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Netherlands National Football Team
Dutch fans came to the stadium in a rousing march, 100,000 strong. It will feel like a long journey home. When Ollie Watkins' added-time goal sealed a 2-1 win for England over the Netherlands in the Euro 2024 semifinals on Wednesday, it ended the orange-clad Dutch fans' dream of a first European Championship title since 1988. A great goal, but then it's over, and that's difficult to accept, Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman said. The journey home will not be without some bitterness after a hotly disputed penalty decision in England's favor after Dutch defender Denzel Dumfries made contact with Harry Kane while trying to block a shot. In my opinion this should not have been a penalty, Koeman said through an interpreter. "I think that we cannot play properly football and this is due to VAR. It really breaks football. Until the penalty call that put England firmly back in the game, it had been a party atmosphere for the Dutch fans. The towering South Stand famed as a Yellow Wall for
The referee for England's semifinal against the Netherlands at the European Championship will be Felix Zwayer, who once had ties to a match-fixing scandal in Germany. Wednesday's game will be Zwayer's fourth of Euro 2024 and his second with the Netherlands after refereeing its 3-0 win over Romania in the round of 16. UEFA and the German soccer federation announced the appointment Monday. England midfielder Jude Bellingham was fined 40,000 euros ($43,400) while playing for Borussia Dortmund in 2021 for criticizing the appointment of Zwayer. As a young assistant referee, Zwayer received a six-month ban in 2006 over an allegation that he received money from another referee, Robert Hoyzer, who was banned for match-fixing. A ruling in the case, which was eventually published in 2014 by German newspaper Die Zeit, stated that Zwayer accepted 300 euros ($325) from Hoyzer ahead of a game in 2004 and had not immediately reported the incident, but said there was no evidence Zwayer manipulate
Few aficionados in European soccer obsess about numbers the way the Dutch do. Like 4-3-3. Or 5-3-2. There's also the traditional 4-4-2, and even 4-2-3-1. But mostly, in their part of the world, it's all about 4-3-3. As baffling and bewildering as those digits may look to some, each of them relates to a specific soccer formation. And for Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman, as he hones his squad for the European Championship in Germany, maybe the numbers game has gone too far. We in the Netherlands sometimes talk too much about systems, Koeman told Dutch national broadcaster NOS in a sideline interview before his team playing 5-3-2 (five defenders, three midfielders, two forwards) beat Greece 3-0 in Amsterdam in a Euro 2024 qualifier. The Dutch fixation with the formation of four defenders, three midfielders and three forwards is rooted in the golden age of the small nation's soccer history. The 4-3-3 system was the bedrock for the Clockwork Orange brand of soccer, led by the mercuri