Van Domselaar and Pelova: Dutch duo go for glory

2017 winners Netherlands are making their fifth appearance at a Euros this summer, coming up against Wales, France and Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses.

Ahead of the competition, we spoke to Joyce Reus, who played with Daphne van Domselaar at LSVV in her youth career, and Anouk Bruil, one of Victoria Pelova’s coaches at Ajax, to learn more about their backgrounds in Dutch football.

We also caught up with Dutch football broadcaster Pien Meulensteen, who will be commentating for ITV at the Euros, to get the lowdown on the Netherlands national team.

Starting with Victoria, Anouk recalled: “She was a very special player in the Dutch competition because of her technical skills and her creativity on the ball. That was amazing every match. She brought something unique to our team and her way of playing can create opportunities for goals. That's what I remember about her time at Ajax.

“It was my first season at Ajax. I was new in the club and normally as a technical staff, you worked a lot with your players during the training sessions or off the field, of course. I discussed, of course, the way of playing with her, but not every day or every week. Her technical skills are amazing and her dribbling in the space, her creativity towards the goal of the opponent is great and she can create opportunities.”

Speaking of creating opportunities, the growth of Ajax Women and women’s football in the Netherlands has provided the club with the chance to develop their facilities at the training ground, Anouk explained.

“We are busy with a new building now and that's a building for the men’s and the women's teams to come together in. In the past years we had our own building with good facilities, but now it's growing more and more. I think for Arsenal the facilities are so great. At Ajax it's okay for the Netherlands and for Europe but it's growing now.

“Arsenal is a big club in women's football. When Victoria transferred I knew for sure that she would be successful there and I saw the Champions League final of course and it was amazing to see how she achieved that cup. It's really cool to see how she developed herself and can grow with the team and win that cup. It's so nice.

“Daphne and Renee Slegers as well, it’s so nice to see the Dutch people there at the club at Arsenal.”

Asked about Victoria’s importance to the national team, Anouk added: “It's important to have players with a lot of creativity in your team. They can bring opportunities for the team and that's, I think, crucial in the results. Because when she has the ball and she can dribble and she can do something with her skills, she can bring a lot to the national team.

“The group stage is of a high level, of course. I hope that the Netherlands will finish at the top, so that the rest of the tournament will be easier, you hope. In the end, you always hope for a European Championship because that promotes women's football in the Netherlands, of course.

“I’ll be watching from home because it's important that I am in the Netherlands to train the Ajax team and can prepare them for the season ahead.”

“First she played volleyball, and then she turned over to football outfield!”

Onto our interview with Daphne’s former LSVV teammate, Joyce has known our goalkeeper from a young age.

“We were in primary school together! So, I already knew her when she came into the team. That made it a lot of fun to play together. We were very young, but I remember that she first played outfield. Actually, first she played volleyball, and then she turned over to football outfield!”

“Later she moved on to goalkeeper. She was always tall, and she was also good on the ball, so I really liked her playing goalkeeper. You can use her as the 12th person.

“The area around LSVV, it's a village. So, people know each other. It's not that big. It's safe. I really enjoyed growing up here. The people here are really quiet, down to earth.

“I think she played with us for two years and then she played with the boys. So, I think that was when we were like, ‘okay, she's really good’. She played with the boys then and she still stood strong. It was not normal, not something you see very often.”

After leaving LSVV, Daphne spent the rest of her youth career at Telstar before moving to FC Twente and, in 2023, to Aston Villa in the Women’s Super League.

Her debut season for us couldn’t have gone much better, winning the UEFA Women’s Champions League and earning her place in the competition’s Team of the Season.

“I saw that,” Joyce said. “I follow her on Instagram and the social media of Arsenal, and that's how I saw that she had that success.

“I think she is very important to the Dutch team. I think she proved that in the last tournaments. She made some outstanding saves that really kept the team in the game.

So, what I expect is that she will play all the games. I think if the whole team is fit, they would have a chance to win some games, but in the group they're in, it’s a challenging group. So, it will not be easy, but I think there's a chance.”

“When Daphne came in for the Euro 2022 it wasn't expected, but she has such a phenomenal performance in a phenomenal tournament,” Pien added. “Both Daphne and Victoria really developed to be the outstanding players that they are now at Arsenal, and I think it's a great testament to going to the WSL, taking that leap of faith really and thinking, ‘right, I'm going to move away from my home country’. I'm going to go and play in the WSL, one of the best leagues in the world to really develop your football.

“That’s shown for both of them that now they are Champions League winners and one of the first names on the list now for the national team.

“Daphne came on at Euro 2022 and I think that's quite a big thing mentally to have to deal with, when you've come on as a surprise because you've had to deal with an injury to another goalkeeper. But she took that in her stride, and I think she's done the same thing sort of with Arsenal this season. Keeping a clean sheet in the Champions League final, what a performance and what a thing to put on her CV as well, right?”

With Renee at the helm and Daphne and Victoria among the best Dutch players in the WSL, there’s a huge sense of pride in the Netherlands, Pien adds.

“Whenever there's Dutch players or Dutch managers that come over to England and they are working closely with a lot of the players that are English players, it's always nice to see them having the success,” she said. “There's a long list of really talented Dutch players that have come to the WSL and it's really nice to see that they are sort of developing that squad. It'll be interesting to see how the Netherlands do in the Euros.

“But it's the same thing with Sarina going over to England, becoming the England manager. Even though England and the Netherlands are going to be playing each other, it's still one of those things where I'm sure a lot of the Dutch fans will still feel a lot of pride also for Sarina, but definitely for the girls that are playing, Daphne and Victoria.”

Pien is no stranger to covering our women’s team, having worked at plenty of our games for Sky in recent seasons.

“I particularly enjoy doing the north London derby,” she said. “I always think they get a good turnout, so that's always fun to see. And do you know what? I think especially doing games at the Emirates and seeing how much the Arsenal fans fill out the stadium is brilliant. You guys have got fantastic fans and I'm sure they will all be getting behind all of the players that are playing in the Euros in the next couple of weeks.

“I'm sure that the players are really happy as well that they're sort of leading the way with that in terms of the amount of fans that they do get going to stadiums and games.

“As for the Euros, I'm flying out on Wednesday. I'm going to do the group stage games. No England games, but I've got Netherlands against France, so that will be a very interesting game. I think I'm visiting about five or six different places in Switzerland in the space of about two weeks, so I'm very much looking forward to it.”