The whole Orange Lionesses squad was on the pitch exercising, including Kika van Es, still with a protective cast.
It can be easy sitting around for three/four days watching other days play their opening matches. I'm sure the teams playing tomorrow and Tuesday are chomping at the bit....
here's the lineups for the NZ game New Zealand vs. Netherlands - 11 June 2019 - Women Soccerway so lets get ready to rock n roll!
Orange Lionesses perform a rain dance during their practice. https://www.ad.nl/video/oranje-leeuwinnen-doen-regendansje-tijdens-laatste-training~p85363 Bench:
WOW was expecting the Ferns to bunker but their attacking as the Dutch staying back do they can get their counters going
take that you haka loving Fernies!.....amd as Ive been saying..it's Jill Roord who should be starting instead of the notoriously overrated Groenen but one got to question; after such a strong friendlies game against Australia featuring dozens of long balls, mosly directed toward the wides, why would Wiegmann switch to a more, slower passing type game plan continuesly trying to go through the middle(where Miedema was often trippled teamed)?
This was taken advantage of too little. The times Miedema had 4 circling around her was stupendous and it ment NZ had a shortage of players at the sides or at one side of the box. The ball didnot get there in that empty space or too slow.
"and as Ive been saying..it's Jill Roord who should be starting instead of the notoriously overrated Groenen" Or you could analyze the match and see who actually played the best out of the midfield three and not just go after Groenen because she was the one who was subbed off. Great turn to get out of pressure at the end of the first half to get the ball to van de Sanden, and there was a good quick touch and pass to Martens under pressure that got the Netherlands in good position on the flank. A fantastic pass to release van de Sanden in the second half, and van de Sanden should have found Miedema for a decent chance on goal. Another good quick touch to find van Lunteren in space for a dangerous cross in the second half. Just like in the Euros, only Martens competed with Groenen for the number of good passes that led to openings. Groenen also put in good work as always in this match. Of course, she had mistouches and a couple poor passes, but she was the best starting midfielder for the Dutch. Spitse and van de Donk stayed on because of seniority and not because of performance on the day in my opinion. Full credit to Roord for scoring though. (Her overall play definitely wasn't better, and if you're going to point out Groenen's mistakes, Roord did have a poor pass as well before her goal.) I also didn't think New Zealand looked like the better squad at any point of the match, including the first half. Might have to accept I'm of a minority there though.
The Netherlands was much the better squad, but credit to New Zealand as they are much improved and a /good/ defensive team. I had a feeling this game would be tough--NZ shut out England just a few days ago--and so it was. I thought the Dutch played well against a team that bunkered and was very well organized; when you face a defensive team like this, it often comes down to getting a head on a cross, and that The Netherlands finally did. Miedema is very good technically--but she spent too much time with the ball at times in the 2nd half; she was drawing 3 defenders to her at the top of the box, and she needed to spray the ball wide more quickly. She missed a wide open Martens at one point in the second half--did not get her the ball. If there are three defenders on you, others will be open. I think in games like this, if Van de Sanden and Miedema are drawing lots of attention, the mids need to get forward, find lanes, and shoot the ball. Groenen got in the box and got a good shot off in the first half, but it was saved. NZ seldom lost its shape and pretty much had everybody covered most of the game. Groenen is not overrated and it is crazy to say so. I'm quite sure she would not have been starting for this very good team for three years if she wasn't effective. She does a LOT of good things for this team--and is much better defensively than Roord. To dis Groenen just because Roord got a goal is dumb. She makes a ton of good plays most games. She assisted the Miedema goal against Australia. In any case, it was a good win and I thought Van Es looked solid, as did Van Lunteren, and when is Van Lunteren not solid? We needed Bloodworth to knock that balll in the net at the end of the first half; had she scored there, the game would have opened up much earlier and this game would have been 3-0 to the Dutch instead of a 1-0 nail-biter!
NZ did not bring players forward very much, and that meant the Van de Sanden didn't have the space that she often has. She also had a centerback come over to help the outside back every time she got the ball. Martens had more room, and only one marker, and was able to create some problems for NZ, especially in the first half. The Dutch needed to be a little faster and more decisive in transition in the 2nd half. When a well-organized defensive team has 8+ behind the ball, well, we've all seen a lot of football--it's going to be hard to score, and it probably wil need to be done off a corner or cross into the box, which is what eventually happened--92'! Win and move on.
Indeed, full credit to New Zealand, and they were better offensively than I expected. I just thought the commentators went overboard with how many genuinely good chances they created. The Netherlands easily matched them for chances, and no one on the commentator/analyst crew seemed to recognize that in my opinion. Couldn't agree more, and she could have potentially had another assist for Beerensteyn against Australia. It's also not like Roord has exactly outplayed Groenen in the starts she has had for the Netherlands. (She had the saved shot that led to Miedema's against Mexico, but Groenen had the crossbar shot that led to van de Donk's third against Chile. Like you said, Groenen's also better defensively.) However, full credit to Roord for her impact today. She was critical. Miedema not getting the ball to Martens was very frustrating. I'm not even sure if she was aware of Martens or trying to get the ball to her. Agreed on the midfielders needing to get forward, and I think Groenen's gotten better at that for the Dutch. However, her finishing lately for club and country is one area where she's been inconsistent; I hope she finds form there that she has shown at times with Frankfurt.
Finishing is definitely not a Groenen strength--at least not from what I've seen with the national team. She was /great/ by the way in Euro17'--Van Gaal heaped praised on her play after that tournament. Spitse has a good leg, yet I don't think she had a single shot in this game. We needed the mids to belt a few from top of the box today. Van Lunteren hit one that went high; Martens had a half chance with her left foot early in the 2nd half but it also went high. I thought the Dutch, all in all, played well--but NZ just did not give up many open looks.
Yeah, Groenen's tidy finishes have come with Frankfurt. My favorites are her waltzing across three Wolfsburg players to finish far post, and robbing a Manchester City player (Walsh I think?), holding her off, and then finishing low far post from just outside the box. Inconsistent this season though. Funnily enough, her goal against Freiburg this season was somewhat similar to Roord's goal today. She was great in Euro 2017; I actually thought she was essentially as good as Martens was. Spitse did have one shot late, but it was blocked/cleared around the penalty spot. New Zealand were indeed good defensively, and when the Dutch did break them apart (i.e. Groenen to van de Sanden on the right, Martens to Miedema down the left, and van de Donk to van de Sanden to van Lunteren to Miedema), the final pass/finish wasn't there.
Calling Groenen overrated is certainly a take. She's probably the best midfielder on the team. Ultimately right now I think that the Netherlands transition game was just too slow. They had a bunch of opportunities where they caught the low block of New Zealand out but they plodded and passed horizontally instead of being direct and with Mertens/van de Sanden on the outside they could have definitely attacked with a lot more urgency in those situations. Miedema's decision making is too slow despite her great technical skill and she needs to get better at drawing in marking then laying the ball off to either side or the top because she does do a good job of holding it up. The Netherlands/Canada game should be good; it will be nice to see them against a team that doesn't bunker up (though full credit to New Zealand...as defensive as they played they still really went for it on the counter and looked pretty dangerous a few times).
seems like I got severly critized over my 'Groenen is overrated' comment, and hey, I would value your opnion more..........if you only watched her play over at Frankfurt whenever her club appeared on the DBF website's game of the week. I have watched for the last five years(every single game)......and i can tell you, she's very average! to be sure, German soccer is overly, heavy handed coaching, where the coaches use players more like marionette's than letting them play to their best of their abilites, but if you look at last season's stats(though both are mids) Groenen's 2 goals in 1440 min. of play vs Jill Roord's 7 goals in 1037 min. Don't know her assist record, but last year, Japan's #1 fwd only managed 4 goals all season long at Frankfurt's role striker role. So please go back(before comenting again)and watch Groenen's DBF saved, previous games(though it be hard to find them since websites a mess & apparently Germans prefer men's 4th division soccer over women's 1st div. lol) but we're not talking about Groenen's Bundi play but how well she does for the Orangeness. But hold on. if Wiegmann did listen to you guys instead & did not replace her with Roord; would of we won? now question; can anybody confirm rumours that VVD ditched the Dutch NT to play for the French womens at the WC?
HotJam2 (Who is HotJam 1, by the way?) Funny comment about VVD--or is that Renard?! RE Groenen: Hey, what can we say: If the coaches thought Roord offered more, then Roord would be starting, and she doesn't start. We don't see the players every day and we don't make the personnel decisions, obviously. Groenen is not a big scorer; that is not her role. She is good defensively, passes well in transition, etc. You are too fixated on scoring. She doesn't necessarily need to score on this team. How many goals did she score in Euro17? I think O--and yet she had a great tournament. A good midfielder is someone who can challenge and win balls in the middle of the field, find the right pass, keep the ball, find space--she is good at those things. Roord is definitely more of an attacking mid, and we may see more of her as the tourney progresses. I do think the Dutch midfield needs to start becoming a bit more assertive in attack; the team can't just focus on getting the ball to Miedema every time down the field or The Netherlands will become like Australia with Kerr, and that's not good! They tried some things yesterday--Groenen had a good shot on goal in the first half, by the way--and Van de Donk tried to get in behind the NZ defense a few times in the second half. Van de Donk hasn't been as influential in the last two games as she usually is, I don't think, but then the competition is a lot tougher now. Spitse needs to get forward as well; as holding mid, she naturally sits back--but she's got the strongest leg among the mids and I'd to see her find space around the top of the box and whelp a few shots on goal. This is a tough defensive group, and so the more attacking punch the better.
Did you not read my comment? I never argued against Roord coming in. I argued that Groenen played better than van de Donk and Spitse, and one of them should have come off for Roord. All you did was go after Groenen. Neither van de Donk or Spitse did anything of note while Roord was on the pitch, and Roord also did nothing of note before the goal. That winning goal fairly elevates her performance though. Okay, you want to go back five years. How about go back two years to Euro 2017 where Groenen was the best center midfielder and at worst the second best player of the tournament? Roord has definitely not been better than Groenen in her NT starts, and she hasn't as a whole been better in her sub appearances. I've already pointed to her inconsistent finishing this season, but the overall play this season that I've caught has still often not been average. One example is the Bayern Munich cup match. She set up Freigang's goal with a good entry pass to Feiersinger, and she set up Feiersinger for what arguably should have been a goal. She also scored significantly more than 2 the previous season, and you may want to factor in the quality level difference between the two sides. I guess that difference probably doesn't mean much to you though. I don't know her exact assist record, but she was fairly frequently there with secondary assists and assists. She also still put in a lot of good defensive work for Frankfurt, and she generally possessed the ball under pressure well when I saw her play. You're using Yokoyama as potential proof that Groenen didn't light up the assist board. I think Groenen herself got 6 goals that season; instead, only scoring four might suggest that Yokoyama was missing a lot of setups that should have been assists. (I know there was the 1 goal, 2 assist Groenen performance against Freiburg in that Yokoyama 4 goal season, but I guess that's just one game.) Go back and watch the Euro 2017 matches if you can before commenting. (I can't find any; I wish I could find a replay of that England match. Groenen was beyond good in that one.) Heck, go back and watch the second half of Australia and the Chile match and compare it with Roord's performance against Mexico if you can before commenting. Hard agree to disagree.