Naomi van As says that she is proud of her Dutch team’s performances to finish in the silver medal despite coming up just short of gold for a third successive Olympic Games.
The Netherlands controlled much of the play during normal time but were not as efficient in front of goal compared to Great Britain who eventually prevailed in a shoot-out after normal time ended 3-3.
Speaking about the game, van As said: “Our field play was very good today but you have to make goals to win a game eventually.
“They had four or five chances but they scored three goals so they did that very well. We had a lot of chances and we didn’t score.
“That is difficult but on the other side it also makes me very proud. If I look back at the way we played today on the pitch, we were very good.
“We are going to celebrate the medal because the thing is, you go for gold and then you win the silver and a lot of people forget to congratulate you. It’s a silver medal at the Olympic Games!”
Eva de Goede was of a similar frame of mind when she reflected on her team’s performance
“I’m just nothing but extremely proud of us. We played very well during the game. We played way better than them. We should have scored a few more goals. Shoot-outs, yeah, it’s 50-50. They won; we lost so, yeah, it’s a tough one to lose, but once again, I’m super-proud of the team.
“I had the feeling today that we were going to score more goals than just the three and that they weren’t going to score three. But yeah, it happened.
“I think we kept on believing that we could score more. In the end, we didn’t. Shame, we played so well; still proud. I can only be proud.”
Dutch coach Alyson Annan-Thate, meanwhile, felt her side did “everything they needed to do” during normal time but could not find the goals.
“We dominated the whole game and we played as we should have and as we wanted to. Tactically, we were strong; technically we were strong. Physically and mentally, we were the better team and that makes this much more disappointing.
“We did everything that we needed to do and when you see your players play the way you’ve asked them to play, play the way they’ve been working to play.
“The passion that they played with. They were a unit; they were really a really strong team today and when you see that, all you can do is be proud. And I’m really proud of their performance today.”