Another European title, but having to win everything puts pressure on Dutch hockey players

They are always and everywhere favorites for gold. At the European Championships, World Championships and Olympic Games. Also in Tokyo, Dutch women’s hockey is due to become Olympic champion. As if no one else was involved.

The Orange women have worn this status as the only invincible hockey team in the world for about seventeen or eighteen years. Not that they can always live up to high expectations: The Netherlands lost, for example, the last Olympic final to Great Britain. Incorrect, according to experts. But only goals count at the end of the day.

On Sunday afternoon, in the sun-drenched Amsterdamse Bos, the wonderful team of the Dutch Hockey Association once again “just” met the high expectations with the extension of the European title. Not that the Netherlands played well. It was often sloppy and rushed, but the specific gravity of the Dutch team was Germany, world number three, again too much. Despite more than a handful of German penalty corners and other scoring opportunities. And, thanks to an outstanding goalkeeper Josine Koning in the final phase.

Domed trophy cabinet

But with the victory in the final (2-0) the Dutch rightly add an eleventh European title to the rounded list of KNHB. Eleven gold medals in fifteen European Championships since 1984. The world of sport knows no better.

But it doesn’t just happen. No one realizes it better than national coach Alyson Annan, the native Australian who has been tinkering for years with the team the hockey public considers a hockey machine. But there is a lot of work, thousands of hours of training. New players, withdrawals, injuries, renewal, setbacks and tears.

“You shouldn’t assume that everything is easy. We work hard to be number 1, “Annan said to the NOS camera on Sunday afternoon. For years she had to resist the image of everything going effortlessly with her team.” When we lose, everyone people say we play badly and when we win everyone says it’s easy. It’s not like that. The ladies work extremely hard to win these games.

Must-see in Tokyo

Because having to win everything puts pressure. At the European Championships in Amstelveen, hockey players had a different kind of challenge: it gave them the last chance to show Annan that they will soon be indispensable in Tokyo.

Regarding this selection, 21-year-old Stella van Gils stood out positively on Sunday. To her own surprise, the technically gifted Pinoke player made her debut for the Netherlands last month and could easily make it to the Games. She decorated the corner of the final which led to the first goal, a proven variant that was finally tagged by journalist Marloes Keetels (1-0). It was only in the last minutes that the tournament’s top scorer, Frédérique Matla, secured the victory, on a fast cons executed (2-0). It was his eighth in the European Championship.

So more gold. But a stroll in the Olympic Park certainly won’t be in Tokyo. Despite the European title, a number of weaknesses emerged in Amstelveen. For example, in the semi-finals against Belgium in the third quarter, the Netherlands were sometimes passed and Annan’s team failed to get out of hockey. It stuck with a loud warning from Belgian women, but Annan must have been shocked by what she saw. “A little weak, and everyone felt it,” Eva de Goede said about it afterwards.

chaos

Also in the final against Germany, led by Belgian national coach Xavier Reckinger and his Dutch assistant Teun de Nooijer, chaos among the Dutch players sometimes reigned. Annan sees it as a positive starting point for the start of the sporting summer. “We need tough games for the Games. It must be difficult. The teams are good; if we are not 100 percent good, it is extremely difficult.

She knows that the Olympics of the past have shown that no matter how dominant the Netherlands may be in international hockey, no team can guarantee sporting success. The last Olympic hockey tournament, in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, was perhaps the best example of this: a seemingly extremely powerful Netherlands – then with stars such as Maartje Paumen, Naomi van As and Ellen Hoog – miraculously failed. to convince the women of Greater Holland. Great Britain, causing this exceptional generation to miss an equally unique golden trilogy.

In 2012 in London, the Netherlands nearly choked on New Zealand in the semi-finals, but a penalty shootout saved the day. And in 2004, in Athens, it was not the best team that became Olympic champion, but Germany.

Annan’s current team does not have the experience and strength of the generation that won two Olympic gold medals (Beijing 2008 and London 2012) and one silver (Rio de Janeiro 2016). Since that last disappointing tournament, Annan has completely rebuilt the squad. The fact that this had hardly any influence on the sports results at the bottom shows that with her renewed squad, she also has enough talent and experience for a smooth transition between the generations.

ruthless

This means that the Netherlands is also growing internationally to become a phenomenal sports team. In addition to all the titles, hockey players have consistently led the world rankings since 2011. The biggest challenge is to be flawless and ruthless in those few moments of serious opposition.

Because fair is fair: the group stage in many international tournaments is often just a warm-up for the Netherlands. Also at this European Championship, Orange scored happily in the group stage: 4-0 against Ireland, 7-1 against Spain (who reached the semi-finals) and 10-0 against the Scotland. Wonderful for the public, great for self-confidence, but the Netherlands is tested too little before the medals are actually handed out.