Dutch profit from coaching revolution

The Netherlands created a stir in FIFA Women's World Cup qualifying with a shock 1-0 win away to France on Saturday. Marlies de Boer scored the only goal at Angers' Stade Jean-Bouin, as Les Bleues were caught by a classic sucker-punch despite near-constant domination.

Engelkes in charge
The victory comes as a massive boon for coach Vera Pauw and her staff. Pauw actually missed the game for personal reasons, and left assistant Ed Engelkes to guide the team to victory. The 41-year-old had been around the Dutch football association since 1990 in a development role, until Pauw approached him last spring. "Vera knocked on my door in April, and told me she wanted me to become her assistant. I said yes to her without equivocation. And I haven't had any regrets."

Right direction
The Dutch face a tough task qualifying from a group that also contains England, but Engelkes is convinced they are moving in the right direction. "I am now the assistant of the A-team, head coach of the U-19 and co-ordinator of all national girls' and women's teams. When Vera is not there, I just guide the new policy that she initiated," he told uefa.com.

uefa.com: What exactly has changed to bring the Netherlands, who never qualified before, to the top? Is it something Vera Pauw has learned from other countries in her time abroad?

Engelkes: In fact, I think that Vera has made very good use of the infrastructure that is already there in the Netherlands. We have a pretty unique situation, in which girls can play mixed with the boys until the highest youth side, and only are split up once they go the seniors at the age of 18. That means that girls can join a club on practically every street corner in the city and also in the small towns and villages, and that is not the case in a lot of other countries.

Do you also have another way of approaching matches?

We have started to work together for longer before matches. We stopped having national team activities two days per week. Now when we have a match on Saturday, we call the squad together on a Tuesday and stay a few days together. When the match is abroad, we travel on a Thursday so we have a couple of days to acclimatise. This way it is so much easier for them to arrange things with their schools and work, for instance they know when they have to take days off.

The new way of working already seems to be paying off. Winning in France seems a good step towards qualification.

Well, let me say that a result like this is something that really supports the policy that Vera and the staff, together with the KNVB, have initiated to help us grow into a real top nation in women's football. That is our goal, and then you must also be able to win these kinds of matches. Before the match I would have taken a point from France, but during the match the players and I noticed we might be able to take more from it. During half-time we decided to take more initiative, and that paid off with the goal.