Few observers tipped the Netherlands as potential World Cup winners, but a quietly efficient group-stage campaign has propelled them firmly into the conversation.
Ronald Koeman’s team on Thursday beat Tunisia 3-1 in Kansas City to top Group F with seven points, ahead of Japan and Sweden, who both also qualified for the knockout rounds.
Next, the Dutch are to face Morocco in the Mexican city of Monterrey tomorrow, with the winners of that last-32 match going on to face South Africa or Canada.
Photo: AFP
It was put to Koeman after Thursday’s game in the stormy US Midwest that they had done the hard part by topping their group, thus avoiding Brazil.
However, the head coach, who captained the Netherlands the last time the World Cup was held in the US, in 1994, warned against thinking too far ahead.
“We need to prepare for Morocco first, because it will be a big game,” he said. “It’s a good team with a lot of quality, and they can score easily.”
The Netherlands, followed everywhere by their legions of orange-clad fans, are World Cup royalty, but have never been crowned, finishing as runners-up in 1974, 1978 and 2010.
Often cited as the best nation never to have won the tournament, they are unbeaten in 15 World Cup matches since losing the final in 2010, if penalty shootouts are excluded. The team did not qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
It is difficult to argue that the Dutch do not punch above their weight for a country with a population of about 18 million.
On the other hand, they have boasted richly talented squads for generation after generation, none of whom have managed to get over the line.
Koeman’s squad lacks the superstar names of the past such as Johann Cruyff, Marco van Basten and Arjen Robben, but he still has great quality and depth, particularly in midfield and defense.
Liverpool centerback Virgil van Dijk is the undisputed leader of the pack, marshalling a powerful back line that includes Denzel Dumfries and Micky van de Ven.
The midfield is also elite, with Frenkie de Jong pulling the strings alongside Ryan Gravenberch and Tijjani Reijnders.
If there is a weaker area of the team, it is in attack, where the Dutch can no longer call on world-class forwards such as Robin van Persie and Robben, who hung up their boots nearly a decade ago.
However, they managed 10 goals in their three group games, with Brian Brobbey and Cody Gakpo, who has a knack of scoring at major tournaments, sharing five goals between them.
Sunderland’s Brobbey was only given a few minutes at the end of the Netherlands’ opening game — a 2-2 draw against Japan — but he has since proved his worth, netting three times.
Van Dijk said the powerful forward was a great outlet.
“Brian’s quality is so strong,” he said. “We’ve seen it obviously throughout the whole year in the [English] Premier League. If he has you pinned up, you can’t get the ball.”
Former Germany and US coach Jurgen Klinsmann believes the Dutch deserve to be considered as World Cup contenders alongside the usual suspects.
“It’s a team that definitely you’ve got to have on the plate for going far, going maybe to the semi-finals, being able to compete with Spain, France that we all mentioned as the top favorites alongside obviously Argentina and Brazil,” he said on ESPN.
“They seem to be a group now that sticks together. We have a coach, Ronald Koeman, who’s very, very experienced,” he said. “If they gel, the Dutch — because often they had in the past problems on the inner side of things and not towards the opponents — then it’s definitely a team that is very dangerous and difficult to beat.”
IN GREAT COMPANY: If Lai makes it to the big leagues with the Yankees, he would be only the second Taiwanese to do so, following ace Wang Chien-ming Taiwanese right-handed pitcher Lai Chien-fan, 18, on Tuesday agreed to a minor league contract with the New York Yankees that includes an US$872,500 signing bonus. Lai, who throws fastballs in the 91-94mph (146-151kph) range, helped Taiwan win a bronze medal at the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s U-18 Baseball World Cup in September last year, striking out 14 over seven innings in three relief appearances. The 1.83m-tall Taitung City native, the highest-rated Taiwanese pitcher in the 2026 class, would be the third player in Yankees franchise history to be signed as a non-drafted free agent out of Taiwan, following in the footsteps of
In a packed Shanghai sports bar, Chinese soccer fans erupted in frenzied delight as Japan’s Ayase Ueda looped a header over Tunisia’s goalkeeper to secure a 4-0 win in a FIFA World Cup group match. China is not the most obvious place for Japan fandom to thrive — the two countries’ historical animosity is never far from the surface and relations have been tense since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office in Tokyo last year. For the dozens of Chinese supporters in the bar on Sunday afternoon glued to Japan’s every move on massive screens, their love of the team has
TURKEY BEAT US: US coach Mauricio Pochettino was annoyed by suggestions that their defeat said anything negative about his team, who topped their group The field for the elimination phase of the FIFA World Cup is beginning to take shape, with cohosts the US and Canada finding out their opponents in the next round. The US face Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday next week in Santa Clara, California, getting to stay on the west coast after competing in the Los Angeles area and Seattle during the group stage. The US had already clinched a spot in the knockout round before a 3-2 loss to Turkey on Thursday in front of a raucous, celebrity-studded southern California crowd at Los Angeles Stadium in Inglewood. Canada are also to head
It might just be the greatest job in the world, but for the two Americans being paid US$50,000 to watch every one of the 104 games of the FIFA World Cup over 39 days, it is a labor of love. Austin Franklin, 29, and Kevin Akoto, 26, perform their dream task in a temporary fishbowl studio with glass walls on three sides in the heart of Manhattan’s Times Square. Enthusiastic fans crowd around the cube to watch the games on two large TVs as Franklin and Akoto lounge on sofas inside. Akoto quit his job and broke up with his partner to take
RSS