Netherlands midfielder Joey Veerman was inches away from total redemption on Tuesday but a cameo appearance in the European Championship round of 16 victory over Romania in Munich still went a long way to restoring his reputation.
Veerman’s international career was widely written off by pundits after he was unceremoniously substituted in the 35th minute of Netherlands’ final group game against Austria in Berlin last week.
A succession of missed passes and midfield turnovers, where he lost possession, irritated coach Ronald Koeman so much that Veerman was taken off before halftime in a humiliation for the 25-year-old.
As television showed pictures of a visibly distressed Veerman slumped on the bench, pulling his shirt over his face, commentators suggested he would likely never play for the Netherlands again.
But one week later he came on in Tuesday's win over Romania in Munich and minutes after taking to the pitch was narrowly wide with a clever shot from a tight angle.
Had he scored it would have stretched the lead to 2-0 and effectively sewn up the match. As it was, Veerman played his part in the team adding two more goals to win 3-0 and move on to the quarterfinals.
“It wasn't the easiest week of my career. The first two days in particular were difficult, but then I switched gears and trained hard,” Veerman said of the storm around his performance against Austria.
His name was chanted when he came on, a nice touch from Dutch supporters empathising with his pain. “That was nice to hear," he said.
'NO EXPLANATION'
Veerman, who helped PSV Eindhoven to runaway success in the Dutch league last season, said had no explanation for his poor performance against Austria.
“And I'm done with it too. I understand that you ask questions about it, but after the next day I put an end to it.
“I didn't hear any of the commotion. Normally I would, but I consciously looked at as little as possible. I turned off the internet and didn't watch anything or read most of what was said and I think that did me good."
There was also support from the rest of the squad.
“They were also disappointed after losing to Austria, but they took good care of me. The coach also grabbed me the next day and told me to switch off and train really hard.
“I always want to play, but it would have been naive if I had expected that I could start again. The question was whether I could come on. That's why I'm glad I got 25 minutes. I was mainly looking for consistency and simple things and that's what I did.”