The Belgium vs Netherlands Cups were a series of international footballfriendly cup matches contested by the national teams of Belgium and the Netherlands. From their first unofficial friendly derbies in the early 1900s, until the mid-1920s, Belgium and the Netherlands competed for floating trophies. During the encounters in Belgium the teams played for the Coupe Vanden Abeele until 1925, while in the Netherlands they faced off for the Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad Beker until 1923.[1] In total, there has been 39 Belgian-Dutch friendly cup duels, of which 35 were official internationals.[2]
The cup awarded in Belgium was named in honor of the donator of the trophy, Frédéric Vanden Abeele Sr., the father of the secretary of Beerschot Athletic Club (where the first tournament was held), in reaction to Brussels' successful staging of the Coupe Van der Straeten Ponthoz one year earlier.[3] As the Dutch disliked the design of the Belgian trophy, they quickly nicknamed it Het Koperen Dingetje, meaning "The Copper Thingy".[4]
These Belgian-Dutch friendly cups are among the oldest international football cups along with the 1904 Évence Coppée Trophy.
After the huge success of the first edition of the Coupe Van der Straeten Ponthoz in 1900, the plans for another international club tournament began, and in February 1901, the "Comité voor den beker-Vanden Abeele" invited a Dutch eleven to travel to Antwerp to contest the Coupe Vanden Abeele (offered by Frédéric Vanden Abeele) against an All-Belgium side during the Easter holiday. However, the Easter weekend was already planned for the second edition of the Coupe Van der Straeten Ponthoz in Brussels, so the match had to be delayed by three weeks, and since many Dutch clubs had league commitments on the new date, the Dutch team fell apart and the match was thus almost canceled.[4] However, the Antwerp football director Frédéric Vanden Abeele personally hired Cees van Hasselt, a former Sparta player and a tailor in Rotterdam who had traveled to Antwerp for this match, to quickly assemble a Dutch team to play the game.[5] The ones who took the initiative to play this match against Belgium were Van Hasselt and his friend Jirris,[6] the captain of Rotterdam club side Celeritas, a club from a third-level competition, and this squad was then strengthened by three players from another Rotterdam club, Olympia, which was also a third-level side.[4] Naturally, the hosts, whose team was announced as an All-Belgium XI and included four Englishmen residing in Belgium, had little trouble claiming the Coupe Vanden Abeele after an 8–0 victory, with the star of the match being the English Herbert Potts, who netted 7 of the Belgian goals.[4] Although the dirigents of this cup only intended to create another international club tournament, they instead had just witnessed what is now considered the first-ever (unofficial) match between Belgium and the Netherlands, held on 28 April 1901 at the ground of Beerschot A.C. in front of just 300 people. This match took place a year earlier than the first official international match played in continental Europe between Austria and Hungary on 12 October 1902.[7]
The next three editions saw the Dutch represented by sides selected and organized by Cees van Hasselt. As a result of the games not being sanctioned by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB), only players from the second division were available to Van Hasselt, so Belgium also won those three editions, although with more leveled scores (1–0, 2–1 and 6–4).[8] Neither team can be considered a full national team since the Netherlands was only represented by players from South Netherlands and also because the match was not yet played under the auspices of the KNVB, while the Belgium squad had the presence of English players in the "Belgian" squad such as center-forward Herbert Potts, who scored 12 of "Belgium's" 17 goals.[4] Likewise, in those games the Netherlands was announced under the name of "Van Hasselt XI", while the hosts were announced as an All-Belgian League XI.
In 1905 the Dutch football federation decided to take direct responsibility for the selection of the Dutch side, and so, on 30 April 1905, the Netherlands national team played their first official international game, beating Belgium 4–1 in Antwerp, courtesy of a four-goal haul from Eddy de Neve, thus winning the Coupe Vanden Abeele for the first time.[9]Belgium was the first ever opponent of the Netherlands, but the opposite can't be said as Belgium's official debut came on 1 May 1904 against France at Évence Coppée Trophy.[10]
Coupe Vanden Abeele
Unofficial Results (1901–1904)
The earliest four games played by a national selection of players active in Belgium, with the Netherlands as opponent between 1901 and 1904, were not yet considered as official because of the presence of English players in the "Belgian" squad.[11][12]
Belgium had originally announced to field an exclusively Belgian squad, but eventually replaced the injured Paul Chibert with Herbert Potts, who contributed decisively to Belgium's win, scoring four goals.
Note: After this match, it was decided that draws would not be followed by extra time anymore; so in case of a draw after 90 minutes, the holders retained the cup.[4]
Note: Belgium and Netherlands faced each other on 31 August 1920 and on 15 May 1921, but the trophy was not on offer in either match because the first was a Olympic semifinal and the second was held in celebration of the silver jubilee of the Belgian FA); thus, they are not part of the series.[4]
Note: The 1–1 draw meant that the holders Belgium retained the cup, but at the post-match banquet, Joseph d'Oultremont, the president of the Belgian FA, handed the trophy to Dutch captain Harry Dénis in recognition of the Dutch performance in the match.[4]
Since the first official tournament in 1905, a total of 6 hat-tricks have been scored in the 35 official cups. The first hat-trick was scored by Eddy de Neve of Netherlands, scoring 4 goals in a 4-1 win at the Coupe Vanden Abeele on 30 April 1905; and the last was by Mannes Francken, netting three goals also for the Netherlands in a 4-3 win at the Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad Beker on 28 April 1912. The record for the most goals scored in a single match is 4, which has been achieved on just one occasion: by the Dutch Eddy de Neve at the 1904 Coupe Vanden Abeele, with three of his goals coming in extra-time. However, if we also include the unofficial matches, then the record is held by the Englishmen Herbert Potts of Belgium, who netted a whopping seven goals in an 8-0 win at the 1901 Coupe Vanden Abeele. Mannes Francken is the only player to have scored three hat-tricks in these friendly duels, two at RNBs (1910 and 1912) and one at the CVA (1911), which is a remarkable achievement since no one else has even scored two, sept for Herbert Potts if the unofficial games are considered. The Netherlands holds the record for most hat-tricks scored with 5, while Belgium only has 1, which was scored by Robert De Veen. On the other hand, the cups are perfectly balanced on hat-tricks, with each having three.
^Hubert, Christian (1980). Les diables rouges (in French). Brussels: Arts & voyages. pp. 12–13. ISBN978-28-016-0046-7.
^Fraiponts, Jean; Willocx, Dirk (2003). Kroniek van het Belgische voetbal / Pioniers en Rode Duivels - 1863-1906 (in Dutch). Vol. 1. Antwerp: Assoc. BE bvba. ISBN978-90-77314-01-2.. Extract consulted online on 30 August 2010 on Beerschot Athletic ClubArchived 2013-11-03 at the Wayback Machine
