The Netherlands national football team is the national football team of the Netherlands and is controlled by the Royal Netherlands Football Association.

Netherlands is consistently one of Europe's strongest national teams, having won the European Championship in 1988, and having reached two consecutive World Cup finals, but losing both (1974 and 1978). At the peak of its success in the 1970s, the team was nicknamed "Clockwork Orange" for its precise passing.

The Netherlands made their first World Cup appearance in 1934, and after coming back in 1938, entered the world of football wilderness. They came out of it in the 1970s with the invention of Total Football. Pioneered by Ajax Amsterdam and lead by the creative genius of Johan Cruijff and Rinus Michels, the Dutch made huge strides, getting to two World Cup finals in the decade. The team has been strong since, winning Euro 88, reaching the semi-finals in Euro 92, Euro 2000 and Euro 2004, and finishing fourth in the 1998 World Cup.

The Netherlands are considered by many to be the finest footballing nation never to win the Football World Cup.

The unbearable Lightness of Being Oranje ...
08.04.2006 by Igor Krstic

Our Dutch story begins in the early 1970’s, when a hitherto unknown European Football Nation, began to shine on the stage of international football, producing some of the most unforgettable moments and players in football history. During this period, when Holland started to reform it’s society, when Hippies with long hairs dreamed of Cuba and the revolution, when students smoked Marihuana in the Coffee Shops of Amsterdam, there also started a slightly different revolution on the Dutch football pitches. Suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere, two Dutch clubs, Feyenoord Rotterdam and Ajax Amsterdam, reached one European Cup Final after another, with Ajax’s triumph in the 1973 season as European and World Club Champions as the biggest triumph of this golden era of Dutch football, only to be topped by their brilliant performance at the World Cup 1974 in Germany.

The Myth: Hippies in orange revolutionize football with ease
How and why did this miracle happen, and who were the protagonists of this sudden run to the first world class out of the misty clouds of the European football province? The success of course has many names and reasons. The most important ones were the talents of Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens and the football instincts of legendary “Bondscoach” Rinus Michels, who also created the Dutch colony at FC Barcelona and the famous philosophy of supporting and developing youth education in the now exemplary model of the Ajax football schools. The style of this unforgettable Dutch team of the 1970’s can be described as following: provocative lightness and ease. It was also a mixture of an exceptionally talented generation of players in combination with their godfather Michels, but also some kind of awakening spirit, as if the Dutch suddenly found a formula for the re-invention of the game. The defenders didn’t play like classical destroyers, but more like strikers. The midfielders combined with self confidence and offensive euphoria. The strikers, above all Johan Cruyff, found a mixture between efficiency and artistry, so that it was not only beautiful to watch, when the Dutch scored, but also resulting in one victory after another. If there wouldn’t have been the Germans in the 1974 final in Munich to stop this Hippie flush of Dutch imagination, Oranje would have celebrated their first World Cup deservedly as the best team in the world. The same generation also reached the finals in 1978. Again it was the host nation, which stopped the Dutch dream, when Argentina defeated the arguably best team of the tournament. But then again, perhaps it is one of Holland’s football myths, that lightness doesn’t win tournaments, but beauty stays in the memories.

What came after? A new generation of football lightness
It was again on a tournament in Germany, when a new generation of Dutch artists entered the international football stage. The spotlight shined on Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten during the European Championships 1988. And again it was Rinus Michels on the bench, who directed this magnificent show of Dutch football lightness. Ten years after Cruyff & Co, we had van Basten & Co. and the most unforgettable moment of this tournament was his fantasy goal in the final against the Soviet Union - a volley from the right angle of the box, fired with unstoppable speed into the left angle of the goal. This goal symbolizes all what Holland stands for, when it comes to football. It’s all in the lightness of the air, make the impossible happen and forget Newton and that crap about gravitational laws. But perhaps this is also the reason, why this victory was the one and only up till now in the Dutch football history. Gravitation is a reality and no one can fly around like wizards for 90 minutes. The Dutch football soul demands to be lifted up into the sky by their heroes, but during the last decade they became disappointed one time after another. Of course Holland continued to be one of the Top 10 football nations during the 1990’s, but not like the Cruyff generation and far from being some kind of Aliens with wings.

Current state: No Hippies anymore, but systematic education
The Ajax school of football also created a new generation of Dutch football dominance. The current Dutch squad reads like a who is who of international football: older stars like Roy Makaay, Edgar Davids, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Clarence Seedorf, Jaap Stam combined with new talents like Rafael van der Vaart, Arijen Robben and Robin van Persie build up a strong competitor for a possible success in the World Cup 2006. The creation of a Dutch football philosophy of lightness, dominance and offensive euphoria during the days of Johan Cruyff, now became an educational business, with teenagers from all over the world. Bondscoach’s Marco van Basten’s team is not only multicultural, but also multitalented and diverse. It is hard to predict, whether there will be a new “golden era” of football lightness, but considering, that the Dutch celebrated their biggest triumphs on tournaments in Germany, and considering that there really seems to be an outstanding input of new talents right now, perhaps we will be able to observe a new Dutch wonder style of football next year.
 

Named three times European Footballer of the Year (1971, 1973, 1974) and European Player of the Century by the IFFHS in 1999, he was a silky exponent of the football philosophy known as Total Football, developed by his trainer Rinus Michels.

Cruijff played successively for Ajax, FC Barcelona, Los Angeles Aztecs, Washington Diplomats, Levante UD and Feyenoord. As a player, Cruijff was known for his technical ability: his mesmeric ball skill, speed and acceleration, the ability to change direction at will and his tactical insights make him one of the most gifted footballers of all time. He has been named as one of the best football players of his generation, alongside George Best, Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer, although he did not win a cup or tournament with his national team. As a Dutch international he played 48 matches, in which he scored 33 goals.

The highlights of his football career as a player include winning the European Cup three times (1971 - 3, with Ajax), the Ballon d'Or (European Player of the Year) thrice (1971, 1973 - 4), and leading the Netherlands to a runners-up medal in the 1974 World Cup. In 1978 he refused to participate in the World Cup that was held in Argentina because it had suffered a military coup only two years before the cup; the Netherlands emerged runners-up again that year.