Oef, I wanted to have that one at least on goal. Corner, goes beyond second post. Need to see it again yo know who it was.
NZ is really working their hight advantage. Every corner they attack like their life depend on it. Just knocked out the Dutch keeper.
BOEM. What a beautiful goal. Distance shot in the right corner. Take that. NZ is certainly equal, if not stronger so far. Good to score with so much pressure. Now use this to get on top.
So funny. Before the game starts I hear that NZ is opportunistic and psychically strong. Well the last point is correct, but the most opportunistic is the Netherlands, who like to put in some counter balls on fast players up front.
Well, well. Second half was certainly for NZ. Pressure, corners and what not. 3 points, but I wished we had done that with better football.
Always nice to win the first match. Great goal bij Lieke Martens, our first women WC goal. 2nd half was not good but glad they managed a clean sheet.
They defended just well enough but this will not be good enough to progress very far in the tournament. Things will have to be ratcheted up several notches. Still, it was a very enjoyable match. I don't envy those of you in Holland have to stay up all night long to watch these matches!
Defense got off to a nervy start, but then settled down and played really well. It was their first WC match ever, so I will cut them some slack and I think things will improve from here on out. I know they can play better then this
Still, I expect more athleticism from the women. Better quick feet. Better passing ability. Higher handling speed. They intended to build up from the back, but had no answer to the early pressure as a result of that many balls were blindly kicked forward and failed to connect. So much work is ahead. It is hard to accept that many mediocre national sides with men football are much better than the Netherlands in women football. I mean NZ? NZ deserved a draw here, brought the game to the Netherlands and were simply stronger the second half. Made Netherlands play bad football. That is unacceptable. We should dwarf these kind of nations. Again, so much work ahead us. This is our first WC. Netherlands came from far, were late to the game of women football. Women football had a bad association for long. Was not considered a women sport. Not feminine enough. In the informal banter circuit, women doing it were considered the wrong kind of lesbians with short hair and manlike behavior. I am happy that the era of stereo typing is over and that we have moved on to taking it serious. Growth of football in the Netherlands comes from women participation and is even the fastest growing sport under women IIRC. Good sign. We will need to make the talent pool bigger to become a force in football as well. I think the world is waiting for a strong Dutch NT, like we are at men football. We add to the color of the sport, literally and non literally. We have the coaching, infrastructure and size of a country that can make the international competition better, which can lead to more popularity of the sport world wide. However for the Dutch women to honor the beautiful Orange shirt they must command respect with their brand of football and ability in the small spaces. Not being able to football out of the NZ pressure is a huge sign of how many steps this team has yet to make.
I think that we should make a big plan to catapult Dutch women football, like the volleyball team did when the won the Olympic title in 1996. They need to come together much longer or even a whole year and play against top resistance. At least the girls playing at club level in the Netherlands. The reality is that a men team of lower caliber will already be too much for women football teams, but that is good for them. The U19 NT team of the men will already prove to be too much. I think we must make a plan from the KNVB and force top klasse teams to play 1 game in their season against the women NT. Only by playing against better teams the women can make a lot of improvement.
Can we at least not celebrate our Lionesses first WC win?? Yes it wasnt pretty, but they did have some good counter-attacks, and 3 points is 3 points. Very effective defending as well, NZ created almost no chances once they got into the box
Great, now the Chinese also press as they probably saw us against NZ not being able to deal with that.