Belgium national football team

• 1. Foundations And Early Years

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  On the 11th of October 1900, Beerschot AC honorary president Jorge Díaz announced that Antwerp would host a series of challenge matches between Europe's best football teams. The first Belgium A-squad in 1901 featured four Englishmen who helped the hosts defeat the Netherlands by 8, 0 in the Coupe Vanden Abeele tournament. Herbert Potts scored 12 of Belgium's 17 goals during these early unofficial fixtures, though FIFA does not recognize those results because the team fielded foreign players. On the 1st of May 1904, the Belgians played their first official match against France at the Stade du Vivier d'Oie in Uccle, ending in a draw that left the Évence Coppée Trophy unclaimed. Twenty days later, the football boards of both countries became among the seven founding members of FIFA. At that time, the Belgian squad was chosen by a committee chaired by Édouard de Laveleye, who usually drew from the country's six or seven major clubs. From 1905 onwards, Belgium would play twice a year against the Netherlands, generally once in Antwerp and once in Rotterdam. In 1906, the national team received the nickname Red Devils because of their red jerseys. Four years later, Scottish ex-footballer William Maxwell replaced the UBSSA committee as their manager.

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• 2. Golden Eras And World Cup Runs

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  Beginning with a second-place finish at Euro 1980, the 1980s and the early 1990s are generally considered as Belgium's first golden age. Coached by Guy Thys, they achieved their spot in the 1980 final with an unbeaten record in the group phase before narrowly losing to West Germany 1, 2. Starting with the 1982 World Cup, and ending with the 2002 World Cup, the national team qualified for six consecutive World Cups. During this period, managers Guy Thys, Paul Van Himst and Robert Waseige each guided Belgium past the first round. The team reached the semi-finals of the 1986 World Cup after eliminating the Soviet Union and Spain in the knockout stage. Argentina went through to the final after a 2, 0 victory, in which their star player Diego Maradona scored both goals. In the second golden generation under Marc Wilmots and later Roberto Martínez in the 2010s, Belgium topped the FIFA World Ranking for the first time in November 2015. They finished third at the 2018 FIFA World Cup after defeating Brazil 2, 1 in the quarter-finals. To date, Belgium is the only national team to top the FIFA ranking without having won a World Cup or continental trophy.

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• 3. Rivalries And Regional Derbies

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  Belgium's main football rivals are its neighbors the Netherlands and France, with which it shares close cultural and political relations. The matchup between the Belgian and Dutch team is known as the Low Countries derby, and they have played each other in 129 official matches. The two national teams played each other biannually between 1905 and 1964, except during the World Wars. They have met 18 times in major tournaments, and have played at least 35 friendly cup matches: in Belgium for the Coupe Vanden Abeele, and in the Netherlands for the Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad-Beker. The overall balance favors the Netherlands, with 57 wins against 41 Belgian victories. The clash between Belgium and France is nicknamed le Match Sympathique in French, meaning the Friendly Match. They have contested 78 official matches since their first encounter in 1904. Belgium maintained the better record with most wins over the succeeding 100 years, but since 2018 the gap has closed with 5 successive losses to France. Between 1925 and 1941, the Low Countries' squads co-operated in fundraising initiatives by playing seven unofficial matches for charity, FIFA and the Belgian Olympic Committee.

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• 4. Identity Kits And Branding Evolution

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  For their first unofficial match in 1901, the Belgian team wore white jerseys with tricoloured bands on the upper arms. Around their third unofficial match in 1902, the choice was made for a shirt with national colours that would indicate with a stripe the number of times every player had participated in an encounter. Since 1904, Belgium's classic all-red jersey design has been altered twice. In 1904, 05, the squad briefly wore satin shirts with three horizontal bands in red, yellow and black; according to sports journalist Victor Boin, the shirts set the ugliness record. During the 1970s, manager Raymond Goethals chose an all-white combination to improve the team's visibility during evening matches. Six clothing manufacturers have supplied the official team strip. Adidas is the producer since 2014, and closed a sponsorship deal with the RBFA until 2026. Former kit manufacturers include Umbro from the early 1970s, Admiral from 1981 to 1982, Diadora from 1992 to 1998, Nike from 1999 to 2009, and Burrda from 2010 to 2014. On the 8th of November 2019, the Royal Belgian Football Association revealed a new logo which preserved the main elements of the previous one: the royal crown, the wreath and the Belgian tricolor.

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• 5. Tactical Systems And Coaching Lineage

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  Since 1904, the RBFA has employed 26 permanent managers and two caretaker managers officially in charge of the national team. At the three World Cups in the 1930s, the Red Devils were aligned in a contemporary 2, 3, 5 pyramid formation. In 1954, Doug Livingstone's squad played in a 3, 2, 5 WM arrangement during World Cup matches. Throughout most of their tournament matches in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, the team played in a 4, 4, 2 formation. Since Raymond Goethals' stint in the 1970s, a key strength of the Belgian squad has been their systematic use of the offside trap, a defensive tactic that was already intensively applied in the 1960s by Anderlecht coach Pierre Sinibaldi. Football journalist Wim De Bock described master tactician Goethals as representing the conservative, defensive football of the Belgian national team. At the 1998 World Cup, Georges Leekens chose a 4, 3, 3 arrangement for Belgium's second and third group matches. Robert Waseige said that above all his 4, 4, 2 system was holy, in the sense that he left good attackers on the bench to keep his favorite formation. Under Spanish coach Roberto Martínez, the team reached a best-ever third place finish at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

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• 6. Legendary Players And Statistical Records

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  In the team's first decade, striker Robert De Veen scored 26 goals in 23 international appearances. Richard Henshaw described Alphonse Six as Belgium's greatest player in the prewar period who was often called the most skillful forward outside Great Britain. The key player of the victorious 1920 Olympic squad was Robert Coppée, who scored a hat-trick against Spain's Ricardo Zamora and the penalty in the final. Other Belgian strikers in the interwar period were former top scorer Bernard Voorhoof and Raymond Braine, considered one of the greatest players of the era. In the 1960s and early 1970s, forward Paul Van Himst won four Golden Shoes and ranked fourth at the 1965 Ballon d'Or. At the 1986 World Cup, midfielders Jan Ceulemans and Enzo Scifo were recognized by FIFA as the propelling forces of the squad. Romelu Lukaku is the highest-scoring Belgium player with 89 goals. Jan Vertonghen has the most appearances for Belgium with 157 caps according to the RBFA. Eden Hazard started the most matches as captain with 59 appearances. Axel Witsel has had the longest career as an international footballer, lasting 17 years, 7 months and 23 days.

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