Dutch national team misses qualifying for the World Cup against Montenegro

By eight o’clock, as Montenegrin ultras fill the streets with their chants and the first tufts of Orange fans have settled in the old Gradski Stadium, the messages from Oslo are pouring in. Breaking news for football standards, because the fact that Norway could not have beaten Latvia, means that the Dutch national team can qualify for the World Cup in Qatar this Saturday evening.

However, this still has to be won against Montenegro. Certainly not a certainty, it will become clear later, although Louis van Gaal foreshadowed in the hours before the match that this could well be the evening. He had deliberately let his players dine together, he said before the television cameras, where they normally go to the buffet individually. Because it could happen tonight, Van Gaal had added.

It wouldn’t be easy. Van Gaal knew that too. Especially on evenings like this slips are lurking. As great as the interests for the Dutch national team are, so little uplifting is the backdrop in which the World Cup ticket can be secured. Old grandstands, lots of empty seats. There are hardly more people in the 74-year-old Gradski stadium than on Saturday afternoon at FC Eindhoven-FC Dordrecht in the first division.

That could have been more had the Montenegro ultras not insulted their deputy prime minister in a previous game. For the fact that they had called him ‘gay’, among other things, FIFA decided that the Football Association of Montenegro was allowed to sell a lot fewer tickets for this match. In retrospect, many Montengrins will have regretted that they had to miss this duel, given the unexpected turns that will occur.

Goals Depay

The Dutch were welcome. Two hundred were there. Men and women in unmissable outfits, from red, white, and blue floral hats to orange suits, who after 25 minutes will have felt that everything was going to be okay. Then Memphis Depay stood in front of them with clenched fists, after he had put the Netherlands 1-0 from the spot, his eleventh goal in this World Cup qualifying series.

The same Depay seemed to take the tension away after an hour. Denzel Dumfries crossed, after which the FC Barcelona attacker pushed the ball in behind his standing leg. A great goal, with which Depay equaled the performances of Dennis Bergkamp and Arjen Robben; they also scored 37 times in their international career. Only Patrick Kluivert (40), Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (42) and Robin van Persie (50) made more.

In the minutes that followed, the game seemed to be lapping on. Width pass after width pass, counting down to the moment when Van Gaal would fall into the arms of his assistants.

But in the 82nd minute there was Ilija Vukovic. The substitute was only put in front of goalkeeper Justin Bijlow and brought Montenegro back into the game: 2-1. Bangladeshi fireworks were ignited and suddenly the drowsy home crowd started to stir again, with battle songs and cheers that actually made the home side seem to be running faster. Full of fire. With energy. Suddenly things could go either way in Podgorica.

Four minutes later, another two thousand pairs of fists went up in the air. Nikola Vujnovic was the goal scorer this time, who entered the game much more firmly than Daley Blind and headed the ball behind Bijlow.

After the last seconds passed and Montenegro seemed closer to 3-2 than the Netherlands, the scenarios of next Tuesday forced themselves. Now that Orange had also dropped stitches, just like Norway, everything will arrive at the home game against the Norwegians, in an empty Kuip. A draw is sufficient for qualification, but in the event of a loss, this qualifying campaign could turn out to be a fiasco. Turkey can also pass the Netherlands, which means that Van Gaal’s team can finish third in the group and thus not only miss a direct ticket, but also the playoffs for the World Cup.

That is exactly what happened to Van Gaal at the beginning of this century, in the run-up to the 2002 World Cup, which passed the Dutch national team. He later called it the low point in his coaching career. If he and his players aren’t careful, history could just repeat itself.

–