Netherlands

NETHERLANDS REACH ANOTHER MILESTONE : OUTPACE AUSTRALIA TO BECOME LEADING SCORING NATION IN CHAMPIONS TROPHY

From : Syed Akber Ali Wahidi (Lahore)

Seven- Times Champions Trophy gold-medallist Netherlands became the highest goal- scoring nation in Champions Trophy’s 26-year history when Den Bosch Club’s Jeroen Delmee struck fourth goal in Netherlands’s 4-1 win over Pakistan at Lahore on Tuesday. Jeroen’s 68th minute goal was Netherlands’s 357th, outpacing Australia’s 356 goals in 25 editions from 1978-2003.

With the heady days of Stephen Veen and Jacques Brinkmann remaining only as part of memory now, the Dutchmen are still on the rebuilding exercise. True, stars like Erik Jazet, Guus Vogels, Teun de Nooijer, Bram Lomans, Sander van der Weide and of course, Jeroen Delmee, are from that vintage stock. Four of them are well on the way to get their sixth gold in Champions Trophy to equal Carsten Fischer (Germany)’s record. Veteran full back Erik Jazet ( 309 caps), who played in Athens Olympiad, is no more in the Dutch color.

Den Bosch Club’s Jeroen Delmee, a veteran of 297 internationals, is also eyeing proud record of Heiner Dopp who won the CT thrice as German captain from 1986-88.

The class and calibre of Netherlands, now number 3 in World ranking, is on test again who re-captured glory in CT when Indian Hockey Federation organized the 1996 edition. That edition at Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium at Egmore, Chennai, saw the re-emergence of the Netherlands as CT power. Like Pakistan, they also had to wait for 14 years for their third title.

They brushed aside Pakistan in the Chennai final and repeated the story when Lahore staged the 1998 final. On both occasion their coach was Roelant Oltmans, now looking after Pakistani team. The final day of CT 1998 was a memorable occasion for Roelant and his boys as on this day Netherlands completed a unique Grand Slam. They became the only nation to hold all three major titles of FIH. They earlier won the Olympic Atlanta’s Olympics Hockey 1996 and the Utrecht’s World Cup 1998.

The Netherlands clinched the five of the last eight editions from 1996 to 2003. Two consecutive titles of 2002 and 2003, both under Jeroen, put the orange-shirted players on the track to complete hat-trick of victories after those of Australia and West Germany in 80s.

The Dutch stars were splendid on German soil at Cologne. The way they thrashed host and World Champion Germany 5-2 was something special. The game saw a brilliant soccer-like chip goal by Maarten Froger who went into oblivion after that event.

It was testing time for German coach Bernhard Peters, only German coach who led Germany to victory in World Cup. He had a tough time in hand. He changed the strategy to stop Dutch striking machine in the final. It was inevitable that such a tight match should go into the extra-time which it did when the score-board remained blank. It was first-ever goalless final of CT.

But the night, in the picturesque environs of the Rot Weiss Club stadium, belonged to Netherlands who win the competition 3-2 on tie-breaker. Germany brought in the substitute goal-keeper Christian Schulte, but it was Dutch keeper Guus Vogels who carried the day. He foiled the attempts of Florian Kunz, Matthias Witthaus and Philipp Crone in bright sunshine and before a capacity crowd of 6,000.

Netherlands first two triumphs emerged in 80s when KNHB – founded on 8 October 1898 - took the CT away from Pakistan in 1982 with the help of Peugeot car manufacturers. Netherlands, which was showing the magnificent displays due to their incomparable stars, Ties Kruize and Paul Litjens, and in the glow of the 1981 success at Karachi under captaincy of Litjens, came on the stage as the host. The Ties Kruize-led Dutch team retained the trophy at Wagener Stadium. This stadium has this name in honor of Joop Wagener who used to play for Amsterdam club and appeared in three internationals for the Dutch team. It is situated at Amstelveen which is a southern suburb of the Dutch capital city Amsterdam.

Netherlands reached the podium in CT fifteen time winning seven golds, besides three silvers and five bronzes. Their positions in their 23 prevoious appearances in CTs are : 1980(4th), 1981(1st), 1982(1st), 1983 (5th), 1984(4th), 1985(5th), 1986(6th), 1987 (2nd), 1989(2nd), 1990(2nd), 1991 (3rd), 1992(4th), 1993(3rd), 1994(3rd), 1995 (4th), 1996(1st), 1997(4th), 1998 (1st), 1999(3rd), 2000(1st), 2001 (3rd), 2002(1st), 2003(1st).

Netherlands missed the CT twice. They withdrew from 1978 edition and failed to qualify for 1988 edition. Their record in CT at the end of 7 Dec 2004 is : Matches : 133, Won : 76, Drawn: 20, Lost : 37, Goals For : 357, Goals Against : 245

Dutch PC Masters Paul Litjens and Floris-Jan Bovalander own the record for the highest number of four hat-tricks each in CT. Litjens did it against India (1980), Australia (1980,1981) and England (1981) while Bovelander accomplished this feat against Pakistan (1989), Britain (1991, 1992) and USSR (1991). Netherlands registered record 18 hat-tricks in CT. Their other hat-trick makers are Ties Kruize (3), Gijs Weterings (2), Taco van den Honert (2), Ronald-Jan Heijn (1), Teun de Nooijer (1) and Ronald Brouwer (1). Bovelander (29 Goals) is also all-time leading scorer for them. Netherland’s best win is 6-0 over Germany (2003) while their worst defeat was 3-7 against Australia (1980).

The last time a host country won the CT was in 2003 when Netherlands claimed the title in Amstelveen. Pakistan (1978, 1980, 1994), Australia (1985, 1990, 1999), Netherlands (1982, 2000, 2003) and Germany (1991, 1995) have all won the CT as organizers.



1912 GOALS IN CHAMPIONS TROPHY
(Deadline : 7 December 2004 – End of Pakistan-Netherlands Match)

COUNTRIES MATCHES GOALS

Netherlands 133 357
Australia 139 356
Pakistan 136 343
Germany 126 292
Spain 77 134
India 57 119
Britain 70 108
Korea 36 68
England 23 38
USSR 27 30
Argentina 13 26
New Zealand 17 26
Malaysia 6 11
France 6 4

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