Oranje Captain Virgil van Dijk Raises Eyebrows in World Cup Penalty Shootout

The penalty shootout curse has added another painful chapter to Dutch football history. The relationship between the Oranje internationals and the spot-kick lottery remains fraught. Once again, the Netherlands failed to win after a penalty shootout. After previous defeats against Argentina (2014 and 2022), this time it was Morocco who sent them packing in the round of sixteen at the 2026 World Cup.

Justin Kluivert, Quinten Timber, and Crysencio Summerville all missed their penalties. Robert Maaskant, a former coach, found the selection of players for the first five surprising. He noted the absence of several key names during the Sportnieuws.nl World Cup football podcast. "Teun Koopmeiners, Wout Weghorst, and Justin Kluivert made sense to me. But I somewhat missed Marten de Roon and, notably, Virgil van Dijk," Maaskant explained.

At the World Cup in Qatar, when Oranje faced Argentina in the quarter-finals and also went to penalties, Van Dijk was the first to step up. He missed his penalty on that occasion. "It's possible that played a role. That he wanted to leave it to the five players this time," it was suggested in the podcast.

Ultimately, three young players missed, two of whom had seen very limited minutes for Oranje. Maaskant and Boussaboun found this particularly striking. This keeps the Oranje penalty trauma very much alive. "If you look at what happened with Bart Verbruggen... It's so tragic. He makes a good save, and then it goes in off his heel. That's another fresh blow to that trauma," stated reporter Rick Kraaijeveld.

Maaskant was particularly surprised by Koeman's assertion that a lot of work had gone into penalty practice. "Then I'm very curious about what exactly was done." Maaskant had little understanding of the players' run-ups to the ball. "That surprises me. I see so many players now standing just two meters from the ball. You can never generate proper power on the ball like that. But then again, we never saw the training sessions where they were working on it," Maaskant concluded.

In the latest Sportnieuws.nl World Cup football podcast, Robert Maaskant and Ali Boussaboun discuss the Dutch national team's sad exit from the World Cup. Boussaboun talks about the joy in Morocco. Oranje's cautious play is discussed, as is Ronald Koeman's future.

Maaskant expressed his surprise regarding Virgil van Dijk during the penalty shootout, which also highlighted Bart Verbruggen's unfortunate moment. The podcast also reflects on what could have been a special day for Cody Gakpo. What could have been a beautiful story didn't get the ending it deserved. Listen to the new episode on your favorite podcast platform or watch the show on YouTube.