For 9 months, gamers and coaches from the US and the Netherlands have deflected questions concerning the impending rematch of the 2019 World Cup remaining. For 9 months, they careworn that every crew had a gaggle stage match to play earlier than they met, and that they’d strategy the match one recreation at a time.
Now, the second has arrived, and there’s no getting round it: Thursday’s match in Wellington is prone to resolve the group winner and, with it, the pathway if the groups are to return to the ultimate. That is the sport the groups – and followers world wide – have been anticipating because the World Cup attract October.
“I’m positive it’s going to be a problem,” the USA head coach, Vlatko Andonovski, stated on Wednesday. “They’re an excellent crew, very organized, a really disciplined crew. We noticed within the first recreation that they performed [a 1-0 victory over Portugal] that they will have a risk on each line. However on the similar time, I need to say that we’re prepared for it. We’ve educated loads, ready loads for this second and particularly this recreation and we’re excited and searching ahead to it.”
Neither crew look the identical as they did in 2019, when the US gained the ultimate 2-0, some extent either side had been wanting to make this week. Neither crew cared to entertain the concept that Thursday’s match will probably be as decisive as the remainder of the world thinks.
“We strategy each recreation prefer it’s the largest recreation, and this recreation is not any completely different,” USA ahead Alex Morgan stated this week.
Fourteen USA gamers are competing of their first World Cup, and neither supervisor was in cost 4 years in the past. Many USA gamers – even the veterans – spoke about how that they had handled nerves in the course of the 3-0 victory over Vietnam on Saturday. USA’s efficiency was thorough however left lingering questions. Julie Ertz began at center-back, a place she has not performed commonly in six years. Will she stay there all match? Andonovski wouldn’t say definitively.
Rose Lavelle got here off the bench for the ultimate 27 minutes in opposition to Vietnam, her first aggressive match in three months. Her crew may have her: Lavelle was the USA’s breakout participant of the 2019 World Cup. Her shining second got here within the remaining in opposition to the Netherlands when, 69 minutes in, she picked up the ball inside the middle circle, glided into the field and slammed a left-footed shot previous the keeper. Lavelle was later awarded the Bronze Ball as one of many match’s prime gamers.
Thursday’s large query for the US facilities round Lavelle once more. Is she match sufficient to start out?
“I really feel fairly good,” Lavelle stated on Wednesday. Her reply was brief and unchanged from when she spoke after the Vietnam recreation. Andonovski vaguely echoed Lavelle’s optimism however didn’t provide any specifics on who will begin in opposition to the Dutch.
Lavelle was an rising expertise 4 years in the past; now she is the focus of the crew when totally match. Together with her, the US look extra inventive and dynamic. With out her, they’ll battle to play the ultimate ball.
The Netherlands will not be the identical crew they had been in 2019, both. They’ve twice modified coaches because the World Cup remaining, and did not make the rostrum at both the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 or the European Championship final summer season. Their quarter-final exit from the Olympics got here in a penalty shootout by the hands of the US. Vivianne Miedema scored each objectives for the Dutch in that match, however she is watching this World Cup from house as a consequence of a knee harm.
Since taking the job on the finish of final summer season, the Netherlands coach, Andries Jonker, who was as soon as an assistant to Luis van Gaal at Bayern Munich, has largely applied a 3-5-2 formation, turning away from the 4-3-3 that the Dutch used as they reached the ultimate of the European Championship in 2017 and the World Cup in 2019.
Jonker’s crew used a 3-5-2 of their 1-0 victory over Portugal on Sunday. It might appear a daring transfer to stay with that in opposition to a USA entrance three who’ve superior tempo in one-on-one battles. Jonker stated there wouldn’t be any drastic adjustments, nevertheless.
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“The system is fairly simple and we’re not going to adapt it,” he stated.
Jonker will nearly definitely be with out ahead Lineth Beerensteyn after she was injured within the victory over Portugal. The Dutch coach stated on Wednesday that it will be “a miracle” if Beerensteyn performs in opposition to the US.
The Netherlands emerged as critical contenders in ladies’s soccer by profitable the European Championship on house soil in 2017 and making the World Cup remaining two years later. Since then, they’ve struggled.
The US have gone by way of their very own identification crises at instances, together with an underwhelming displaying on the Olympics in 2021 that finally yielded a bronze medal. There are respectable questions round whether or not this group of US gamers possess the ruthlessness of previous generations. As with nearly each subject, nevertheless, the Dutch gamers wouldn’t be drawn on any questions that might create bulletin-board materials for his or her opponents.
Requested on Wednesday concerning the USA’s mentality, midfielder Jackie Groenen demurred. She famous that the hole between the US and the remainder of the world is “now perhaps completely different than it was.” Groenen, nevertheless, was not desirous about theorizing on the “aura” across the US.
“They clearly have a lot high quality on the pitch,” Groenen stated “I can’t say something about auras; I believe that’s as much as you guys. We simply need to win the sport.”
Groenen and Jonker spoke on a number of events on Wednesday about that theoretical hole between USA and the world, maybe to set a story of their very own. The US are favorites to win the group, however they aren’t the dominant crew that they had been 4 years in the past. As with many groups at this World Cup, the Dutch are wanting to have their shot at proving as a lot.
“I believe the entire ladies’s soccer world is desirous about getting the reply,” Jonker stated. “Are we getting nearer?… [Thursday] is the primary time we are able to test. Are we getting nearer or not? We’ll see.”
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