cup didn’t care. Can you recall the last time Germany was eliminated from a World Cup group? I recall Germany crashing out in 2000 and 2004. Prior to World Cup 2010, you had to go back to World Cup 1974 to see Italy crash out of a World Cup group stage while it happened to them twice in recent tournaments, Euro 96 and Euro 2004. Will we ever see a country win the World Cup playing a group with Holland and Italy before taking on the likes of Spain, Germany, Brazil and Argentina in the knock out stages? I highly doubt it. That’s the type of strength that the Euro Cup provides us with.

This summer, we are going to see England and France meet again like they in 2004. Holland and Germany meet again after recently being grouped together in Euro 2004 and also back in Euro 92. Sadly, this will probably be the last time we will get to enjoy a tournament with such group stages. Euro 2016 will see the teams expand from 16 to 24. This will lead to the introduction of two additional groups which will spread out the big teams and thus lessen the chances of seeing the same sort of groups we are accustomed to seeing. However, why mess with a good thing? 16 teams were more than enough and in a time where we are complaining of too many matches for players for both club and country, how does expanding lessen that dilemma?

So sit back and enjoy this great tournament one final time. The next one might be only exciting when it comes to the final group stage or the knock out stages, which is what we have right now with the World Cup and to a lesser extent, the Champions League. Here’s to the last toughest international football tournament.