Ronaldhinio

best gool »

Belgium National Football Team

Head coach: René Vandereycken
Captain: Bart Goor
Top scorer: Paul Van Himst
FIFA ranking: 71

Belgium played its first official game on May 1, 1904 in a 3-3 draw against France. Prior to this match, a team Belgium played several matches but the squad contained some English players so it was not added to the palmares. For example, Belgium beat Netherlands by 8-0 on April 28, 1901 with the help of some Englishmen. It was then decided that Belgium would play twice a year against Netherlands starting 1905, generally once in Antwerp and once in Rotterdam. At that time, the national squad was chosen by a committee of representatives of the 6 or 7 main clubs.

The team was nicknamed The Red Devils by journalist Pierre Walckiers after its victory to the Netherlands (Rotterdam, 1906), 2-3.

Over the next six decades, Belgium established itself as a strong second-tier team, rarely in the running for winning a major tournament but never easy to handle at home or abroad. A key strength of the team was its systematic use of the offside trap, a defensive tactic developed in the 1960s at Anderlecht under French coach Pierre Sinibaldi.

The 1980s and early 1990s are generally considered the strongest period of the national team. Under the lead of Guy Thys, who coached more than 100 official games, Belgium established a reputation of being a physical, well-organized team that was hard to play against. The team's rigorous organization was reinforced by several world-class players such as goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff, right-back Eric Gerets, midfielder Jan Ceulemans, and playmaker Enzo Scifo. However, the team was prone to uneven motivation, sometimes performing poorly against lower-ranked teams but nearly always inspired against top teams. Until as recently as 2002, world-class national teams did not like the prospect of playing the Red Devils--not even eventua champions Brazil, who won 2-0 with some difficulty in the knockout phase of the 2002 World Cup. Since then, however, the team has steadily slipped down the rankings, and has not been able to extend its past reputation.

After failing to qualify for the 2006 World Cup for the first time in 24 years, the contract of national coach Aimé Anthuenis was not renewed beyond 2005, and it was decided on December 22, 2005 that René Vandereycken would replace Anthuenis on January 1, 2006. On August 16 of that year, they started their new campaign against Kazakhstan and although the team had made the confidence of the home public grow through some promising performances from new talented young players against teams as Slovakia and Turkey, they played awfully and did not manage to get past the team from Kazakhstan. The situation got worse after also losing the home game against Poland on November 15 of that year. Qualification already seemed far away.

World Cup Record

Belgium's World Cup appearance record reflects the unusual depth of footballing talent for a country of this size, in the manner of the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, or Sweden. The country qualified for six successive World Cups - (1982-2002), a total only surpassed by Italy (12), Argentina (9) and Spain (8). Every other nation with an equal or longer string of appearances has had the streak "interrupted" by automatic qualification as the host or the defending champion. (The 2006 tournament was the first for which the defending champion does not automatically qualify.)

Playing inspired against other teams in the World Cup, they have reached the knockout phase five out of six times from 1982 to 2002, including a streak of four tournaments. One of their most famous victories was a 1-0 win over defending champions Argentina, led by Diego Maradona, in the first game of the 1982 World Cup held at Camp Nou.

Belgium's best-ever World Cup run was in 1986 when they placed fourth, losing to eventual champions Argentina in the semifinal (0-2) and to France in the third-place match (2-4) after extra time.

Belgium Team
No.	NAME	POS	H(M)	W(Kg)	Age
-	Geert De Vlieger	G	1.86	81	35
1	Stijn Stijnen	G	1.88	81	26
21	Logan Bailly	G	1.89	80	21
21	Brian Vandenbussche	G	1.96	84	25
2	Nicolas Lombaerts	D	1.88	73	22
4	Jelle Van Damme	D	1.93	74	23
5	Daniel Van Buyten	D	1.97	87	29
7	Philippe Clement	D	1.91	86	33
10	Birger Maertens	D	1.82	85	26
13	Carl Hoefkens	D	1.85	82	28
15	Mark De Man	D	1.80	78	24
16	Peter Van Der Heyden	D	1.83	81	30
17	Marouane Fellaini	D	-	-	19
20	Anthony Vanden Borre	D	1.85	80	19
24	Thomas Vermaelen	D	1.83	75	21
3	Timmy Simons	M	1.86	77	30
6	Gaby Mudingayi	M	1.80	80	25
8	Faris Haroun	M	1.88	73	21
11	Gaetan Englebert	M	1.78	70	31
22	Karel Geraerts	M	1.80	78	25
25	Steven Defour	M	1.70	65	19
9	Emile Mpenza	S	1.77	75	28
14	Francois Sterchele	S	1.85	70	25
18	Moussa Dembele	S	1.75	70	19
19	Kevin Vandenbergh	S	1.79	70	24
23	Tom De Mul	S	1.82	77	23

Group A
	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA	GD	P
Poland	9	6	1	2	15	7	8	19
Serbia	7	4	2	1	10	4	6	14
Portugal	7	4	2	1	15	5	10	14
Finland	8	4	2	2	9	5	4	14
Belgium	8	2	1	5	5	10	-5	7
Armenia	7	2	1	4	3	7	-4	7
Kazakhstan	8	1	3	4	5	11	-6	6
Azerbaijan	8	1	2	5	4	17	-13	5