Netherlands national football team

The Netherlands national football team is the national football team of the Netherlands and is controlled by the Royal Netherlands Football Association. It won Euro 88 and the team was famous for its mastery of Total Football and was nicknamed "Clockwork Orange" for its precision passing. Association Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond (Royal Netherlands Football Association).

European Champion :

Rinus Michels returned to coach the team for the Euro 88 tournament. After losing the first group match against the USSR (1-0), the Netherlands went on to qualify for the semi-final by defeating England 3-1 (with a hat-trick by the tournament's top scorer Marco van Basten), and Republic of Ireland (1-0). For many Dutch football supporters, the most important match in the tournament was the semi-final against West Germany, the host country, considered a revenge for the lost 1974 World Cup final (also in West Germany). Marco van Basten, who would later become national team coach, scored in the 89th minute of the game to sink the German side. The game is also remembered for its post-match shenanigans, including Ronald Koeman, who, in front of the German supporters, provocatively pretended to wipe his backside with the shirt of Olaf Thon as if it were toilet paper, an action Koeman later regretted.^[1] The Netherlands won the final with a convincing victory over the USSR, a rematch on the round robin game, through a header by Ruud Gullit and a volley by Van Basten. This was the national team's first major tournament win and it restored them to the forefront of international football after almost a decade in wilderness. Despite high expectations as the team entered the 1990 World Cup, that tournament was not a success. Van Basten failed to score, as he was frequently marked by opposing defenders, while Gullit was ineffective having not fully recovered from injury. The Dutch managed to advance despite drawing all three group games, meeting their arch-rivals West Germany in the round of 16. The match is most remembered for the spitting-incident involving Frank Rijkaard and Rudi Völler as the Netherlands lost 2-1. The team subsequently reached the semi-finals in the Euro 92, which was noted for the emergence of Dennis Bergkamp, but they were eliminated by eventual champions Denmark, with Van Basten's kick in the penalty shootout being saved by Peter Schmeichel. This was also Van Basten's last major tournament, as he retired shortly after due to injury.