The last time that Netherlands failed to qualify for any FIFA World Cup was back on 2002 when Japan along with South Korea dual hosted the international football competition.
Netherlands are currently competing in Group A of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification stages. They have collected 10 points from their 6 opening qualifying matches and are located at the 3rd spot behind the likes of: Sweden and France with each of them having 13 points from that same amount of games played.
Only the top 2 national sides are able to qualify for the upcoming edition of the FIFA World Cup and Netherlands is not one of those teams, they will have to start collecting points at a consistent basis which is a completely achievable task for a national side that is ranked at the 31st spot according to the latest edition of the FIFA Rankings.
There are 4 qualifying matches that Netherlands has left to play, their nearest one is against France which is scheduled to be played on August 31 at the Saint-Denis stadium and a victory over the French outfit can be huge for Dick Advocaat and his squad.
France and Netherlands have already locked horns back on October 10 of 2016 and a solo goal from Paul Pogba was enough for the French to claim a 1-0 triumph as they collected all 3 points.
This upcoming match will be the chance that Netherlands needs in order to show their worth and avenge their defeat last year.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying road of Netherlands has seen then dropping important points against Sweden where they had to settle with a 1-1 draw and almost 6 months later, losing to Bulgaria.
Even with this rather slow start, Netherlands has more than enough time and matches left to secure a top 2 qualifying spot but they need to avoid other disappointing results and performances.