A top country. Our southern neighbors. And the homeland. Erwin van de Looi summarizes the group for the Young Orange at the European Championships next summer in Georgia and Romania. According to the national coach, the Dutch will face three “challenging teams” at the European Championships: Portugal, Belgium and Georgia.

Van de Looi saw “a nice draw” coming from the balls in the Romanian capital Bucharest. “Tough but challenging. They are beautiful posters. Portugal is a top country, Belgium, our southern neighbors who have a really good harvest and the home country. We look forward to it.”

“The advantage of playing against Georgia is that we’re playing in Tbilisi. I think it’s a good city for us to play in,” says Van de Looi. The Orange team plays all group games in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. That means: little back and forth travel. “It’s a bit far but the location is good in relation to the stadiums.”

The Belgians are a well-known opponent. The Dutch Juniors were still 2:1 too strong for Young Belgium in a play at the end of September. “After that game against us, we had the impression that this is a team to be reckoned with. We won, we were the dominant side in the first half, but it was quite difficult for us in the second half .”

Strong opponents or not, no country wants to play Dutch Juniors. Team Van de Loois is one of the favourites, isn’t it? “When you go to a tournament, you go to win the tournament. That can also be a bit of bluff or arrogance, which is a bit Dutch.”

“That’s a target we had set ourselves more or less in advance. That’s what we’re aiming for. But there are still about six countries that have the potential to win. We’re really not the favourites.”

It also depends a bit on which players Van de Looi has available in the summer of 2023. “That’s always the question. This is also the fate of the Dutch juniors. One goal is to get as close to the European Championship as possible. Another goal is of course for everyone personally to make the step into the big orange.”

Ryan Gravenberch, Brian Brobbey and now Xavi Simons. Just a few names close to the big orange that may soon make the final move.

“I’m always proud when that happens,” says Van de Looi. “And you also have to be realistic: if someone is ready to take this step and they play a role in the Dutch national team, then that’s just nice. Then we wave it off and move on to others. But who is this? be and how that will be, that is glass bastion.”

Van de Looi knows: “If we have and can have all the players on board, then we have a very good team…”

One of those players who are a bit foggy is Sven Botman. The defender recently retired to focus on his club Newcastle United. A setback for Van de Looi. “We talked about it when he signed off. And there will be a sequel too.”

“Actually, we’re postponing it a bit because we have a lot of time. If we had played in October or November, a sequel would have come much sooner. So I’ll think about it again. I have the time for that.”

“Many uncertainties”

There are still many uncertainties on the way to the 2023 European Championship. “It’s a special track because now for the first time there’s a world championship in winter. That means our internationals in October and November have been cancelled. Normally we could play four training games there.

“We won’t see each other again until March, that’s a long time. And then there will also be a new national coach in the Netherlands. So there’s still a lot of uncertainty about what it’s going to be like in March and ultimately in June.”

A highlight during this period will be the final of the Nations League, which will take place from June 14th to 18th and in which the “big orange” will take part. This falls right in the middle of the Dutch juniors’ preparations for the European Championships, which begin on June 21st.

“I’m already looking so far ahead,” says Van de Looi. “But that’s what the new national coach will be about. What he wants, what his ideas are, we haven’t talked about that yet. That’s music for the future.”