The Dutch national team, the Netherlands home team, has won one European Championship and three World Cup runners-up. They have sucked countless powders with an all-attack and all-defensive kick, but they have fallen at the door of the final three times to make people sigh.
In addition to the Dutch home team, the Dutch national team, there are two teams competing in the World Series. The two teams are Aruba and Curaçao in Central America and the Caribbean. Curaçao has two news that has made headlines in China's major media, signing Hiddink, ranking ahead of the Chinese team.
Compared to Curaçao, Aruba is relatively less famous. Because this team is ranked 203rd by FIFA (July 2022), it is also very low in Central And North America and the Caribbean. But there has been a star in this region, and he is the Dutch full-back Dumfries who plays for Inter Milan.
Dumfries played two friendly games for Aruba back in 2014. At the time, Dumfries was only 18 years old. Scored a goal and was known as the Killer of Guam. He has not represented Aruba in the World Series since. It wasn't until the 2018-19 UEFA Nations League that Dumfries made his Dutch national team debut and put on the coveted Dutch shirt.
In football, we walked into the Netherlands and Aruba together to learn about the customs and customs here.
Aruba: Autonomous State of the Netherlands
The kingdom of the Netherlands consists of the native, Dutch St. Maarten, Curaçao and Aruba. The Aruba region is located in the Caribbean Sea, in the Gulf of Venezuela in northern Venezuela, 25 kilometers from the Venezuelan mainland.
The island covers an area of 193 km, equivalent to the size of the mainland Xiamen Island, with a population of about 105,000, and it is the wealthiest of all the Dutch overseas territories. Its capital is Oranjestad.
Aruba is flat and is also a limestone island without rivers. The island is famous for its white sand beaches that surround it. Due to the year-round northeast breeze from the Atlantic Ocean, Aruba can maintain a stable climate of 27 degrees Celsius all year round, which is conducive to tourism development despite its tropical location.
Due to the long-term influence of trade winds, the climate here is very dry. In addition, the island is a streamless island, so the freshwater resources here mainly come from desalination. At one time, there were not many tropical plants on the island.
The original inhabitants of Aruba were Caquetios, a branch of the Arawak tribe of Indians, who lived in isolation before the arrival of European fleets. In 1499, the Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda discovered it, breaking the isolation of Aruba.
In 1581, the Spanish colony of the Netherlands became independent. In 1636, the Dutch, which originally belonged to Spain, occupied the island of Aruba, which had always belonged to the Dutch West India Company and experienced nearly 200 years of Dutch colonial rule. Under the successive colonial rules of Spain and the Netherlands, the local Yuanshu inhabitants, the Caratio people, were almost genocidal.
Dutch colonists at the time were involved in the slave trade in order to fill the population gap here. Some of the black slaves escaped from Spain and other American colonies and came to the empty island of Aruba, which was run by Dutch colonists.
In 1805, the Napoleonic Wars broke out, and the Dutch mainland was occupied by France. Britain temporarily took over the island.
After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the British returned the inheritance to the Dutch on the island of Aruba. The Dutch resumed colonial rule over Aruba. During the colonial period, Aruba's economy was originally ranked relatively low among all dutch colonies. But the gold rush of the 19th century led to the first development of the local economy.
In 1924, oil resources were discovered near the Gulf of Venezuela, spurring the economic development of Aruba. After that, the Dutch came to Aruba by plundering large numbers of people from their colony, the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia).
As a result, the local population is multi-racial – African, Asian and their mixed races.
In the 1980s, Aruba's economy once again underwent a transformation. Because the island is made of palms, white sand beaches and Caribbean style, it attracts guests from developed countries such as the United States, Canada, and the host country of the Netherlands. From that time on, tourism became the main industry in Aruba.
With this advantage, Aruba became the richest island in the Dutch Andres. With the economic transformation after World War II and the advancement of the national liberation movement. Some locals demand autonomy. In 1983, the Netherlands, the Dutch Andres and Aruba met and decided to elevate it to an autonomous state within the Netherlands.
At this point, the area of the Netherlands is no longer calculated separately from Aruba's 193 square kilometers. Aruba had planned to become completely independent from the Netherlands in 1996. However, because the economy was difficult to maintain after independence, the independence process was stopped. Aruba became a "non-staff member" in the Netherlands.
DUMFRIES: Aruba or Holland
The Aruba Football Association was founded as early as 1932. From 1932 to 1983, the Aruba Football Association was not affiliated with FIFA, nor was it affiliated with the Central And American and Caribbean Football Federation. The Aruba Football Association at the time was affiliated with the Dutch Andres team.
Until 1988, with the consent of the Netherlands, Aruba broke away from the Dutch Andres and joined FIFA and THE CENTRAL AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN FOOTBALL Federation as an independent, qualifying for the World Cup Central American and Caribbean Qualifiers and the Gold Cup.
From the beginning of the 1990 World Cup to the 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifiers, Aruba always fell into the first few rounds of the qualifiers to prepare for the next World Cup. And Aruba has never participated in a tournament in Central and North America and the Caribbean, the Gold Cup. The number of entries in the contest (excluding the national league) is 0. This embarrassing record has not been broken to this day.
After a 2-2 draw with Puerto Rico in March 2000, Aruba has not won even a draw in an international match for seven years. It wasn't until July 2007 that this embarrassing record was broken. As a result, Aruba's FIFA rankings reached 203. In North America, just over 5 teams.
After the dissolution of the Dutch Andres in 2010, Curaçao, which succeeded it, ranked 84th, well above Aruba.
Although Aruba football has not reached the final round of the tournament, they once "owned" a star - Denzel Dumfries, who played for Inter Milan.
Dumfries was born in 1996 in Rotterdam, the largest port city in the Netherlands. His father was from Aruba, an overseas dependency of the Netherlands. So, according to FIFA rules – Dumfries has two options, Aruba or the Netherlands.
Aruba football was only 123rd in FIFA's highest ranking in the 2010s, while the Netherlands was in the top 10 and is a World Cup powerhouse. Although Dumfries is of Aruba descent, he has always had a dream of wearing the orange robes of the Netherlands.
However, Dumfries cashed in on his talent late. In 2013, Dumfries joined Ballenlet (currently in the Dutch 4th Division). A season later, Dumfries was signed by Eredivisie side Spartan Rotterdam. These teams are not Dutch giants, and the exposure can be imagined.
In 2014, persuaded by then-Aruba coach Franken, Dumfries put on Aruba's yellow jersey and played two friendly matches with Guam. and score a goal. As a result, Dumfries received the title of Killer of Guam.
Because of FIFA regulations at this time, he was under 18 years old and still had the opportunity to play for the Netherlands after playing two games for Aruba. Dumfries then refused Aruba's call for a call, just to wait for the Dutch team to call for the day.
At the time, Dumfries played for the obscure Spartan Rotterdam and was not one of the top three in the Eredivisie (Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord). It is very difficult to be selected for the Dutch national team, and it is inevitable that it will be regarded as "who gave the courage"?
However, kung fu pays off. In 2017, Dutch A powerhouse Heerenveen brought him under his command for 750,000 euros. In one season in Heerenveen, he played 37 games and scored 4 goals, finally attracting the attention of the Top Three of the Eredivisie. In the summer of 2018, PSV Eindhoven took it for 5.5 million euros. Dumfries, 22, finally has the opportunity to play for the Netherlands.
After joining PSV Eindhoven, one of the Eredivisie's top three, Dumfries continued to make steady outputs, knocking on the Dutch side's door. In the UEFA Nations League in October 2018, the Netherlands defeated Germany 3-0. Dumfries made his national team debut.
The 2020 European Championship was postponed for a year due to the epidemic, and after a year of precipitation, Dumfries became more mature. Come to the European Championship. Although the Dutch team did not win the championship in the end, Dumfries used his outstanding performance to lock up a place in the Dutch team. It also provided a plus for his move to Inter Milan.
Dumfries, who has experienced the disappointment of the European Championship, is about to usher in a new event at the end of this year – the 2022 Qatar World Cup. The Dutch team is in the same group as hosts Qatar, Ecuador and Senegal.
This may explain that the success of Dumfries is inseparable from his own diligence, hard work, and a high-level stage. Choosing the Netherlands, he can play in the European Cup and world cup. With Aruba chosen, it would be difficult to provide such a stage for Dumfries.