What Went Wrong For Belgium's Golden Generation?

[@ultrainstinctshaggy669]

As usual, no football documentary would be complete without geopolitics. Keep it up Alfie

[@nmarcus7233]

True 😂

[@jamanger]

it’s honestly very noble of Alfie to have created a channel full of viewers who understand the intrinsic connection between politics and sport. he’s doing the lords work

[@TheLisandro1987]

​@jamanger , he is the only one, and I truly appreciate it.

[@T.E.S.S.]

I love how Alfie embraces including politics in everything he does where it's relevant, but pretending "no football documentary would be complete without geopolitics" is dumb. also, there is no "geopolitics" in this video. just Belgian politics. stop trying to sound cleverer than you are.

[@قرفص]

@@jamangercringe

[@neomeersman8143]

As a Belgian, I regret that we didn't win anything, but i'm still proud of what Belgium showed at Brazil 2014, France 2016 and especially Russia 2018. The victory aggainst Japan and Brazil are moments i won't forget. And knowing that they had come frome a period where they didn't qualify for a tournament between 2002 and 2012; to a golden generation with stars like De Bruyne, Courtois, Hazard and Kompany, who reaced 3rd place. Other people may say we're a failure, but this video shows that there's a lot more story behind it. I'm proud of what Belgium showed in the last 10 years.

[@JPMMAPicks]

Yeah it's honestly insane that Modric and Croatia get insane praise and ballon dor shouts for getting second at the 2018 world cup and De Bruyne and Belgium get painted as failures for getting one place lower. If you actually look at the teams Belgium did have more elite level players but croatia still had the likes of Modric, Rebic, Rakitic, Mandzukic up front, Brozovic, Kovacic, and Perisic. Yeah what croatia did is still special I just find it funny how people act like they did so well for getting one place higher than Belgium who are unanimously viewed as massive failures and bottle jobs. But when you look at the teams they are closer in terms of quality than people realize.

[@Johnnythefirst]

@@JPMMAPicks Yeah, it was a matter of the draw. If we ended up second in the group, we might have been in the finals and Croatia might have lost to France a game earlier. Those Japan and Brazil games are still some of the best football memories I got. It felt like the whole country was together for a moment.

[@shonen84]

Volledig akkoord! 3rd is quite an achievement and we're still at the tail end of this generation with KDB and RL.

[@FragLord]

@@Johnnythefirst If If If. Every time Belgium was in the easy path they lost like a biatch. Remember Wales... Belgium couldn't beat any top 4 team once. The best teams they beat was a very narrow win against the weakest Brazil in Brazilian history that could've gone either way. 2 England games that didn't matter. And that's about it. Apart from that they got clapped by France, Italy, The Netherlands, Argentina, etc.

[@ninjalectualx]

Belgium could've had the easier path too by losing to England in the last group game, but they took the hard road

[@adamdickinson2894]

They were knocked out with narrow 1-goal losses to the eventual champions for the two tournaments at the squad's peak. I think people forget football is a game of such fine margins sometimes and just two moments can change a team from successes to failures in the eyes of the public

[@rethhuloay7829]

Additionally, I don't think they ever meshed as a team, and cliche as that is, a football team wins games, a squad of individuals don't.

[@titans360ify]

Unless you’re Ronaldo in that case he single handedly won Portugal minimum 20

[@power279]

​@@titans360ifyhaha..single handed ly? 0 mvp in 17 tournament..hahah😂

[@maciejbala477]

I mean, sure. But all national teams are kind of like that.

[@daarom3472]

nothing went wrong. They simply weren't the only good team during the period and lost games at tournaments that they could've won, as always happens.

[@titans360ify]

@@power279 I see how you’re trying to move the goal post there but I think mvp or not is irrelevant to what I stated

[@SarahCharles92]

I love your videos, Alfie. One of the only channels in which you can click on a video with a title like "Why didn't [National Football Team] win a trophy between 2014 and 2024?" and to not only actually answer that question clearly and honestly, but also provide a summary of 19th and 20th-century politics of that nation as a bonus treat.

[@martystern5643]

Third place isn’t a terrible result…tournament football has knife’s edge margins

[@Batarrow22]

They were so close to reaching the final as well. Lloris was absolutely at his best that game.

[@user-vr8fs8gg6h]

Exactly this is stupid, they lost in a 50/50 game against france by a corner… 2018 is not a failure they were amazing, they did however choke in 2016 against wales

[@lexkanyima2195]

​@user-vr8fs8gg6h but it was not a 50/50 game

[@user-vr8fs8gg6h]

@@lexkanyima2195 this game was the clear defenition of a 50/50 game, decided by a corner, if these two played each other ten times i would say belgium win 5 times, but france won the game so fair play, both incredibly strong teams but I personally prefer the 2018 belgian squad, its a perfect squad in my opinion

[@lukailijev5862]

​@@user-vr8fs8gg6h Yeah, I remember Mbappe's and France's time wasting tactics.

[@F1Krazy]

7:00 I think we can all agree that the highlight of Anthony Vanden Borre's career was getting sent off against Blackburn and prompting Chris Kamara's infamous "I dunno, Jeff" gaffe

[@abasudoh7459]

That's the only reason I know him🤣🤣

[@djohnne]

​@@abasudoh7459 also the broken ankle Alfie mentioned was sustained because he was showboating. He dribbled a Korean and then faced him back up just to stand on the ball with both feet. He got a low kick for his efforts, oh and the press went to town on him.

[@owbeer]

at anderlecht he was supposed to be a bigger talent than kompany on the defensive mid position, but he was always played as a wingback. with a good mentality he would have gotten a way bigger career.

[@timmcelroy2188]

Say what you will but 3rd place in a World Cup is still a tremendous achievement. The semi-final against France was the real final. One of the greatest games I’ve watched, didn’t want it to end.

[@Zargothrax_wizard-king]

Nothing went wrong, we had our best group of players ever, and we ended up with our best world cup result ever

[@maud3444]

Nothing went wrong. There can only be one winner of every tournament and there are a lot of good teams out there. Holland 1998, Portugal 2004, USSR 1986, Hungary 1954, Brasil 1982, etc.. these were all good teams that failed to win a big tournament but were fun to watch. I don't think of these teams as failures, but remember watching them with a smile on my face. (well, obviously '54 was well before my time but you get what I mean ;) )

[@agv-vt8co]

Finally a sensible opinion, agreed! No one has a contract with success. And not winning does not automatically mean being a failure. After all, it's just sport, entertainment if you will.

[@lucaslonchampt613]

10:30 I will note, Dimitri Payet got injured during the Europa League final, which happened just days before Deschamps announced his squad

[@dvdv8197]

27:58 "They overcame an incredibly resilient Japan team, who twice took the lead against them." *Minor* correction there: Japan went up two goals (0-2) early in the second half, Belgium came back and scored the winning goal (3-2) in added time/the dying seconds of the second half.

[@dvdv8197]

What I'm saying is they took the lead once (not twice), and then added another goal, before Belgium's heroics. 😊

[@ThaGamingMisfit]

Only non-Belgian fans would get this one wrong, but I forgive him, he nailed everything else !

[@thewhitejackharlow]

i remember watching that, Japan sent way too many men forward for their last corner, they were basically begging to get countered on

[@JerryTongMY]

And Belgium lost to France in the semis.

[@eddixon2015]

International Football is just really hard. However, I’d argue the one that got away was Euro 2016, when they lost to Wales in the Quarterfinals. They would have been favorites to smash Portugal in the semis and have made that final.

[@holmbjerg]

2016 was definitely up for grabs. The only time Belgium lost to someone they were clearly favored to win against. Portugal won the whole thing without winning a game in 90 minutes. That is definitely the only tournament that "got away" from them and where they have good reason to regret the outcome.

[@Adam-uu9tw]

If France didn't "smash" Portugal at Stade de France in 2016, Belgium weren't going to do it either

[@eddixon2015]

@@Adam-uu9tw You make a good point, but I said they would have been favorites, and France certainly were the heavy faborites. And they’d have won that game 19 times out of 20. Gignac hitting the post and Griezmann airmailing that header in the second half are two chances that they would have each buried most of the time. I’d be willing to put a significant amount of money on the fact that if you asked that French team, they’d still be in disbelief about having lost that final.

[@Arcticmonkeysfanboy_101]

I love the whole whats more and indeed pics 😭

[@ibrahimchowdhury9779]

the running Watmore & Adu gag is hilarious 😂

[@Arcticmonkeysfanboy_101]

@@ibrahimchowdhury9779 once in a while he would put a picture describing something and itd be hilarious (i forgot examples but its genuinely a treat to watch)

[@dylanvienet7923]

Hoever always makes me laugh too 😂

[@apegraham9819]

@@Arcticmonkeysfanboy_101how much (then you will see March, formerly of Brighton on the screen) 😂😂

[@dargoid]

7:26 love it, big fan of the graph. Wilfred Ndidi should be a staple of your videos just like Freddy Adu.

[@seandelap8587]

The same could be said about England i mean how many golden generations have they supposedly had since winning the WC in 1966 yet have mostly fallen spectacular flat since then

[@purplenurple75]

he’s done quite a few videos on englands golden generations and their failures not quite sure what point ur trying to make

[@purplenurple75]

would u look at that he did mention englands failed golden generations in the video! :)

[@bababababababa6124]

@@purplenurple75just ignore this comment, it’s a salty Belgian that can’t get over their team being absolute dog water. Yet they still somehow always manage to pay FIFA enough to stay within the top 10, when that washed country shouldn’t even be in the top 30

[@michaelosgood9876]

​@purplenurple75 I think he's trying to say England rate their football teams higher than they aught to and they've never actually been That great. Except '66. Anyone in a Zimmer frame shalt remind him of that...

[@sh2157]

Alfie has done a video about England's Golden Generations failure.... it's Belgium's turn now 😅

[@reevo59]

Having spoken to one of my good friends who is Belgian about this before, he said there was less of a feeling that this team should have won something, but more a feeling of sadness that if this team wasn’t capable of winning, then he doubts there will be a Belgian team capable of doing so for a long time. Belgium aren’t footballing giants with a huge domestic league that will continually produce world class players, and as such there is a feeling that the best years for a long time have been and gone

[@julesbietlot5621]

Im Belgian and last time a team was as close to win something was 1986 semi finals lost against Maradona’s Argentina. My father use to say that he never felt that again until 2018 for football. So indeed the people know it might take decades until something can bring a country together again and it might sadden people.

[@ninjalectualx]

Is anything short of a world cup a failure to you? You had better get used to failing for the rest of your life then

[@reevo59]

@@ninjalectualx bro did you read my comment? I wasn’t voicing my own opinion and didn’t say anywhere in the comment that the Belgian team had ‘failed’

[@AXELVISSERS]

​@@ninjalectualx you know what they say. If you ain't first you're last.

[@JerryTongMY]

Hopefully Belgium can reclaim their lost glory once more, just like what France did.

[@Pheadrixx]

Finally an actual good honest review of that belgium squad. Anyone saying that belgium was a failure is just not very intelligent we had an insanely good squad for how tiny and irrelevant our country is otherwise but how that would equate to HAVING to win a trophy against other huge footballing nations with likewise godsquads in a single elimination tournament that has a huge luck factor is just insanity.

[@knotwilg3596]

Lack of fullbacks, injuries or the split national identity wasn't the issue. The biggest reason for me is the absence of a winner's tradition. Belgium has always been an underdog, relying on defense and counterattack to stage upsets. Our best results were a final in 1980's EC after a series of draws and 1986's semi-finals, which all things considered was really one spectacular game against Russia, . Four years later we played a much better tournament but were eliminated early and against play, by England. And in 1994 we were pushed back into the dark ages by Saieed Owairam. Public reaction was "See, we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves. We're only Belgium." When the "golden generation" came about, we were expected to dominate. Individually the players knew how to do that from the top teams they were in but as a team, Belgium had to develop that playing style and mentality from scratch. It didn't help that Wilmots, a good motivator, was a poor tactician, raised in the era of counterattacking. And Martinez didn't really know how to play dominant football either. His management consisted mostly of keeping everybody as happy as possible. So when it came to deciding who'd be the playmaker, Hazard and De Bruyne were left to figuring that out by themselves. Another factor lies with our main striker, Romelu Lukaku. As much as I admire his dedication to the sport and acknowledge him as the most prolific striker Belgium has ever had, we can't ignore the fact that he needs space to perform at his best. In small spaces he's not at ease. I would even say that Lukaku's negative energy, thriving off "haters", was detrimental to the overall positive spirit you need to win a title. Finally, it's hard to create a winning team when two of the main players have been entangled in a history of deceit. Courtois[ infamously ran off with De Bruyne's girlfriend. De Bruyne has never forgiven his team mate for that, even if he dealt with it in a professional manner. Lately Courtois put himself outside the team by making a fuzz about the captain's ribbon. Coincidentally or not, we're seeing a better team spirit already, be it that the quality is much lower. But I come back to the main argument: our national football identity was not up to the sum of the individual talent. It's symbolic that our most memorable goal, the 3-2 against Japan, came from a counterattack in the final minutes, after having reverted a 1-2 situation, avoiding humiliation.

[@maciejbala477]

Yeah, I think it was really unfair to suddenly expect Belgium to dominate. They did at one tournament, which was remarkable enough (and indeed a game of fine margins), but I don't get why people genuinely would perceive it as "failure". Still reached 3rd, which in my mind is still "winning something", especially for a team who never finished this high, and just the manner in which Belgium played at this tournament and even just the victory against Brazil alone imo, deserves to be regarded as success.

[@midasdesaedeleir4291]

As a Belgian i agree with this analysis. But like to add that we keep talking about 'underperforming', which obviously has been the case lately, but is also a bit harsh. At the WC in Russia we lost only a single game to a sneaky french team (who won the whole thing and in our game really just scored and parked the bus because they were scared of our counters.) We beat a lot of good teams at that WC, so i would not really see it as underperforming but having an unbelievable chance of doing something historic and just falling short. So in spite of not having the best managers and almost no tactical plan with the ball we still did quite good. I'll never forget that goal vs japan or the 0-2 that KDB smashed in against Brazil. watching it with my friends in front of a big screen with thousands of people. Everybody went mad. Magical

[@albertmiller2electricbooga897]

This is very real, I really feel like this applies to teams across all sports too

[@mattpotter8725]

I think your point about Lukaku is the biggest point here and as happens with many national teams I think the biggest problem was that whilst Belgium were able to win a lot of games playing their possession based game as you point out without the space to roam into against the top teams Lukaku often found it tough to get the service he needed, and I think this has to be put squarely at the feet of the coach, which the golden generation were at its peak under Martinez. You only have to look at Portugal under him now and he's doing the same thing. Had Belgium played a much more expensive game I think they'd have done much better and even had a chance at beating other top teams. In this video I think De Bruyne's comments were just a realistic view that he didn't think Martinez had a clue and had they had a more competent manager who could have given them confidence he might have actually been inspired to think they had a chance at victory, despite all the issues and lack of depth the squad did have in certain areas.

[@mattpotter8725]

​@@midasdesaedeleir4291As an outsider looking in, just as had been the case often with us, England that is, even though I don't disagree with much said in this video, I think the problem has been the coach, mainly Martinez, because before 2018 although the players that were becoming stars were there they weren't at their peak. I think the playing style that Martinez established, just as England had for years and probably still has to this day, were able to eek out mainly narrow victories, with the odd impressive goal fest thrown in, could only get you thus far, which was better than Belgium had been doing at first, but after a while it leads to questions of having stalled. I don't think the system that was put onto the team really played to the strengths of the superstars in the team and was basically saying we need to keep it tight and stifle the opposition and the creative and goalscoring talent we have will do the rest. Unfortunately against the top teams like France, just as happened with England many times (a couple against Ronaldo's Portugal) you're basically rolling the dice at best. Belgium really needed to play a much more expensive style of football and whilst this may lead to unexpected defeats on occasion, and make the win-lose statistics look not quite as good it sets up being able to win games in the knockout stages of the big tournaments. Whilst there were obviously issues with the squad and things like injuries I think even with the players they had Belgium should have done better than they did outside of the 2018 World Cup and I just can't believe countries keep employing Martinez, who I just don't think is a good enough tactician or motivator as a coach, you only have to see how Portugal are playing now too see this so I don't think it was just an issue of squad depth, injuries, and splits between the players, it was the playing style and that is down to the coach mostly.

[@choco-une]

the actual 2018 World Cup FINAL was France v Belgium

[@ezraezra2928]

I think you made the worst decision. France and Belgium weren't supposed to be in the semifinal. At that time, bookmakers predicted Germany and Brazil to be the ones that went all the way to the Final (I think). You know that Germany ended up disastrously with the group stage exit, while Spain and Argentina, the other two big teams, flopped a lot.

[@michaelfoster4191]

This is a really nuanced and worthwhile take. Also glad to see a fleeting reference to Benin's golden generation.

[@gertjangemis5060]

Belgium wasted too much time (2 big tournaments) on a manager like Wilmots. Literally had no idea about tactics.

[@bvanerum8289]

My opinion too. Imagine having a good manager with that young squad. Now they wasted 4 years with him.. its a shame.

[@lexkanyima2195]

Leekens could have done something on a pragmatic way. So

[@Alibaba-r2y]

that guy failed as a coach everywhere he went...

[@roodborstkalf9664]

Also the next manager chose for Hazard and was unable to use Kevin de Bruyne effectively.

[@lexkanyima2195]

@@roodborstkalf9664 because for alot of reason.

[@koopalibrary]

2018 was the year. unfortunately 1 header decided that semi

[@grry02]

As a watcher of videos for a long, long time, I am surprised by the editing you’ve done here Alfie, adding in clips and even funny moments like Micah’s comment about bursting onto the scene, it made me chuckle and listen with even more focus. Absolutely love that, great job lad!!

[@ivonikolov8278]

The Netherlands of Davids, Kluivert, Seedorf, The De Boer brothers, van der Sarr, Nistelrooy and Cocu was also very underwhelming and was definitely stronger than this Belgium Golden Generation

[@ezraezra2928]

I still remember about that team when they were in the semifinals of both 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000. It's very shame that they got very unlucky when it comes to the penalty shootoout.

[@Kuromori-v9z]

It says a lot that France's World Cup winning squad preferred to play against Brazil than this Netherlands team, as revealed by Thierry Henry himself years later.

[@josehurtado5584]

Netherlands 1998 is one of my favorite squads ever, Bergkamp, De Boer, van der Sar, Davids and Kluivert were simply amazing in that WC, what makes me really angry is that they wasted a unique opportunity of winning the Euros on home soil just 2 years later 😠

[@rulifaller8474]

They lost on penalties in the semi finals twice, should have had a penalty in the last minute in 1998 and missed two penalties in regular time in 2000. I think it is fair to say they got a lot closer to reading finals.

[@ezraezra2928]

@@josehurtado5584 Worst off all, the 2002 World Cup qualification failure was such a disappointment for the Netherlands after two penalty shootout shortcomings, at least until when they failed to play in both Euro 2016 and 2018 World Cup after finishing 3rd in 2014 World Cup.

[@holmbjerg]

They lost to Wales in 2016 and squandered their best opportunity because they didn't have a good enough manager at the time.

[@jamesduffy7549]

@@holmbjerg it's mad how martinez gets loads of stick for losing to France when this happened

[@holmbjerg]

​@@jamesduffy7549Yes if they had gotten past Wales, they would have faced eventual winners Portugal, that didn't win a game in 90 minutes the entire tournament and faced a French team in the final that didn't have the level they reached in 2018 yet. No Mbappé at that point, only Griezmann.

[@flipsicle1568]

@@holmbjerg mbappe was literally the second highest goalscorer at that world cup what are you on. in fact you could even make the argument that since then, he hasn't played as well for france as he did in that world cup

[@holmbjerg]

​@@flipsicle1568I was talking about Euro 2016, where Mbappé hadn't burst onto the scene yet and where France had to nearly solely rely on Griezmann.

[@jamesduffy7549]

@@flipsicle1568 Wales was euro 2016

[@exsandgrounder]

For me, this is one of your best, amongst a very strong strong catalogue of videos. Nice one.

[@hannesp3493]

Can you do a video on the Slovakia 3-0 Denmark match in 2018? Thought it was cool that semi-pro footballers got a chance at representing their nation

[@simontravers2715]

Kevin De Bruyne’s comment had a sass on par with Kimi Raikkonen

[@Kuromori-v9z]

Raikkonen wasn't sassy, he straight up didn't give a fuck.

[@patrickmoen8577]

The saltiness of his remark betrayed how much the truth hurt for him... he knew they were good enough to win at least one major tournament, but failed to even make a final

[@John17489]

A video on what’s been going right for the Georgian national team, reaching the Euro 2024 knockout stages to now on the verge of reaching Nations League A having started in League D when it was first introduced.

[@maximusg88]

Very fair and good analysis once again! Thanks a lot!

[@xKynOx]

The FIFA rankings have always been bollocks.

[@TheLisandro1987]

Your content is top tier entertainment and educational, honestly, top tier.

[@GamerBully]

Genuinely a great video. 👍

[@jamesmongeluzo8016]

The Belgian Field Hockey team also had a golden generation at the same time, but they actually won the World Cup and an Olympic Gold.

[@lexkanyima2195]

That was different and a different sport.

[@SKa-tt9nm]

@@lexkanyima2195you sure? I thought field hockey and football were the same until you brought it up.

[@Issacakmye]

Hockey and football isn't the same sport

[@roodborstkalf9664]

It's easier to win in hockey then in football. In hockey you only have to beat the Dutch, the Germans and the Australians.

[@andrespatrone8641]

Excellent like always, thanks You for this video. Greetings from Uruguay!

[@ralv]

I’m American I was almost going to bed, but Alfie this changes everything.

[@AntonDuhBuh]

Belgian here, you're spot on across the board. Terrific job!

[@tatendamhuriro2735]

I don’t think there’s much to it. They were the Golden generation, made the World Cup quarters in 2014 and semis in 2018 (which is their joint greatest achievement as a nation) after failing to qualify for major tournaments since the 2002 World Cup. What were they supposed to do?

[@305Solo]

The euro 2016 loss to Wales was the big one. In 2018 France just managed the game better in their defensive Deschamps way. As for Van den Borre…. Championship Manager legend, back in 2004!

[@lexkanyima2195]

So true

[@arturoflash]

The only tournament I regret from this team is Euro 2016. The other tournaments apart from the latest World Cup are fine for me.

[@chlcrk]

I seem to recall being on a family trip to Bruges in 2014 and the De Bruyne-Courtois love triangle was all over the gossip magazines. Surprised they were willing to play together after that

[@neby_nebs]

I love all the history lessons in between the football stories. It makes you appreciate everything that much more.

[@Simon-A.-Tan]

We lost too much time under Wilmots. At the WC 2018, when we were at our peak, we should have already had some experience in eliminating big countries, yet that hadn't happened until the game against Brazil during that exact World Cup. We went too deep for that and couldn't repeat it against France. (And yes, Martinez mad errors as well.) Also, Meunier's suspension and the fact that we didn't have many full- or wingbacks in our "Golden Generation" played it's role in that defeat. It was the beginning of the end for us, and everybody in Belgium felt like it was, right away back then. Now, in 2020 we might have had some sort of a "2nd chance" at a tropy, even though we were already somewhat past our peak, yet COVID pushing the tournament back another year made us take part in it with an overly aged team which happened to be in bad form, with a coach who refused to see that he wasn't "building" anything anymore. After that, we were washed. Especially in our defense, new talent just didn't appear. We only have a few promising young midfielders and a whole bunch of talented fast wingers right now. Not exactly ideal to build a well balanced team around.

[@theheadbangguy5985]

I think Belgium's best shot was euro 2016.

[@drex5160]

The perpetual upwards failure Roberto Martinez was also a factor. Now the parasite has moved upwards again to destroy Portugal's golden generation.

[@roodborstkalf9664]

He is not a good coach. In all those years he couldn't figure out a way to use Kevin de Bruyne effectively.

[@Hargazer]

The Portuguese have no choice I guess. They needed someone new, and most importantly it doesn't seem like Mourinho wants to take the role

[@Edelweiss1102]

I think many people just underestimate how tough it is to win a major international tournament. You basically get one shot every 2 years, which is a long time in the fast-paced world of football, players age, fall off, new ones come in, the coach can change, your opponents change, the circumstances change. At most tournaments you have 3-4 teams capable of winning the title, and 1-2 underdogs who get at great tournament, one slip up and you're out. 2018 and 2020 were probably Belgium's best chances. And as said in the video, they came 3rd in the 2018 World Cup, only losing a 50/50 game to a France who could afford to suspend a player like Karim Benzema and had much more squad depth, thanks to one corner + header goal. Such is football. 2020 got delayed thanks to a pandemic seen maybe like once every 100 years and they ultimately lost to an Italian team who came together for one last big Hurrah, again in a very close game. There are many "golden generations" who had much worse showing, case in point, the current England squad squandering not one, but 2 consecutive Euro finals. The one big misstep they had was Wales 2016, and once again, such is football. I think the FIFA world list really didn't do them any favors by putting them as number 1 for so long, even if they were the most constant teams for the better part of a decade, it gave people the impression that Belgium was the top favorite for a couple of tournaments when realistically, they were always more like team number 3-5. There just hast to come everything together for a goden generation for them to reach their full potential, as it did for Spain 2008-12 for example, but they are rather the exception than the standard.

[@derekevans1932]

Wales played Belgium in so many qualification groups as well around that time and IMO we fancied our chances in that quarter final and a certain player is probably still dining out on that goal ever since!!

[@skottitohotti]

i always think about Belgium when people try to say Joachim Löw was a failure as German Headcoach because he only won a single title

[@arnovdk8940]

The only real disappointment was euro 2016, the other tournaments were simply losses against better teams with more sqaud dept.

[@gutollewelyn7562]

So many great points. I've always said Euro 2016 was Belgium's best chance of success. Great squad with so many players at their peak, often feeling like a home tournament for Belgium, and many other favourites a bit average.... everything was in Belgium's favour but they had a poor coach in Wilmots who was tactically very limited. That was the big wasted opportunity. 2018 Belgium under Martinez were superb and the only team which could beat them was the best team in the world. By Euro 2020 the golden generation was largely past its peak and by 2024 way beyond its peak. Belgium were a fantastic team but only one team can win any tournament and at their best they always lost to the best teams in the competitions (apart from Euro 2016).

[@saint-antoinelaurent]

What De Bruyne said was true, what about the other teams ? Let's be honest, a lot of other nations were in their golden generation at the same time and others were just stronger than them

[@lexkanyima2195]

Which is so obvious and there's a population issue of country.

[@jk3732]

I loved this style of video!!! Half football/history

[@jann-n3k]

Nice vid and much respect for researching our country's history. small sidenote; Courtois chose to not participate in the 2024 Euros because of a captaincy dispute and as he calls it a 'lack of respect for his persona' ... smh.. I've given him the nickname Thib 'hautain' Courtois.

[@djohnne]

Thank you Alfie, I had almost forgotten Van Gaal and Lippi were deemed to expensive... I'm going to slink back into my corner and cry now... wèèèèèèèèèèèh..... Boeeehoeohoe.... SNIFF waaaaah...

[@swidr5626]

Honestly a lot of points you made about Belgians golden generation (Especially with Roberto Martinez being their coach) can be said with Gareth Southgate's England. I think it's just that bad reputation from premier league or english leagues stays with them no matter how far they will go in the tournaments and who they will lose to. Yeah England wasn't too great at Euro 2024 and you can complain about their style but they did the best they could that way probably. They never went out losing to the team worse than them and they always somewhat exceeded their expectations in euros or world cup, so why were people so miserable about him? I never understood it

[@kymanihall3174]

Especially when they never even sniffed a final before him (Except in 1966). But England has a strange culture where anything apart from victory is abject failure, even if you come extremely close and even if you have improved massively to get there. Despite coming from embarrassment in the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Euros - they would say they lost two finals because of Southgate and say he played no real role in getting them to those finals. Similarly (but not as bad as with Southgate), I see many English fans mock a team like Arsenal and mock Arteta - despite them only loosing by 2 points to one of the greatest teams ever and arguably the best coach in the history of the sport. Its like the idea that you can be very very good but still not win the ultimate prize is a foreign concept there - and if you don't win a title you're automatically garbage and overrated. Conversely, the moment you win - all the bad comments said about you disappear and you're a legend and hero. Had England won 2-1 instead of loosing 2-1, some would say Southgate is their greatest ever manager. And so the difference between a legend and a scrub is a goal - madness.

[@swidr5626]

@@kymanihall3174I agree so heavily with everything you’ve said. I think it just comes with that entitlement of England „owning” football, and that they should win because it’s „theirs”. But honestly media doesn’t help at all either, giving unreasonable expectations for their team every damn time. We here call that „pumping a balloon” that will surely explode. There is no better example ever for that than England in every tournament. They seriously need to be more realistic, and just cherish those moments of small or even bigger success even if there is no trophy after. And speaking of Arsenal I was always weirded out how everyone jokes about Spurs never winning anything, but why is anyone joking? They are year by year punching above their ground, and overachieving in reality. There is a lot more teams that are doing much worse and are way further from any trophies, and Spurs are doing just fine. English fans really need to stop being so miserable

[@uzaidgurjee4798]

@@kymanihall3174bro come on this euros Spain was just the best team but against Italy in euro 2020 they scored 1st and just decided to sit back.They played like a relegation team playing against Man City.That was 100% Southgate’s fault.Y would u let a 19 year old take a pen in arguably the most important penalty in the countries history.And the other golden generation never had as easy run of fixtures as Southgate’s team

[@kymanihall3174]

@@uzaidgurjee4798 Did he make some odd choices at times? Yes - But in the 55 years before 2021, England never made a final. I don't think they ever had THE BEST team, but they always had a really good one - they've had managers of high status and pedigree, they've had Englishmen and managers from abroad. They tried everything, and all they had to show for it were two semifinal appearances IN FIFTY FIVE YEARS. Gareth comes in, does four tournaments and gets to two finals and a semi but y'all complain and moan the whole way. Oh but his fixtures are easy? So no England team in the preceding 55 years had an easy draw? I'll never forget England's 2010 World Cup group - the newspapers read England Algeria Slovenia Yanks (EASY) and y'all came second in that group to the USA, drew two games and only scored 2 goals and we all know what happened with Germany next. Meanwhile, Gareth has you routinely winning your groups at tournaments, consistently getting far in tournaments and even winning shootouts consistently (except the most important one LOL). Is Southgate the second coming? No - overall he's probably a mid manager. But FOR ENGLAND? Results wise - he's second best of all time - and if things go slightly differently in two games of football would unquestionably be the best.

[@RyuzakiTaiyou]

Best German players in the premier league of all time. (Day 675) Alternativly you could do "Best German players who played outside the Bundesliga" or something like that if you prefer. I will not give up until the video is made or Alfie himself tells me to stop. Everyone else telling me that will be ignored. If you don't believe my number, just go back to the previous videos. I'm at the bottom most of the time, but I'm there.

[@jonathanie78]

Good luck!

[@dlamini77]

Lol. There's like 6 German players who played there. 6 worth even talking about. 1 of which turned out to be gay. I'm assuming that's the one you want to hear about so much.

[@AvatarN]

​@@dlamini77Thomas Hitzlsperger?

[@aabidamn]

2006 World Cup final had one of the most phenomenal legends in their squad. In fact, the whole tournament probably had the most football legends out of any World Cup in history.

[@arnovdk8940]

The problem now is that our backline is absolutely atrocious. I don't get how anyone can look at it and think it's a good defence. There are however some up and coming defenders but even then I'm not convinced. The striker position also is starting to look like a real weak point and the wingers are all still very young or not at the same level. Maybe in 2-4 years we'll have a team that can somewhat be a challenge for bigger teams but atm we're just not good any more.

[@brianhum8765]

Something as complex as international football can be two things at the same time; yes winning a tournament is not a realistic expectation given how fluky/small sample size tournaments are (especially if you consistently get unlucky knock-out draws despite doing well in the groups) and that Belgium are a smaller, non-historic powerhouse. But it's also fair to say their managers did more than their fair share to contribute to the problem and that a better manager would've won a tournament with that team. From a tactical standpoint, an unusually high % of the backups/young players behind the "main group" never developed to the point of contributing ANYTHING for the National Team. This is made worse by the fact that they had one of, if not the best qualification record so they had more chances than almost anyone to give experience in competitive games to the next wave of players, yet by Euro '20 their gameplan clearly was "whenever KDB can't create chances for us we're dead". Martinez is widely accepted as having been too reliant on the core group, even once they were clearly declining due to age and leaving them with no good young players prepared to reinforce the older players. The personal aspect of Martinez's management also looks... iffy, between the well known linguistic/cultural divide that while seemingly was originally solved, may have played a role in the frequent intersquad conflicts/public criticism of the team by key players in later years and at least publicly, huge lack of team leaders once Kompany retired. In a vacuum you could write some of these things off and say most NT managers never solve all these, but Martinez is widely viewed as one of if not the worst case of failing upward amongst all football managers in the world. The current manager already seems suspect as well after leaving Courtois out of the Euro '24 team for seemingly personal reasons, while at the same time starting a super inexperienced and questionable defense (on top of a very young wing in Doku), which took exactly 7 minutes into Euro '24 to bite them. And you'd be hard pressed to come up with a defense for Wilmots getting bamboozled to that degree by Wales.

[@PatrickvanStokken]

Is this your new uploading time of the day? I was so used to the 10:00 CET, especially on my days off

[@manningismystepdad4997]

I don’t think people understand winning an international trophy is much more difficult then club. You get 1 major tournament every 2 years and literally one mistake or one loss means you don’t get another opportunity for another 2 years

[@kawaiikaktus465]

The thing I love about your documentations is that you include the politics side of football as well because you simply can not separate sport from politics as much as some people would like to.

[@dvdv8197]

They didn't win 'nothing', they won bronze!! 😬😬

[@beno1129]

Exactly. Considering that they didn't really have any strength in depth, I think they didn't do too badly apart from their loss to Wales in the 2016 quarter-finals.

[@dvdv8197]

​@@beno1129ugh that 2016 loss was soooo embarrassing lmao. But completely agree, they almost always got kicked out of tournaments by the eventual winners or the finalists at least!

[@Veaseify]

There's no such things as Bronze medals in football tournaments (apart from the olympics). Third place playoff games are irrelevant and should be scrapped, they only exist for the benefit of TV companies.

[@ninjalectualx]

Bronze is Olympics, not world cup

[@exsandgrounder]

​@@ninjalectualxwe all know it still means third place.

[@chcucivtxzclccucifudohzfu6766]

Well, In 2014 they were all rather young and inexperienced. So making the quarter final and only narrowly losing 1:0 to later finalist Argentina was a good result after not appearing in any tournament from 2004-2012. In 2016 they had way higher expectations but failed mostly because Wilmots wasn’t the best man for the job to coach a world class team. If they had had a better coach there there are good chances they would have done great given the relatively easy tournament tree. In 2018 they were great. They only lost narrowly to France in the semi who went on and won the title. Belgium even secured the 3rd place, their best ever position at a WC. By 2021 they had to make some adjustments as some of the players who already had some experience in 2014 now were pretty old. Still they got 9 points in the group stage and beat the defending champion Portugal in the round of 16. Then in the quarter final they again lost narrowly to Italy who won the whole thing. Still Belgium were the better team statistically in that match and could have won it with a bit more luck. By 2022 their players growing old caught up to them and they had a poor showing. Still the two teams who advanced from the group both made it to the semis. In 2024 you saw that the primetime of the golden generation was over and they again performed badly. I think with a bit of luck Belgium could have made a final or won something in one of the three tournaments from 2016-2021 where their golden generation had the right mix of age and experience. In 2016 they had the wrong manager, in 2018 and 2021 they were unlucky. From that point on they struggled to induce their team with the right amount of young players to continue their success. Still I wouldn’t call the team a failure given they got their best overall WC result and made 3 more quarter finals

[@lexkanyima2195]

Well explained in detail. But in general it is all about politics

[@leemcdonald1342]

I have to be honest, Alfrie referencing "Talladega Nights" is a giant surprise.

[@rheinhardtgrafvonthiesenha8185]

Simple. Their choice of manager. Also and this is pretty niche but Belgium isn’t a massively unified country in the sense that there’s not an overwhelming sense of what being a Belgium means or represents. If you look at the actual competition winners there seems to be that sense of identity. It’s country over club in Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina etc. Might be englands ingest issue

[@gutollewelyn7562]

Wilmots was a poor tactician who cost Belgium in Euro 2016 but Belgium were brilliant under Martinez for 5 years. The golden generation had ended by 2024 and Martinez had grown stale by that stage but overall his time in charge was successful.

[@tsybze]

Quality educational piece here👌

[@MrBizteck]

Funny I couldn't give a crap about football. I haven't watched a game in 15 years. But I've been subbed to HTC for over a year and love every video.

[@booradley6832]

6:05 KDB is now my favorite player ever. I already liked him a lot just for his play, but his ability to talk down to media members who say stupid things is somehow even more amazing.

[@ninjalectualx]

He was a real POS to his ex girlfriend though, cheated on her then threatened to sue her if she said anything

[@ethanmcbee9556]

Guy plays for the biggest cheaters in the history of the sport. Of course ge hates the media. All tyrants do

[@BesiktasPodcast]

Great video as usual, it was certainly Belgium's golden generation but that is a very relative term. Belgium hadn't qualified for a single tournament after the 2002 World Cup until the 2014 World Cup. While to the outside world they may seem like a failure, and certainly getting a final outof this generation woudl've certainly been icing on the cake. But being able to top the FIFA rankings as long as they have, qualifying for every single tournament the past decade, etc. is a pretty big achievement for a nation that didn't compete at a single one the previous decade.

[@brucemclaren-]

Thinking they can do without KDBs cooking is what went wrong for Belgium. They barely ever give him the ball.

[@areebsiddiqui758]

lmao the guy that always went missing at international tournaments and just blamed his teammates. Hazard was always Belgium's talisman, he was the one who carried them when the going got tough and after he declined they were never the same. You can debate who the better player was at club level but at the international stage De Bruyne never made the kind of impact Hazard did.

[@lexkanyima2195]

​@@areebsiddiqui758so true

[@Payseur]

@@areebsiddiqui758 Don't talk bullshit. KDB created the most big chances at the 2018 WC and scored the most historic goal in their history and was also very good at the 2016 and 2021 Euros. Just cause Hazard dribbled a lot doesn't mean he was their best player.

[@areebsiddiqui758]

@@Payseur He was very good at going missing in big games and blaming teammates. Hazard clears.

[@RasenRendanX]

How was Spain not listed when you were talking about the England golden generation rivals? Great video as always!

[@Blorgfest88]

Growing up in Wales, we all got to watch that Belgium game in school. What a day to be Welsh.

[@mandel94]

I think it's really just a matter of internarional tournaments being so rare. Even if you have 6-8 years of a golden generation playing together, that's only 3-4 shots at an international trophy. The fact that international tournaments are so short also introduces a lot of variance. I could easily have seen Belgium going all the way to a trophy anywhere from 2016-2020, and I think they might have done if a tournament lasted for 38 games like the Premier League.

[@jakea5915]

6:28 this was Van Buyten's second international tournament

[@Aryaninho-innit]

At this point Alfie is a historian more than a football guru

[@daveking77]

Great analysis. Teams, not individuals, win tournaments.

[@TheBarrier]

Personally, I always thought they lived up to the expectations. Weren’t the best squad all around so the fact they managed 3rd in 2018 felt just right. I think them being ranked 1st all the time built the narrative that they flopped expectations by not winning a trophy.

[@tstewart8]

Ultimately they had at their peak about 5 top level players which isn't enough to win things when it's coupled with a lack of depth in other areas They finished 3rd in a world cup which is more than England's so called golden generation of the 00s did and for a country the size of Belgium that's a great achievement

[@ezraezra2928]

England's current golden generation, although being considered as failure due to Gareth Southgate's pragmatic play and harsh tactic, were still better with 2 Euro Finals in a row. Belgium with the golden generation didn't reached either of those (2021 and 2024).

[@blackhatmaster88]

I'm optimistic for Belgium remaining relatively on top. 20 years ago, 95% of the players played in Belgium, nowadays 95% are playing outside of Belgium in Italy, England, Spain, Germany,... This is due to the fact big teams discovered there's actually a good formation in Belgium and the national league standing strong as the 8th strongest league in europe behind Portugal and the Netherlands. Because of that golden generation, and that strong league, talents that would have before lingered in Belgium are now discovered early and can finish their post formation with the best teams/coaches which will increase the chance to have new superstars like Debruyne or Hazard in the futur and increase the depth of the team.

[@kaliou6645]

5:52 Bear THINKS that DeBryne's clip was enough to Summarize this Alfie Video😅😅🤴🏼🇧🇪🍟⚽️

[@hendrikbraem5891]

Thank you for this video! 🇧🇪

[@TraciCain-ni3yq]

AMYZING HITC

[@Sim0n98]

I feel like people expected too much from Belgium, third place at a World Cup is an amazing achievement, were people expecting them to win it?

[@abasudoh7459]

This is what I've been saying. It was so weird seeing people expecting Belgium to win it all at every tournament, as if other teams were complete shit

[@leefswgoh7558]

I personally never expected them to win, but their golden generations surely was the best chance they ever had of winning something. Probably the best chance they had for a long while to come as well. For a nation like Belgium is quite rare to have that many worldclass players in the squad at the same time.

[@lexkanyima2195]

​@leefswgoh7558 and they were at their peak, despite the dissapointment of Euro 2016.

[@Beggar42]

Martinez, I will never understand. He coasted along on (and took credit for) the positive vibes in the dressing room that Wilmots established. But tactically, he was an absolute zero in most games and was notorious for his mindboggling substitutions in the majority of his games. That the Belgian FA didn't splurge on an actual decent coach is probably due to the massively corrupt nature of the Belgian FA. After all president Francois "Greasy Swa" De Keersmaecker is notorious for his statement regarding the mass conning of Belgium fans at the Brazilian world cup, "It's not illegal, just improper." Very few of the FA board know much of anything about football at all, aside from how to make money from it. Also, the current choice of Tedesco is equally unfathomable. The current new talent dearly needs a kick in the pants as most of them are content to coast along. Though they've already had a few kicks in the pants and it hasn't had any effect. Barely beating a 10 man Montenegro squad, a poor showing against Luxembourg, all four games at the Euros, and recently, scraping by against Israel. It's anybodies guess if they can get their act together before WC qualifying starts in March.

[@manuelbarros4898]

“Golden generation” means a generation of players notoriously above the standard of that nation’s regular output. I agree the term shouldn’t be used as an indictment or accusation against a group of people, but it’s not an especially obscure notion, as De Bruyne purported it to be.

[@TheMusicGuard]

The bad: they missed a golden opportunity. The good: they seem to produce a consistent rate of new talent these days. They just need to hope for 2 good CBs to surface the next few years.

[@MaydaTiger]

it never ceases to amaze me how Alphie does proper research everytime

[@danpriestley1291]

The only team in my lifetime that was the only team expected to win a tournament was spain between 2008 and 2012. Usually, there are 3 or 4 teams that could win and it normally comes down to a bit of luck and key players fit and in form.

[@JoeMercersWay]

The more interesting video is why these large national teams aren't producing the same calibre of player anymore. Belgium, Brazil, Italy, Germany, the lack of talent coming through in key positions is noticeable. Personally, I think it's overuse of overseas signings and that UEFA competition rules should change to say 15 homegrown players in a 25 man squad, rather than 8. Of course, the Super League clubs would take their ball home, but football faces big difficulties if the balance isn't addressed.

[@bhobg]

Outstanding! Like button smashed

[@brendandarkside1207]

There's some long sentences in there Alfie. I particularly loved the one mentioning the entire belgium squad

[@lws7394]

What happened with Belgium's 'Golden Generation' ? There were more countries with socalled 'Golden Generations' . Germany , Spain, Portugal, Croatia and France had strong generations that coincided (partly) with the Belgium team..

[@soepkip192]

You mentioned pur biggest problem a few times, Roberto Martinez, he literally opened out starplayers cheeks, fucked it, till there was nothing left. What might be weird, but the biggest example of how bad of a coavh he was, is in the win against Brazil at the 2018 wc. First half we were conpletely dominating Brazil, second half starts, and you could see he changed the tactic to "defend" and that's where we got insanely lucky Brazil were not able to finish their chances and Courtois was on his best behaviour that game

[@sehu1291]

Same with the famous golden generation of Portugal who won never anything between 1992 and 2006

[@ezraezra2928]

The current golden generation of Portugal, which started with Euro 2016 and 2019 Nations League triumphs, are supposed to be the favourites for the last Euro, especially after they got the perfect record in the qualifiers. In reality, the team still lost to Georgia, had to knock Slovenia out on penalties, and couldn't beat France.

[@Kiwifreak32]

Maybe I´m biased but in my opinion the time around 2000 had more great teams than any other time. England, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina, Italy and even the Czech Republic had absolutly great teams. Funny that Greece won the Euros in exactly that time so that some average Greek players like Mihalis Kapsis have won more international titles than Scholes, Seedorf, Figo, Maldini, Nedved or Ballack (who had a rather unfortunate time to be a German international).

[@sehu1291]

@@Kiwifreak32 in euros 2004 Czech Republic was craaazy. The match vs the Netherlands was the most spectacular football match in the offense in euros history. And Portugal had THE perfect and last chance at home to keep the promise from their yputh World Championship at the beginning of the 90s. At 2006 the golden generation except Figo doesn't play a role anymore. But Greece with Otto Rehaggel outsmarted them all.

[@sehu1291]

@@Kiwifreak32 WC 2006 was peak. Every Ballon d'Or winner from 1998 to 2021 (except 1999 Rivaldo) played this World Cup. A WC record of 12 different Ballon d'Or winner played this tournament (CR7, Messi, Figo, Zidane, Ronaldinho, Shevchenko, Kaka, Ronaldo Nazario, Owen, Modric, Cannavaro, Nedved) also almost every Nation had a International legend. legends like Drogba, Henry, Rooney, Gerrard, Schweinsteiger, Beckham, Ribery, Robben, Iniesta, Yaya and Kolo Toure, Xavi, Klose, Lampard, Ballack, Buffon, Raul, Ibrahimovic, Casillas, Pirlo, Totti, Ramos, Barthez, Rosicky, Makelele, Lucio, Tevez, Crespo, Del Piero, Deco, Thuram, Vieira, Adriano, Cafu, Juninho, Roberto Carlos, Riquelme, Mascherano, Saviola, Luca Toni, Gabriel Heinze, Cambiasso, Gatusso, Nesta, de Rossi, Gattuso, Inzhagi, van der Saar, Cech, Zambrotta, Ferdinand, Cole, Owen, Terry, Trezeguet, Saha, Malouda, Sagnol, Lehmann, Modric, Lahm, Drogba, van Bronckhorst, van Bommel, Sneijder, van der Vaart, van Nistelroy, van Persie, Kuyt, Ricardo, Carvalho, Costinha, Simao, Maniche, Michael Essien, Nuno Gomes, Jankulovski, Milan Baros, Sulley Muntari, Asamoah Gyan, Adebayor, Ali Daei, David Villa, Fernando Torres,Kahn, Puyol, Xabi Alonso, Morientes, Reyes, Salgado, Fabregas, Mertesacker, Canizarez, Park Ji-Sung, Nakamura, Vidic, Stankovic, Cahill, Kewell, Mark Schwarzer, Rafael Marquez, Borgetti, Guardado, Dwight Yorke, Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey, Donovan, Roque Santa Cruz, Kuffour (Bayern 2001 CL), Antonio Valencia, Ze Roberto, Dida, Emerson, Juan, Rogerio Ceni, Gilberto Silva, Julio Cruz, Maxi Rodriguez, Podolski, Luis Garcia, Paulo Ferreira, Ljungberg, Henrik Larson, Neville, Carragher, Crouch, Alexander Frei, Barnetta, Senderos, Behrami, William Gallas, Wiltord, Silvestre, Laquinta, Materazzi, Grosso, Camoranesi, Poborsky, Jan Koller, Ayala, Lionel Scaloni, Juan Pablo Sorin, Eboue, Ryan Babel, Heitinga, Juan, Sol Campbell, Hargreaves, Michael Carrick, Robert Huth...

[@ezraezra2928]

@@sehu1291 Czechian fans also couldn't accept that group stage exit in 2006 World Cup. Despite retaining some best players from Euro 2004 squad like Pavel Nedved, Jan Koller, Milan Baros, etc., and even being 2nd in FIFA Rankings at that time, they somehow lost to Ghana, who were the tournament debutants. Additionally, I can confirm that injuries were the main reason Czech Republic's golden generation couldn't stand longer in tournament, as Nedved and Koller got injured.

[@jesuisunstroopwafel]

Next video: why are FIFA rankings as reliable as used car salemen.

[@MatthiaGryffine]

You could say the same for Croatia

[@montecoucou53]

Nothing went wrong. They consistently qualified and played decent to good football throughout. Without some ill-timed injuries maybe they could have archieved more. Other teams just had more depth.

[@phoenixj1985]

Hey man gotta make a huge complaint, you said "indeed" without showing a photo of Ndidi at least once during this video, but Micah Richards "burst onto the scene" did help to compensate somewhat