Hiddink to continue as head coach of Netherlands

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Guus Hiddink will continue as head coach of the Dutch national football team, the Dutch football association KNVB announced on Tuesday after an evaluation of the poor start of his second term.

Hiddink, who previously coached the Dutch team between 1995 and 1998, began his second term with consecutive defeats against Italy (2-0, friendly) and Czech Republic (2-1, EC qualifier) in September, followed by a 3-1 win over Kazakhstan (EC qualifier) and a 2-0 loss against Iceland (EC qualifier) in October. The bad results caused a wave of criticism in Dutch media and some criticasters doubted if Hiddink could continue.

The KNVB announced to have a "sharp" evaluation, which was scheduled on Tuesday in Zeist. After the meeting both parties agreed, according to the KNVB, that the approach of the Dutch team has to be "more convincing". In addition the technical staff agreed to an action plan.

"After the disappointing results of the first games we have made clear agreements in order to achieve our goal, namely to qualify for Euro 2016 in France," Van Oostveen stated. "The KNVB is confident that this will happen."

"The important thing is that we are now united in focusing on the qualifiers that still lie ahead," Hiddink said. "Things will change, but you will notice what thing in the forthcoming period."

The 67-year-old Hiddink started his second term after the World Cup in Brazil. Under his predecessor Louis van Gaal the Dutch team reached the semi-finals of the tournament and finished on third place. Hiddink signed until 2016 and will continue as technical director afterwards. His current assistant Danny Blind will, according to the plan, take over as head coach from 2016 until 2018.

The Netherlands will play their next Euro 2016 qualifier at home against Latvia on November 16. On November 12 'Oranje' hosts Mexico in a friendly in Amsterdam. Endite

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