Willem van Hanegem calls the elimination of the Dutch at the European Championship ‘a mortal sin’. The Curve saw the Dutch national team go down on Sunday evening against the Czech Republic in the eighth final: 0-2. In his column for the General Newspaper he expresses his surprise at the substitution that Frank de Boer applied after Matthijs de Ligt’s red card in the 55th minute. The national coach brought Quincy Promes into the lines at the expense of Donyell Malen.
Van Hanegem was the assistant of then national coach Advocaat in 2004. In the European Championship match against the Czech Republic, Advocaat took the outstanding Arjen Robben aside with a 2-0 lead and brought in Paul Bosvelt. the Dutch eventually lost the game 2-3. During a press conference after the game, Van Hanegem was asked how he would react if Advocaat were to apply such a substitution again. “Then I’ll knock him down,” he replied.
“We laughed for years about Dick Advocaat’s substitution against the Czechs. Not only we, the Czechs also thought it was strange that Arjen Robben was replaced. But we have one that we can almost put in the same list. Donyell Malen missed a huge opportunity, but he was the most dangerous player of the Dutch national team against the Czechs,” said Van Hanegem. With one man less and Malen on the bench, things went wrong for the Dutch. The Netherlands fell due to goals from Tomas Holes and Patrik Schick.
The former football player writes that he does not understand why Malen was substituted. He believes that the PSV striker could have fulfilled Promes’ duties. “Promes had to come in as a substitute at Memphis and pick up the left side defensively. Malen could have done that too, right?” says Van Hanegem, according to whom Denzel Dumfries stayed upright in Budapest. “But too much went wrong. Matthijs de Ligt slipped. That’s annoying, but why does he then hit the ball? Then you know what the consequences could be. And with ten players it is suddenly a completely different story.”
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According to Van Hanegem, with one man less, all players of the Dutch should have reached their highest level to still reach the quarterfinals. “But Maarten Stekelenburg, we all thought it was perfectly normal that after years of being anonymous in football, he was suddenly our first keeper. He was definitely not there against the Czechs, with the 1-0 as the low point,” continues Van Hanegem, who is also critical of Georginio Wijnaldum and Frenkie de Jong. “As if they suddenly had porridge in their legs.”
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