The Netherlands traveled by train from Wolfsburg to Berlin on Monday, a day before the final group match at the European Championship against Austria. As far as national coach Ronald Koeman is concerned, the Dutch will do that more often, he said at the press conference on Monday evening.
It was the first time in a long time that the Dutch team traveled by train again. According to Nu.nl this last happened in November 1965, almost 59 years ago. Then the selection went by rail from Amsterdam to Bern for a World Cup qualifier against Switzerland.
On Monday afternoon the journey from Wolfsburg to Berlin was a lot shorter: about an hour. The selection did this without the ill Joshua Zirkzee. He was taken to the German capital by car.
Koeman was asked at the press conference how he liked the train journey. “If it were up to me, we could do this more often. The journey was shorter than possibly by bus,” said the national coach.
Yet he also realizes that it is not feasible to always travel by train. “If you are dependent on the regular train… Then you cannot say when you want to travel. On one occasion, that was possible today because we chose to do the last training in Wolfsburg. But we can't go back, because then there will be no train.”
“Germany wanted to make it a sustainable European Championship, but did not completely succeed,” the national coach concludes, somewhat critically towards the country that organizes the European Championship.
If the Dutch team manages to beat Austria, it will advance to the eighth finals as number one or two. That depends on France's result against Poland. If the Netherlands loses and finishes third, it will most likely also have enough points to advance to the next round.
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