Netherlands National Thread

[heywoodu 15,135]

[heywoodu 15,135]

Our women's handball team is going to Rio 

 

Good month so far, with 11 track cycling quota being secured as well. Hopefully the water polo women can continue this next week (and who knows, maybe the men if they're in for a huge surprise  ).

[heywoodu 15,135]

Apparently Bas Verwijlen (fencing) has qualified for Rio 

[hckošice 14,818]

Gold’n Orange

Dutch remain unbeaten, back to Division I

The Netherlands players listen to the national anthem after winning the last game against Belgium and the tournament

 

One year after being relegated from the Division I, the Netherlands are back. The Dutch team did not slip up at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division II Group A and claimed the gold winning all five games.

Although predicted by many as clear tournament favourites, the Netherlands travelled to Spain with an inexperienced squad as many players were not available for selection due to club team commitments. The main ‘culprit’ being the Tilburg Trappers, who made the switch to the third-tier German Oberliga this season and have advanced to the league finals which start today. It automatically meaned head coach Chris Eimers could put a cross through 12 names of the team that donned the orange jersey last year.

“It was a weird built-up to this tournament,” reveals Eimers. “We didn’t know who we could select as these playoffs were ongoing. We always had a backup plan in place.” A plan that included a string of inexperienced players that had yet to make their debut in the national team.

One of them was 31-year-old forward Jasper Kick from HYS The Hague, who was obviously delighted after having received his gold medal.

Kick: “It is great to experience this. I never had expected to be called up at my age. The coach is giving me so much confidence and he knows what I am capable of for this team.”

Asked if he expects to be around next year, Kick responded honestly: “I have to be realistic and admit there’s many better forwards then me in the Netherlands, so I shouldn’t be selected if the other players are available. However, I will always be ready when I’m being called upon.”

The tournament started off well for the Dutch, claiming a 3-2 morale boosting victory over a pesky Serbian side. On the second day an upset was in the making as hosts Spain took a cheeky 2-0 lead going into the final period but the Netherlands recovered and skated away with a 3-2 win in overtime.

“A good start is vital if you want to perform well during such a short tournament,” Chris Eimers said. “It builds trust and confidence instead of having to run behind the eight ball. We didn’t convert on our power plays against Spain and had a poor second period. But we were back on our feet in the third period and played up to our standards, which eventually led us to victory.”

After a modest but rock-solid win over Iceland (3-0), the Dutch offence started to click in the final two games. Boosted by the arrival of Nardo Nagtzaam, who had just won the Slovenian championship, the Dutch steamrolled China (9-0) before being able to lock first place in the group with a convincing 6-2 win over neighbours Belgium.

Not surprisingly, the Netherlands were well presented in the individual statistics lists. Forwards Kevin Bruijsten and Julian van Lijden each had five goals while defenceman Erik Tummers was honoured the tournament’s top scorer title with a goal and eight assists. Goaltender Sjoerd Idzenga was dominant in net with a Goals Against Average of 1.28 and a save percentage of 94.83%.

“The difference between Division I and Division II is gigantic. No offence to the squad who captured gold here and of which I’m extremely proud, but we need better players to compete in Division I,” said Eimers after the game.

“I know it sounds odd having just been promoted from Division II, but I honestly believe that if the Dutch Ice Hockey Federation can create the right environment for our top hockey players to develop and practise and we can have our best players available, the Dutch can compete in the top of Division IB or perhaps even lower half of Division IA.”

Hosts Spain set a questionable record of having won a silver at every IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship tournament this year. After the U20, U18 and women’s team, also the men’s team became second-best in the group with nine points due to losing the key game against the Netherlands in overtime.

A silver medal is what Belgium would have loved to get. Having gone unbeaten during the first three games, the team looked to be threatening the Dutch for gold. A 4-1 loss against Spain on Day 4 rocked their boat and after today’s loss against their northern neighbours the Belgians had to settle for bronze.

At the other end of the table, China was relegated back to Division II Group B having gone winless in all five games while Iceland and Serbia managed to stay. The smooth-skating Asians played some decent hockey during the tournament but fell short in the end. They managed to keep Spain at bay until the last five minutes and forced Belgium to overtime. China required a win over Serbia on the final day to keep their hopes of staying up alive but they left the ice with a 3-0 loss against the Serbs who claimed the fourth place just above Iceland.

[heywoodu 15,135]

Awesome, we won something  

 

How close are we to the top of the world? It's too confusing with all these million "world championships"  

[hckošice 14,818]

29 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Awesome, we won something  

 

How close are we to the top of the world? It's too confusing with all these million "world championships"  

 

2 floors between top division and division II A, so in fact since next year only 1  

In fact it´s really easy to understand... in men´s elite category we have

• Top Division 16 teams (2 relegated each year to division I Group A)
• Division I Group A  6 teams (2 promoted to top division and 1 relegated to dividion I Group B each year)
• Division I Group B 6 teams (1 promoted to division I group A, 1 relegated to division II group A each year)
• Division II Group A 6 teams (1 promoted to division I group B (In this case you this time), 1 relegated to dividion II group B each year)
• Division II Group B 6 teams (1 promoted to division II group A, 1 relegated to divission III each year)
• Division III open competition, usually 6 or 7 teams, depend of interest,  (1 promoted to division II Group B, each year) if there more than 8 countries, there necessary also a Division III qualification tournament to be played few months before the tournament (1 promoted to division III from this tournament)

 

[heywoodu 15,135]

1 minute ago, hckosice said:

 

2 floors between top division and division II A, so in fact since next year only 1  

In fact it´s really easy to understand... in men´s elite category we have

• Top Division 16 teams (2 relegated each year to division I Group A)
• Division I Group A  6 teams (2 promoted to top division and 1 relegated to dividion I Group B each year)
• Division I Group B 6 teams (1 promoted to division I group A, 1 relegated to division II group A each year)
• Division II Group A 6 teams (1 promoted to division I group B (In this case you this time), 1 relegated to dividion II group B each year)
• Division II Group B 6 teams (1 promoted to division II group A, 1 relegated to divission III each year)
• Division III open competition, usually 6 or 7 teams, depend of interest,  (1 promoted to division II Group B, each year) if there more than 8 countries, there necessary also a Division III qualification tournament to be played few months before the tournament (1 promoted to division III from this tournament)

 

Thanks! Wouldn't it be easier to just have a top division and below that something like:

 

- Division 1

- Division 2

- Division 3

- Division 4

 

 

[hckošice 14,818]

2 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Thanks! Wouldn't it be easier to just have a top division and below that something like:

 

- Division 1

- Division 2

- Division 3

- Division 4

 

 

 

well, it was few years ago. we had Top division also was called "A" category, then just we had pool B, pool C and Pool D, but since many new entries entered and announced the interest of competing (especially after USSR exploded in million and five new teams), IIHF changed the names to Top division, division I with 12 teams, division II with 12 teams and so, but since 2005 we have this current system, because lower divisions had too many nations competing, and from organizating view it´s easier to care about a 6 teams round robin then a 12 nations tournament..and more nations are attracted to host these world championships

[heywoodu 15,135]

Dutch Athletes of the Year - Nominations

 

Sportsman of the Year

* Tom Dumoulin, cycling - Won the opening time trial of the Giro d'Italia in the Netherlands, won 2 stages in the Tour de France (including the "queen stage"), got pretty badly injured and went on to take silver at the Olympic time trial

* Sven Kramer, speed skating - Won his 8th European and 8th world all-round title, won his 7th world title over 5000m and his 4th over 10.000m

* Dorian van Rijsselberghe, sailing - Won his second consecutive Olympic gold in the RS:X class and once again did so by deciding the competition before the medal race

* Ferry Weertman, swimming - Won Olympic gold in the 10km open water thanks to a brilliant final sprint

* Max Verstappen, motorsports - Aged 18, he moved from mediocre Toro Rosso to top team Red Bull and won his very first race for RB, becoming the first Dutch driver in history to win a Formula 1 race, resulting even in fans at a Eredivisie ('Premier League') football game spontaneously singing his name in celebration. Had an insane 2016 season and made more impact than any F1 driver did this year.

 

Sportswoman of the Year

* Marit Bouwmeester, sailing - Won Olympic gold in the Laser Radial class, becoming the first Dutch sailor to win Olympic gold in a boat since 1936

* Anna van der Breggen, cycling - Won Olympic gold in the road race (to be fair, much 'thanks' to Annemiek van Vleuten's horrific fall), followed by bronze in the time trial

* Elis Ligtlee, cycling - Won Olympic gold in the keirin after going trough to the finals with quite some luck

* Sharon van Rouwendaal, swimming - Was injured for a long time, not even sure to start in Rio, started in the swimming pool and disappointed, then won Olympic gold in the 10km open water with a phenomenal swim

* Dafne Schippers, athletics - 5th in the Olympic 100m, silver in the 200m, days after getting injured and not even being sure to be able to start at all

* Sanne Wevers, gymnastics - Became the first ever Dutch woman to win an individual gymnastics medal and did so by taking gold on the balance beam

 

Team of the Year

* Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen, beach volleyball - Won Olympic bronze, the first ever Dutch beach volleyball medal

* Women's handball team - Reached the 2015 World Cup final (which still counts since the previous election was done before that tournament), then slightly disappointed with 4th at the Olympics

* Maaike Head/Ilse Paulis, rowing - Won Olympic gold in convincing fashion in the women's lightweight double sculls

 

 

There's Paralympic athlete and coach of the year as well, but time's up  

 

There also is a ton of discussion about Michael van Gerwen not being nominated even though he absolutely dominated the year in darts more than anyone else has ever done.

 

The NOC gave some extreme bullshit reason for that: "For non-Olympic sports we only count sports where there's at least 55 nations at the World Championships. We count F1 because when you count all things like rally, Formula 3, GP2 and so on, there's more than 55 nations and all those things are part of FIA" 

At least they should have said "Van Gerwen didn't win the world title, so that's why" instead of bringing up that bullshit and then contradict it immediately by nominating Verstappen.

 

My picks would be Van Rijsselberghe/Weertman, Van Rouwendaal, Head/Paulis. 

 

 

[hckošice 14,818]

Canadian Doug Mason is once again the new coach of the dutch men´s ice hockey national team http://www.iihf.com/home-of-hockey/news/news-singleview/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=11996&cHash=60022265655da5c1083d336bffd0e609