Great Britain hockey captain Barry Middleton gave credit to Holland's all-round game during the hosts' 9-2 semi-final defeat.
Having gone in at half-time 4-1 down they came out on the attack after the break but in an eight-minute spell from the 44th minute the world number threes scored four times and that prompted something of a meltdown among the hosts.
Ashley Jackson and Rob Moore scored GB's goals to make it 2-1 and 9-2 but the Dutch were much sharper and Roderick Weusthof and Billy Bakker both scored hat-tricks, with other goals coming from Teun de Nooijer, Mink van der Weerden and Floris Evers.
When asked what he would like to say at the post-match press conference, Middleton said: "Probably sorry to start with. Credit to the Dutch, they played a good game, they just generally passed, shot, tackled and ran better than us.
"There are not that many games when a team does every aspect better than you. The disappointing thing was we know that wasn't who we are. That wasn't really us. It is hard to explain why.
"With how big the game was that is what makes it so hard to take. When we've had defeats in the past we have always put it down to aiming at something bigger for the reason behind it. Today the reason behind it was that we didn't turn up."
Coach Jason Lee admitted they suffered as a result of the attacking mindset they have adopted over the last four years.
"When it got to 4-1 our intention was to get back so we kept on trying to attack and that was what opened us up and we got reckless far too early," he said. "The upsetting thing is we completely lost our game halfway through the second half when the game was gone.
"I had said before (the tournament) we could finish first or ninth because we were willing to take risks. At 4-1 we stood a chance but because we were trying to get back into the game we conceded sloppy goals."