The Paper's reporter Chen Jun
The Netherlands won their first European Championship in 13 years, and Wijnaldum's opening record also broke the team's 2,528-day goal drought.
Behind the numbers, however, it's easy to think of the dilemma this team is facing.
After the 2014 World Cup, the Netherlands has missed the 2016 European Championship and the 2018 World Cup consecutively, and this time it has once again stepped onto the stage of the European Championship, and the Netherlands team has also behaved like a newcomer, still trembling after winning.
Dumfries headed deadlocked.
"Cruyff is going to crawl out of the grave"
In fact, in the odds for winning the championship before the start of the match, the Netherlands ranked at the bottom of all traditional strong teams (sixth), which represents the general perception of this team: after robben, Van Persie, Sneijder and a number of World Cup humerus faded out, the metabolic Netherlands could not come up with enough bright home base.
The most obvious thing is that the Dutch team has actually fallen into a weak front, and the only person who can support the card in the front court is Depay, who lives in Ligue 1.
Coupled with the withdrawal of van Dijk, van der Beek, Sillessen and other main players due to injury, this Dutch team is not optimistic.
The Netherlands, which don't have good strikers at the moment, have lost their traditions, but they have retained another bad habit - "infighting". Before the start of the match, the Dutch team was undoubtedly the most awkward atmosphere in the round of 24, and the Dutch domestic media, fans and even celebrities could not wait to burn the war to head coach Frank De Boer.
Dutch fans have been known for renting planes and hanging banners, and after De Boer dominated the 532 formation, he suddenly seemed to become a sinner in Dutch football.
De Boer has been criticized.
Van der Vaart, who has played for the Netherlands 109 times, openly taunted De Boer in a talk show produced by the Dutch Broadcasting Union, "If we play at 5 defenders, what else will the Dutch watch at the European Cup?" ”
And that's not all, Frank Deboll's twin brother Ronald De Boll also "killed his relatives", he said in an interview with the Dutch "Telegraph": "Seeing the current formation in the Netherlands, Cruyff will be angry and crawl out of the grave, 433 is still a very attractive formation, the key depends on how you use it." ”
If the above two are still focused on the present, some people have begun to calculate the aftermath for De boer. The famous coach Louis Van Gaal previously pushed off the invitation of the Dutch Football Association, and the Dutch Football Association retreated to find De Boer, but at the moment Van Gaal told everyone, "The Dutch team is not far away, Van Dijk's absence is not a big problem, the key is that the level of the coaching staff led by De Boer is not good, no matter what the lineup is, there is no hope." ”
Another former international, Kuyt, said a few days before the start of the tournament that De Boer would definitely leave class after the European Championship - the Italian coach Conte, who was idle at home, could run the Netherlands, and his old teammate Fanny could serve as an assistant to the Italian.
What a "messy" word, it seems that in terms of "infighting", the Dutch have always been serious.
Even De Ligt in the team can't control his mouth, and he is still brainstorming with the media due to injury in the first game, "I think 433 is feasible."
The only one on De Boer's side is former core midfielder Sneijder, who tore up with Van der Vaart on the show on the grounds that without enough good strikers, 532 is the inevitable choice.
Dutch player celebrating the kill.
A mixed-scorn game
In the midst of the skepticism, head coach De Boer was unmoved, on the one hand, he told the media, "Many people say that there are 17 million national team managers in the Netherlands, and everyone hopes that we can easily reach the final, to be honest, this is not realistic." ”
On the other hand, he stressed that his 532 can be changed to 352, and his tactical thinking is not conservative.
De Boer's concerns were not unfounded in the opening game – the top attacker Depay conceded as many as 25 goals in the whole game, and it was his full-back forward tactics that helped the team open the door to victory, and Dumfries twice instigated the attack to give the team a 2-0 advantage, and personally completed the kill in the final stages.
In the backline, without Van Dijk and De Ligt, who was temporarily unable to play, it was safer to use the three centre-backs, and the Dutch team was active and safe for most of the game.
De Boer replaced Blind, which suddenly changed the situation on the field.
De Boer, however, made himself the target of public criticism at key moments – he replaced two defensive players, Blind and Van Anholt, in one fell swoop, and Ukraine scored two goals in just 246 seconds...
Yarmolenko's world wave is exciting enough, but the Dutch defense's lack of adaptation to the manager's adjustments in a short period of time is also an unavoidable trigger.
The manager, who has been fired three times in four years (Inter, Crystal Palace, Atalanta United), needs to prove himself further.
Regardless of the grades, de Boer will be out of class after the European Championship?
Qualified in the top eight, and what's the extra bonus?
In any case, the Dutch team achieved an ideal result in the first match.
Considering that the next two opponents, Austria, are not strong, north Macedonia is recognized as the belly of the European Championship, and the Netherlands, which played at home in all three group games, has laid a good foundation for qualifying, which also provides a valuable opportunity for De Boer to continue to run into the team.
In fact, in the Dutch national team, he is not the first to use the 532 formation - in the 2014 World Cup, Van Gaal finally won the third place when he used 532, the difference is that Van Gaal has too many beautiful historical results to endorse and can do whatever he wants, and De Boer's qualifications in the coaching position are still shallow, and he can only lie down and try his guts.
Compared with the manager's absolute lack of mention of goals, some of the dutch up-and-coming stars still reveal ambitions.
The young Dutch players showed their vigor.
Before the match, Frankie de Jong talked about winning the championship, in which the midfielder, who was considered by Sneijder to be his successor, was voted the best in the game - he touched the ball 113 times, the pass success rate reached 92%, and delivered two key passes, 6 breakthroughs of which were 5 successes, 11 ground confrontations 9 successes, 2 times the top all succeeded...
On social media after the game, De Jong wrote: "Team spirit, what a great atmosphere. ”
Winning can solve a lot of problems, and although de Boer's ears will still buzz in the coming days, behind closed doors, the Dutch team, whose core lineup is relatively young, will be more united with the manager.
Taking a step back, with the current paper strength of the Dutch team, it is already qualified to enter the quarterfinals, and if De Boer can lead the team further, it is an additional surprise.
Editor-in-Charge: Ascendas
Proofreader: Yan Zhang