Netherlands' Near-Upset Bodes Well for Future

by Clare Lochary | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff

The Netherlands, the surprise of these FIL World Championships, nearly swam past Japan and into medal contention Wednesday -- a good sign for the up-and-coming Dutch. © Keith Maynard

MANCHESTER, England -- Of course the Dutch are good at lacrosse. They’re Orangemen.

Actually, there aren’t any Syracuse alums playing for the Netherlands in the 2010 FIL World Championships, but there are a handful of former NCAA players and native-born Dutchmen who came to Manchester to make a statement about how far the Freaky Deaky Dutch have come up in the lacrosse world.

“I actually really like the style of Dutch lacrosse because it’s pretty much a hybrid game, where we take the best of the American [field] game and the Canadian box game,” said Graham Bergsma, a Canadian with Dutch roots who played at Fairfield University.

“The biggest thing about playing Division I in the States, it’s too limiting. It’s all more what you can’t do, and our offense is more about what you can do.”

The Dutch had the makings of an upset versus Blue Division opponent Japan today, leading 7-6 at the half. Then star goalie Grant Zimmerman (10 saves), a former All-American at North Carolina, went down with a pulled hamstring in the third quarter. The Netherlands got rattled, and despite a six-save performance from backup keeper Teddy van Opstal, they ended up on the wrong end of a 14-8 score.

The loss was a disappointment to the ambitious Dutch, but it’s clear that their game is growing by leaps and bounds.

“The league is booming and the premier players don’t get a whole lot of coaching there. We noticed in the last year, the more coaching that they get, it’s a huge improvement over the Europeans already. Lacrosse there is becoming very structured and becoming very good,” said head coach Travis Taylor, who stepped into his role just before the 2008 European Championships and led the team to a semifinal upset of Germany before falling to perennial European champ England in the final.

Here in Manchester, the Dutch upset Wales in overtime to reach the Japan game, where it got close to breaking into the medal round. Zimmerman put up 18 stops against the Welsh, and loves playing with such a passionate team.

“Not dissing how it was back in the States, but these guys play because they love to play. They paid their way to be here. They made sacrifices. They’re here because they want to be here, not because they’re on scholarship or something,” said Zimmerman. “You can’t really get better than that. It’s playing with guys who love lacrosse.”

Van Opstal, who has a Dutch-born father and played club lacrosse at Virginia, is currently doing graduate work in the Netherlands. He’s been involved in Dutch lacrosse for several years, and was named MVP of the 18-team Amsterdam league last season.

“Our expectations coming into the world championships was to show the teams that the Europeans weren’t a mistake. We came to win then and we’re coming to win again,” said van Opstal. “We’re hoping that people will see that we can be in the Blue Division and really pull our weight around.”

Amsterdam will host the next European Cup in 2012. (The tournament is held every four years, on the even years between the FIL World Championships.) Van Opstal hopes to see the Amsterdam league grow to 40 or even 50 teams in that period.

Bergsma’s ambitions for the team are more focused on the short-term future. Asked what’s next for Dutch lacrosse, he responded, “We’re going to go beat Germany and be the fifth team in the world. We’re going to play England and get ‘em back.”

Japan advanced to the FIL semifinals at 7:30 p.m. local Thursday, when it will meet the U.S. for the second time in two days. (Team USA defefeated Japan, 19-5, on Tuesday.)

Defending world champion Canada will play Australia -- a winner Wednesday over Scotland -- in the other semifinal.