Was Roord a striker when she first came up at FC Twente and in the Dutch youth teams? She is listed as scoring a lot of goals, more than the typical MF.
That England game is my favorite Groenen performance and one of my all-time favorites of any player, so I definitely remember that Stokes (and then Duggan) play. I’ve had my complaints about Spitse over the years, but I agree about her positive impact. Agreed that they don’t score particularly often, but outside of “tomato cans”, I don’t think this World Cup as a whole was one for goal scoring mids. (Italy may not be a powerhouse, but Jamaica’s still a low ranked team. So, I don’t even know if I’d give that much weight to those goals from midfield. I suppose you can give Henry a shout for two if you don’t see South Korea as a weak team.) I’m actually not the biggest fan of the word “tomato can”, but I don’t recall many midfield goals against the higher ranked nations this World Cup. (Of course, there was a lot of solid midfield play throughout the tournament to make up for that.) My memory could indeed be a bit off here, but that’s my impression.
No, you are right--I don't think there were many goals by midfielders in this WWC. Has anyone got access to a final of the replay that s/he could link? I had one a few days ago, watched the first half, and now cannot find it or any other full replay. Ugggh. I want to watch the first 15 minutes of the second half.
I found this over at the Ref forum: https://fifafrauenwm.sportschau.de/frankreich2019/videos_audios/index.html. Hopefully, it's pretty safe. You'll find USA-Netherlands 2nd half at the bottom.
I made an extensive post that's still awaiting moderation on AllWhiteKit (may post here if it's not allowed within a few days), but I've come to the realization that Groenen will often enough not be rated particularly well by inStat/Henderson largely because of her style of play leading to lower pass completion and challenge completion rates. Groenen often times finds herself right on the right touchline, and she will often enough keep playing the ball forward on the flank to force the issue even if her passes get knocked out or are off the mark. She also will move around the pitch and try to get into as many challenges as possible, which can lead to a less impressive challenge completion rate and plays like Iwabuchi and Mewis beating her. However, because of her raw passing and defensive ability, she will still rack up a significant number of quality, critical passes and tackles/blocks/interceptions, and in my opinion, what you don't see from stats outside of "key passes" is how good and important quite a few of those passes and defensive plays are. I don't exactly get the turnover machine remark for this tournament; however, Groenen will sometimes give the ball up either from players getting right up on her and crowding her out or in her attempts to make something happen offensively. I accept those turnovers for the most part though because Groenen's often pretty press resistant in my opinion and her offensive and defensive contributions solidly outweighed the dispossessions that rarely put the Dutch in particularly dangerous positions over the course of the World Cup. [And yes, I'm not including that clear foul by Mewis; that no call still (irrationally) annoys me.] I had other disagreements with the last entry, but I'll only note the point about Wiegman having to trust in (and develop) her depth. As I mentioned elsewhere on BigSoccer, Wiegman and Ellis used the same number of players in the knockouts by my count, and no such "trust in" remark was made for Ellis. On a different note, I hope Martens only plays a part in the first two Euro 2021 qualifiers if her toe is completely 100% healthy by then. The Dutch shouldn't need her for those matches, so the coaching staff should be cautious with her if she still has niggling health issues come late August.
I came across this list of the most promising young women's talent in The Netherlands. The writer makes them all sound like future NT stars, which is doubtful but we'll hope that's the case anyway! https://nos.nl/artikel/2264633-toekomst-van-oranjevrouwen-de-20-grootste-talenten-van-nederland.html
Well, I was able to get another Dutch football fix today, watching The Netherlands play Norway in the U19 UEFA championship. It was an easy win for the Dutch, who dominated Norway and won 5-0. Norway's keeper didn't help her team as she made two howlers that resulted in Dutch goals--fumbling away balls in her box that went straight to Netherlands players, who put them in the net. This match was effectively over after 5 minutes, by which time the Dutch had already scored twice to take a 2-0 lead. It seems a solid Dutch squad--some size and athleticism, good passing, and they've got some players--natch--up front. Center Forward Joelle Smits is a promising striker--she's got some pace and scored twice, one after an impressive solo run and finish.
Ajax women are bolstering their roster for the upcoming season. Kika van Es has left for Everton but Desiree van Lunteren returns to the club from Freiburg. In addition, Samantha van Diemen, Joanna van de Velde, and Kirsten van der Westeringh all moved up from the youth program. Stefanie Bukovec comes over from Split in Croatia along with Lucie Vonkova from Bayern and Victoria Pelova from ADO. Ajax will have a stronger team than last year but are still not up to Lyon quality.
Interesting news about Van Lunteren. I'm surprised that one of the better or ambitious sides in the Europe didn't sign her. She's no Bronze but she's got 75 caps with the Dutch NT and a Euro championship and 2nd in the World Cup--how many other players have that sort of credential? Manchester United should have signed her, along with Groenen. I'm glad she left Freiburg, which sounds like a crappy situation--but going to Ajax feels like a step back for her. She could play with an upper-tier club in Europe. I like Van Es, but Van Lunteren is a better player, IMO, and Van Es is now with a mid-tier FA WSL side. I don't know a lot about Everton's roster, but they are easily a full notch below the top sides in that league. Ajax is a long way from the quality of Arsenal or ManCity or Barcelona, much less Lyon--too many young players. I'm guessing that, on a good day, it might be at mid-tier FA WSL level. Look at all the bench players for the Dutch NT--most play in the Eredivisie. It's hard for a player to maintain his or her quality if s/he is playing with 19-20 year olds, even if they are promising talents, and against a lot of mediocre teams. Van Lunteren needs a better rep, maybe, or it could be that she just didn't get the offers I think she deserves.
@L'orange - The Dutch men's league is no great shakes but Ajax managed to make it to within five seconds of a Champions League final. I take your point but the women's league will not get better unless some good players stay home and play. the last thing I want to see is 19 year olds leaving too early. We'll see what happens.
When Feyenoord has it's women team in the Eredivisie in 2-3? years time, maybe Miedema is coming back.
I don’t see Miedema going back to the Eredivisie at all or at least until her final years as a player.
Certainly putting some expectations on Jonna van de Velde. I'm now expecting an all-action midfielder with world class deep lying playmaking abilities if she ultimately makes it to a big club and/or gets on the NT as a starter. Cool to see that you pointed out one of the names as having a good game against Norway.
I just checked out Google. Norway used four subs and the Netherlands used five? Apart from college football in the United States, I thought competitive matches once you reach the elite levels always only allowed 3 subs during regulation. I guess not if Google's right.
Got me curious so I checked out UEFA website. It looks like both Norway and Netherlands used five subs. https://www.uefa.com/womensunder19/season=2019/matches/round=2000937/match=2027466/lineups/index.html?iv=true
Main thing, I hadn't heard about being allowed more than 3 subs either but I don't follow the U-xx tournaments closely.
The Norwegian U-19 keeper was really poor, responsible for two of the goals. Norway looked two steps slower on the other three goals. Dutch play France on Friday.
Yes, teams are allowed 5 subs each in this tournament. I don't know what the UEFA/FIFA youth tournament substitution rules have been in the past--but don't they generally allow more subs? I actually like the idea of 5 subs and think it should be used universally in football/soccer. I've never liked the 3-sub max rule in this sport; 5, to me, makes more sense and might offer a bit more action, since you'd be getting two additional fresh players in a match on each side. (Of course, one could argue that they'd neutralize each other, but that's another matter!). And given that there are often injuries in soccer, which require a sub, teams often have to make do with two preferred subs. Others will disagree. I also think that they should ditch this rule that your sub can only enter a match when your team has possession of the ball. Silly. If there are subs for both sides ready to enter, and there is a stoppage of play, let them both enter instead of making the sub from the team without the ball wait another 5 minutes to get on the field. It will save time. I'm lucky that ESPN is streaming these games in the USA--at least they were showing yesterday's games and I hope to see The Netherlands--France match on Friday.
No, for Christ sake, NoNoNo!!!!! Teams with the biggest pockets can afford the best bench/team combo, thus even more making it for less well to do clubs possible to compete. Just imagine oil spoiled teams to have two line ups ready in a CL match and let against a Dutch club run the first line up rampant for 45 minutes and after the break swap the whole bunch for an equaly good line up to run amok on that poor Dutch team. NONONONO
Not quite as animated about this as feyenoordsoccerfan is, but I also disagree. I'm completely fine with 3 (+1 for extra time) in competitive fixtures. This isn't already how things work? In Netherlands vs Canada, Canada made two subs in the 69th minute, and the Dutch made two subs in the 70th minute (source: Google). Of course, that may have just been two separate stoppages in play, but I feel like it could have been the same stoppage.
I've never read the rule--but I've heard it mentioned on broadcasts more than a few times: The 4th official is not supposed to send your sub into the game until your team has possession of the ball--when, say, you have a throw-in or goal kick as opposed to the opponent. This is why subs are often ready to come in but stand on the sideline for extended minutes sometimes.
The rules changed for the U- tourneys this season, it used to be three and upped it to five but you have a limited number of opportunities to sub players like three times per half.