Hockey World Cup 2023: The Netherlands Team Profile
The Netherlands stand a joint-second in the list of the most successful teams in the history of the Men's Hockey World Cup along with Australia.
The Netherlands stand a joint-second in the list of the most successful teams in the history of the Men's Hockey World Cup along with Australia. They are behind Pakistan in the list and incidentally, they were also the second ever world champions after Pakistan, having won the second edition of the World Cup at Amstelveen 1973.
They had to go past a strong Indian team in a hard-fought final that went to penalty shootouts after the game ended 2-2. The Dutch ended up winning the shootout 4-2. However, the Netherlands would not win the title for the next 17 years. They reached the final at Buenos Aires 1978, however, and lost to Pakistan.
The Oranje won the World Cup once again at Lahore 1990, beating hosts Pakistan 3-1 in the final. It was followed by a reversal of that result in the final of Sydney 1994 with Pakistan beating the Netherlands this time, albeit through penalties after the match ended 1-1. The Dutch then won the next World Cup which they hosted in Utrecht in 1998, thus establishing themselves as one of the most dominant sides of the last decade of the 20th century.
They haven't won the tournament since but reached back to back finals in 2014 and 2018. All in all, the Netherlands have won the title three times and finished runners-up on four occasions. They also finished third at Kuala Lumpur 2002 and New Delhi 2010 and were fourth at Mumbai 1982.
