Netherlands 1900

Netherlands played their first international fixture in 1905. Prior to this All Netherlands select teams had played against foreign clubs and selections. Examples of  English opponents include Maidstone Church Institute Wanderers (1894), Felixstowe (1894) , English Wanderers (1896-1899) and London Caledonians (1905).
The team pictured above faced the German side Berliner F.C. Preussen on 30th December 1900.
The Netherlands won 5-1.
Headwear seems to have been de rigueur and the man standing on the far left seems to also be wearing  spectacles.
The line up:
Cramer (Ajax Leiden), Mundt (HVV), Van der Linde (RAP), Carli (HBS), Hartog (RAP), De Stoppelaar (Ajax Leiden), Jongheer Meyer (HBS), Hesselink (Vitesse), Sol (HVV), Offers (Victoria Wageningen) & Goedvriend (Vitesse).

Leen Vente - Wat een geweldig kapsel!

Leen Vente (Leendert Roelof Jan Vente) was an inside forward.
10 of Vente's 21 Netherlands appearances came during 'our' era (pre July 1937). In these games he scored 10 goals, including 5 in his second appearance, a 9-3 win over Belgium. 
He moved from Neptunus to Feyenoord in 1936 and scored the first ever goal at De Kuip (Stadion Feijenoord).

What a tremendous hairstyle!

Jonkheer Constant Wilhelm Feith

The impressive figure of Constant Feith, the  doyen of HVV den Haag who represented the Netherlands 8 times (1906-12).

When his career was ended by a knee injury at the age of 36 he had represented HVV 350 times, scoring 234 goals in the process.
A member of the nobility, Feith bore the title Jonkheer.

Spot the Ball

1925- Championship winners HBS in action against Go Ahead (Deventer). We're off on a ten day break.

Go Ahead

c 1890

This picture is not immediately recognizable as a football team, the long trousers and berets- perhaps the only clue the shinguards on the 2 centrally seated men.

It is however Wageningen Cricket and Football Club Go Ahead. Established in 1886 Go Ahead were founder members of the Netherlands Football and Athletics Association. 
They played in the Eerste Klasse Oost from its inception in 1896 until 1903, when they merged with Victoria (founded in 1889*) to become Go Ahead Victoria Combination.
GVC still exists as the Wageningen University football team.

*the GVC website gives Victoria's foundation year as 1892.

A Penalty Shootout

Daring

Writing about football pre 1937 I didn't expect to find myself dealing with penalty shootouts. However, an Easter Tournament organized by ADO Den Haag in 1935 was indeed decided by a duel from 11 metres. 
This was ADO's first such tournament and the 4 teams featured were:

Alles Door Oefening Den Haag- founded in 1905, in season 1934-35 ADO finished 4th in West 1 (Eerste Klasse).

Voorwaarts Utile Dulci Combinatie Den Haag- founded 1909, were also an Eerste Klasse club finishing 7th in West 1. In 1927 they had won the NVB Beker.

Royal Daring Club Molenbeek (Belgium)- Daring Club de Bruxelles (matriculation n°2) was founded in 1895. In 1936 and 37 they were Belgian Division d'Honneur champions and won the Belgian Cup in 1935.

Excelsior Athlétic Club de Roubaix(France) came into being in 1928 (a merger of Excelsior Club de Tourcoing and F C de Roubaix). Excelsior turned professional in 1932 and won the Coupe de France in 1933.

The tournament was played over 2 days at Zuiderpark. The visiting teams were too strong for the 2 Den Haag clubs (Netherlands football was resolutely amateur at this time). 

When the final ended in a 2-2 draw each team had three penalty kicks. Daring scored all three of theirs whilst Excelsior missed with one. 

21.04.35	VUC Den Haag	3	8	Excelsior AC Roubaix
21.04.35	ADO Den Haag	1	2	Daring
22.04.35	ADO Den Haag	3	4	VUC Den Haag
22.04.35	Daring	2	2	Excelsior AC Roubaix
	Daring win 3-2 after pens.

ref: Dagblad De Telegraaf, Amsterdam 23.04.35

De Pijn trekt weg...

Kloosterbalsem (Cloister Balm) was an ointment for the treatment of bruises, sprains, scratches and blisters. Here it is endorsed by Kees van Dijke, the Feyenoord defender who played 3 times for The Netherlands in 1925.

Billy Hunter

Scottish outside left Billy Hunter played 150 games for Southern League Millwall Athletic before joining Bolton Wanderers in 1908. Hunter made 55 first team appearances for Bolton over the next 4 seasons.
In 1912 Hunter became manager of Football Club Dordrecht in the Netherlands, and ran the Dutch national side for 4 matches:

15.03.14	Belgium	2	4	Netherlands	Beerschot A.C. Stadion, Antwerp
05.04.14	Netherlands	4	4	Germany	Het Oude Stadion, Amsterdam
26.04.14	Netherlands	4	2	Belgium	Het Oude Stadion, Amsterdam
17.05.14	Denmark	4	3	Netherlands	Copenhagen

P	W	D	L	F	A
4	2	1	1	15	12

He interrupted his career in 1914 to enlist in the British Army.
After the war Hunter coached Lausanne in Switzerland and was involved with  Hakoah Wien in 1923 when they famously beat West Ham United at The Boleyn Ground .
In 1924 Hunter became manager of SK Galatasaray in Istanbul. He managed the Turkish national side in their Olympic debut in 1924. In all he was in charge of the Turkish side for 12 matches:

25.05.24	Czechoslovakia	5	2	Turkey	Stade de Bergeyre, Paris
17.06.24	Finland	2	4	Turkey	Helsinki
19.06.24	Estonia	1	4	Turkey	Tallin
22.06.24	Latvia	1	3	Turkey	Riga
29.06.24	Poland	2	0	Turkey	Łódź
16.11.24	Soviet Union	3	0	Turkey	Moscow
10.04.25	Turkey	2	1	Bulgaria	Istanbul
01.05.25	Romania	1	2	Turkey	Bucharest
15.05.25	Turkey	1	2	Soviet Union	Ankara
02.10.25	Turkey	1	2	Poland	Istanbul
07.05.26	Turkey	1	3	Romania	Istanbul
12.09.26	Poland	6	1	Turkey	Lviv

P	W	D	L	F	A
12	5	0	7	21	29

Wilhelmina...

In 1908 a football club was formed in a street corner cafe (De Vereeniging) in Rotterdam. It has been claimed that the inspiration was the receipt, as a birthday gift, of a genuine leather football by one Cees Van Baaren.

The lads who formed the club gave it the name Wilhelmina , the name of the local church near which they held their kickabout games. According to some sources the founders were van Baaren (age 17), G.A Muller, Gerard van Leerdam , J. Bladel, and  L. den Hertog . Other sources include Nico  Struijs and give the name Henk Mulder in place of Muller.  Van Baaren,  Muller, van Leerdam and Struijs featured in the club's first ever fixture, a  2-1 win over Be Quick Bospolder. 

 In 1909 the name was changed to HFC (Hillesluise Footbal Club) and joined the Rotterdam Football Association. However, the Association wouldn't accept the name  HFC as Haarlem FC  (now Royal HFC Haarlem) were already members. 

Van Baaren in the plain jersey, hand on GA Muller's shoulder. The hoops were black and yellow. 

The club now chose the name Celeritas (Latin for swift or speedy) and replaced their red white and blue kit with black and yellow hoops.

In 1912 Celeritas were promoted into the third tier of the Dutch Football Association. This necessitated another name change (there was a Celeritas den Haag) . In July 1912 members voted on 3 possible names: Mars, Het Zuiden or Feijenoord.  Feijenoord (later Feyenoord) was chosen, and the new colours of red and white were adopted to mark the change. 
The following month, under the new name, the club won it;s first ever trophy, the Concordiaan-Beker.

Katwijkse Voetbal Vereniging Quick Boys

 In these 2 photographs of Katwijk's splendidly named Quick Boys the goalkeepers seem to be wearing neckties. 
Up until 1954 all football in the Netherlands was amateur. Quick Boys, founded in 1920, are among the clubs who have remained amateur. 

Amsterdam 1928

The gold, silver and bronze winning teams (Uruguay, Argentina, Italy)

Netherlands (v.Uruguay)

Uruguay (v. Germany)

 
 Montevideo greets news of the victory.

Uruguay before the first game with Argentina.

Argentina  before the final.

Olympisch Stadion Amsterdam. 

Andrés Mazali pulls off a save in the final.

The Low Countries

Intrepid spectators at a Belgium v Netherlands match, Antwerp, 1913.

During our era (pre 1937) the neighbours from the Low Countries played each other 54 times. (Argentina and Uruguay had played each other an incredible 132 times during this period, Austria and Hungary 81 and the originators, England and Scotland  met 61 times). 
The first meeting was Belgium's 2nd international, first for the Netherlands. Both countries were founding members of FIFA.
In the very first meeting The Coupe van den Abeele was contested, having previously been played for by representative XIs of the 2 countries in matches that are nor recognized as full internationals. The 'cup tie' status of these matches explains why extra time was played on 3 occasions .  The Coupe van den Abeele was played for when the teams met in Belgium. When the Netherlands were hosts the Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad Beker was the prize. 
The high scoring first meeting  (Netherlands winning 4-1 in extra time) set the tone-  the first 54 fixtures produced an average 3.9 goals a game. 

	Wins	Goals
Belgium	16	89
Netherlands	28	122
Drawn	10

14.05.05- a newspaper illustration shows  Eric Thornton saving a shot.

Netherlands 1905- white shirts with a red white and blue sash motif.

14.05.05- Thornton in the Belgian goal- Netherlands attacking. 

Pre 1937 the 2 sides also met twice in Olympic Games matches. In 1920 at Antwerp Belgium, on their way to gold, beat Netherlands 3-0 in the semi final. In 1928 at Rotterdam in the consolation tournament  (recognized by FIFA but not by the IOC) Netherlands won 3-1.

Netherlands also came out on top of the World Cup qualifying match played in Antwerp in  1934, winning 4-2. Both teams qualified for the Finals out of a 3 team group.