I know not everyone is interested in women’s soccer—but to me, it’s still Oranje, and this coming week is huge for the Oranje Leeuwinnen.
I’ve been following the women’s national team since after the 2017 Women’s European Championship, which the Dutch unexpectedly won on home soil; two years later, I experienced the excitement of making it to the 2019 Women’s World Cup final, only to fall to the then-behemoth that was the United States women’s national team.1
It took then-coach Sarina Wiegman only three years into her job to match the best finishes of the men’s national team at a Euros and a World Cup; unfortunately, Wiegman left in 2021 to coach the English women’s national team, something I’m only slightly still resentful about.2 There, she continued to prove that she’s a one-of-a-kind coach, leading England to three consecutive finals in the Euros and the World Cup, winning the former with them twice. It’s actually supremely impressive—Wiegman has been in the final of every major women’s competition since 2017: the 2017 Euros final and 2019 World Cup final with Oranje, and then the 2022 Euros final (originally scheduled for 2021, pushed back a year due to COVID-19), 2023 World Cup final, and 2025 Euros final with England.
As you can imagine, the Dutch have struggled to replicate that success since her departure. She was succeeded by the Englishman Mark Parsons, an accomplished coach in the American women’s soccer league, who had a rough year before the Dutch soccer federation got rid of him and hired Andries Jonker.3 Jonker, who primarily had coached in men’s soccer, and was previously an assistant to Louis van Gaal, seemed to be a better fit. At the 2023 World Cup, Jonker’s team looked very good—they topped a group that included the United States, and (in my albeit slightly biased opinion) deserved to win the game against the Americans that ended in a 1-1 tie. After a nervy 2-0 win against South Africa in the Round of 16, the Dutch fell in the quarterfinals to eventual winners Spain 2-1 in extra time. Not a bad showing! But two years later, at the 2025 Euros, it all fell apart. The Dutch performance ranged from passable to awful in their three group games against Wales, France, and England; a tough group, for the record, but losing 4-0 to Wiegman’s England and 5-2 to France meant the Netherlands crashed out with a sour taste in the mouth. In the fallout of this mini-disaster, there was much discussion over the fact that the Dutch soccer federation had announced at the beginning of the year that his contract wouldn’t be extended after the tournament—maybe it did compromise his authority, or maybe he was just supremely unlucky. I think both were probably true. ESPN did a great article/explainer on the drama surrounding Jonker; if you’re interested, it’s worth your time.
Since then, though, there has been new life injected into the team with the hiring of Arjan Veurink, who had been Wiegman’s right-hand man since before the start of the 2017 Euros. The hope is that he could inspire similar success. There have been glimmers of said hope already: Dutch star player Daniëlle van de Donk, who had committed to retiring from the national team after the 2025 Euros, decided to come back into the picture. It’s incredibly promising that this was likely a result of belief in Veurink’s vision.
Under Veurink, the World Cup qualification went decently—the Dutch finished second in their group (which was also the Nations League? I don’t know) behind France, arguably a top-five team in the world. Not bad. But it means that the Leeuwinnen entered the World Cup qualification playoffs, which brings us to the present day.
The Oranje have two games against Hungary: one on October 9th in Felcsút, and one on October 13th in Tilburg. Emerge victorious versus the Hungarians, and the winner of Turkey-Slovenia awaits.
Even though this may not be the mega-talented side of yesteryear (2019), this is still a very good team. Even though some star players are out due to injury (Arsenal goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar, Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Jackie Groenen, and Manchester City striker and maybe-best-ever-Dutch-player Vivianne Miedema come to mind), the Dutch still have Barcelona’s quick-footed winger Esmee Brugts, Real Madrid’s speedy striker Lineth Beerensteyn, Chelsea’s young ball-playing defender Veerle Buurman and technically gifted midfielder Wieke Kaptein, Manchester City’s talented wingback Kerstin Casparij, Lyon’s defensively-strong midfielder Damaris Egurrola, and Tottenham Hotspur’s starting goalkeeper Lize Kop and top scorer Victoria Pelova. Add Van de Donk, Jill Roord, and Dominique Janssen to the mix—all players who starred in that 2019 squad—and you’ve got yourself a worthy team.
I know that sounds like a lot of name-dropping, but I’m serious that each of those players is genuinely of a high caliber. The best women’s soccer leagues in the world are the American NWSL and the English WSL, followed by the Spanish Liga F—most of the aforementioned players play at that top level.4
And there are some names I’m not even mentioning due to my personal unfamiliarity, like Aston Villa’s Lynn Wilms, or Bayern Munich’s promising 19-year-old attacker, Sophie Proost, for whom this is her first call-up to the senior squad.
Should this Dutch team, despite the many injuries, beat Hungary and then Turkey/Slovenia? The answer is a resounding yes. The Dutch are ranked by FIFA as the 11th best team in the world; Hungary is 45th, Turkey 46th, and Slovenia 37th. For context, when the Dutch team was ranked 7th in the world for the 2023 World Cup (the one where they deserved to win their game against the United States…), in their group alongside the U.S. and Portugal was Vietnam, who were ranked 37th in the world at the time. Netherlands-Vietnam ended 7-0 for the Dutch.5 The gaps in women’s soccer are much smaller than they were 10 years ago, but they get larger the farther you go down the world rankings, especially compared to men’s soccer; to put that into perspective, Greece’s men’s team, who just tied with Germany and the male Oranje, are currently ranked 41st in the world.
Unfortunately, even if you wanted to, there’s no obvious way to watch these games legally here in America. Hint hint. I’m fortunate that I get to mooch off of my family’s Dutch TV subscription (CANAL+), which gives me access to Dutch public broadcasting/network TV. But if you don’t understand Dutch, it can be a little trickier. This game also happens to be on at the same time as PSV versus Heerenveen, which you can watch on ESPN+, so… whattayagonnado. But rest assured, anyone who’s made it this far into an article about women’s soccer, anything you need to know will be in a subsequent Oranje Corner section of my regular Dutch soccer coverage.
Let’s all do thoughts and prayers that this second game will be pretty much inconsequential on account of the Dutch having won the first leg by a wide margin. Fingers crossed.
Again, I know that opinions on women’s soccer can vary, and I’m not about to start covering the Vrouwen Eredivisie (even though you can argue that I should), but if you enjoyed this Oranje Leeuwinnen-specific post, let me know, and I’ll use that as motivation to do more that are specific to the Lionesses.
Although, honestly, I’ll probably do them anyway. :-)
I will personally never forget the pure ecstasy I felt celebrating Jackie Groenen’s goal in extra time against Sweden in the semifinal. That was such a nerve-racking game. See her goal here—just watching it again evokes so many feelings. Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the female version of Arjen Robben (no joke) who was the star of that team, Lieke Martens, at least once. Love her.
In reality, I get it. Aside from making more money and having a better squad at your disposal, the romance of coaching the country that founded the sport, and therefore growing the women’s game in arguably the world’s biggest soccer arena, would appeal to me as well. Only coaching the U.S. would be considered a “bigger” job, and that may not even be the case anymore.
It was actually a little funny the way in which Parsons was such a bad fit; there were stories of him just not meshing well with the players, with his penchant for longer explanations not a good fit for the Dutch way of life. If you’re interested, The New York Times/The Athletic did a well-written interview with/story on Parsons after his firing from the Dutch job. You can skip the part about his time with the Portland Thorns/in the NWSL.
Unfortunately for us Americans, the NWSL’s adoption of Dutch players has been slow. There is currently only one Dutch player who plays in the NWSL: Nina Nijstad, who transferred to the Portland Thorns over the summer from PSV Eindhoven. It says a lot about the quality of players at Veurink’s disposal that Nijstad, despite being a solid starting player in a top-two league, was passed over. And if you’re wondering where the Vrouwen Eredivisie ranks among the best women’s leagues… I’ll just say that it’s, erm, not good. The slow adoption of the Vrouwen Eredivisie in the Netherlands could be a whole other article; they just reduced the number of teams from 12 to 10. I don’t think it’s a sexism thing, but rather the fact that the Netherlands is a tight-knit, soccer-loving country that already has its hands full with the men’s league.
This might overstate my point; the U.S. beat Vietnam by “just” 3-0 in that group and Portugal beat them 2-0. But still!