Lausanne, Switzerland, May 27, 2016 – There aren’t many teams who would relish facing the Netherlands, but will the Dutch ladies live up to their promise this time?
The Dutch have power and height – Dutch women are the tallest in the world – but have lacked the killer instinct at times, not unlike the Koreans in the East. Both teams qualified for the Rio Olympic Games at the recent Qualification Tournament in Tokyo, but not without some drama.
The Netherlands dropped the second set of their first qualifying match against Kazakhstan – who were the only team to fail to win a match and only managed to take two more sets in their seven games – before losing to Korea 3-0. They breezed past Thailand and the Dominican Republic 3-0, handed Italy their sole defeat, dumped Peru and then lost to Japan in five sets.
The loss to Korea was a major wake-up call, but last year the Netherlands made one major change that has given them more focus as a team: hiring Italian Giovanni Guidetti as their coach. Guidetti’s move came after a successful decade with Germany and he is already making his mark. The Italian is one of the most affable coaches in volleyball, but knows that discipline is vital to a team’s success.
Dutch captain Robin de Kruijf, who also plays for Guidetti at VakifBank Istanbul, commented: “It’s great that Giovanni will be my coach at both my club and the national team. He is a top coach from whom I learn a lot every day. I am convinced that we can achieve great things under his guidance.”
It didn’t take long for good things to happen. They took the silver medal at last year’s European Championship and beat Turkey, Italy and Croatia 3-0 in European Olympic Qualifying. They even managed to qualify for Rio without injured captain Robin de Kruijf and pregnant veteran Manon Flier.
Russia’s Tatyana Gracheva’s explanation was simple: “I attribute the rise of the Dutch team to the arrival of head coach Giovanni Guidetti. All his sides have a great overall game. This is a team with spirit, with good protection. The players support each other. And players we had not noticed before are now raising their game.”
By raising their game, the Dutch have qualified for the Olympics for only the third time. They previously appeared in 1992 in Barcelona and 1996 in Atlanta, finishing sixth and fifth, respectively. That era coincided with their first and only European crown (1995) and their highest ever finish in the FIVB World Championship (seventh in 1998). Perhaps they could have done better. Three of the individual awards at the 1996 Olympic Volleyball Tournament went to Dutch players: Best Server, Henriette Weersing; Best Setter, Riette Fledderus; and MVP, Cintha Boersma.
The Netherlands had another revival a decade ago when they won the FIVB World Grand Prix in 2007 under Avital Selinger, who guided the Netherlands from 2004 to 2012. Flier was named MVP, but, true to form, they failed to qualify in the following year.
Guidetti has plenty of time to mould his players into a fighting force before the Olympic Games in August. Good things happen to those who wait, and the Dutch have been waiting long enough for something good.