Snoeijs is a 24-year-old forward whom I hadn't really heard of until I saw her starting for Bordeaux in the French league. She's a talented goal scorer: She's got 4 goals in 6 appearances for Bordeaux, playing up front alongside Bunny Shaw. Before signing with Bordeaux, she played for 3 seasons (2018-2020) with PSV in the Dutch league, scoring 33 goals in 36 appearances, Before that she played one season (2017) for VV Alkmaar, scoring 25 goals in 25 appearances. And she scored today for the Dutch. With Wiegman switching Beerensteyn from forward to outside back, replacing Van Lunteren, the Dutch need Snoeijs to play well and bolster their forward group. Nouwen has been on the squad for a year or two as a centerback, and she started today and scored, I believe. She has some size and seems a pretty solid player, though haven't seen her play much.
Miedema and Martens had their contributions, but how often have the Dutch scored that much without either of them scoring? This game was a complete mismatch from the get go.
And Jackie G. with two goals--that's got to be a first for her with the national team! Estonia must have come out and tried to play. Usually, in these qualifiers, the Dutch have to grind out low-scoring wins against teams that park the bus. A nice change that enabled Wiegman to get some younger players some experience.
The Dutch just put Estonia under constant pressure, and Estonia lacked the quality to deal with it. I think Estonia lacked the discipline that Russia had last game out; however, Martens was also much, much better this game, and Miedema had a notably better game too. Of course, Spitse at DM allowed Groenen to play further forward, and she and van de Donk were able to get into good shooting areas throughout the match, which led to both of them getting braces.
Needless to say, Estonia was woefull. Their midfield line was defending at their own 30 meter most of the time. And their lone striker had to deal with the Dutch midfielders on her OWN throughout most of the match. Spitse and Groenen consistently had acres of space [emoji28]
I mean I kind of get the van de Donk praise following these last two games, but seeing people claim she's either the key player or the most dangerous player on the team confuses me a bit. I guess such viewers can try to claim that I'm too focused on goals/assists, but van de Donk needed to do notably better offensively at the last two major tournaments for me to believe that she's really the key/dangerous player for the Oranje Leeuwinnen. In short, she's definitely a critical part of the team, but on the biggest international stage so far, she has not by any means been the key player in my opinion.
The last time I thought she was (going to be) a key player was maybe back in 2015 (going into Euro 2017) but since then she has lost the x factor. Most of the times she contributes nothing, her mouth and swan dives perhaps and maybe 'dressing room leadership' (maybe team mascot is the better term) , but to the play nothing that many of the possible replacements couldn't do (better).
Contributes nothing? A completely silly statement, to be polite. Van de Donk contributes a lot to the Dutch and Arsenal and has for years. She has a big motor, covers a lot of the field and puts in a lot of good defensive work in every game she plays. Indeed, the box-to-box defensive work of her and Groenen are a big reason for the success of the Dutch NT. Beyond that, she is good with the ball in traffic, passes well and is a very tough-minded player. What is it that she should be doing--but isn't? I'm pretty sure that any team playing a 4-3-3 that wins the Euro championship and then comes in 2nd in the World Cup two years later is getting very strong play from its midfield--all of them, as you can't have any weak links in a 3-player midfield. Roord is a stronger pure attacking mid than Van de Donk--but Roord is not going to give you the defensive work rate, all over the field, that VDD provides. What's more, for Arsenal, in 2018-19 VDD had 11 goals and 6 assists in 19 games (second only to Miedema in goals scored, I believe. By any measure that is an excellent season. Last season she had 5 goals/4 assists in 15 games, and has 1 goal/1 assist in 5 matches this year. She is not a major goal-scoring threat but can put the ball in the net. None of the Dutch starting mids are natural goal-scorers and they've haven't had to be. Certainly, she's not very big and can struggle against big, physical teams--and we saw that against PSG and Manchester City/U.S. NT with Mewis. It will be interesting to see who Wiegman starts in the midfield in the Olympics. I do think Roord may be threatening to take VDD's starting job--especially given her early success this year for Arsenal, and she's considerably bigger than VDD--but we'll have to see. My early prediction is that VDD will keep her starting role, with Roord being brought in as a 2nd-half offensive sub, if needed. I'm happy to see Roord come on--she can score, and every team needs more players who can do that--and she seems to be a more well-rounded player than she was a couple of years ago. Some intra-squad competition is always good.
That Dutch player against Kosovo making a hat trick. Could be a big complement to Vivianna. Van De Donk still makes me laugh with so many fouls and cards. Yeah she still gets beat up by Sam Mewis, even the recent game Man City vs Arsenal. But at least she tries. Still love the one in WC19 when she tries to be cheeky with the ball and Sam Mewis wasn't having it.
I'm not really a fan of van de Donk's antics at times (i.e. overly aggressive at times with fouling and ref confrontation while embellishing fouls against her other times), but she definitely contributed at both recent major tournaments, notably defensively as you say. I guess my issue is with the extent of the praise she's gotten recently for her offensive work, which I've come to learn is admittedly mainly focused on post WWC2019 matches. I agree that Van de Donk's not a natural goal scorer. However, you showed that she has gotten good numbers with Arsenal, and she put 4 past Chile right before WWC2019 and has scored fairly frequently post WWC2019. Even not looking at her goals, I thought she had limited run of play contribution to goals/chances at Euro 2017 and WWC2019, which I guess is my answer to how she can do better at the highest international level. I also credit the defending out of midfield as a critical element of the Dutch team, especially at the World Cup, and van de Donk's a big part of that. If she can show at the Olympics what she's shown for Arsenal and the Dutch in qualifiers/friendlies, that'd be a notable bonus.
I didn't realize that she'd got much praise recently for her offensive work. She's hasn't been great this year for Arsenal in big matches--she was not good against PSG --but then neither was anyone else on the team in its first game back in months and clearly the group was not in game shape at all. And Arsenal were bad against ManCity as well--they got bossed. She's long been a fan favorite because she's feisty and cute and talented--but she's got her limitations, for sure, like everyone, and she does embellish fouls (but is quite clever about how and when she does it). She had both a goal and an assist on the first two Dutch goals tonight--admittedly, it was Kosovo, but still. (I"m not sure what Martens was doing on the first goal when she got a very nice pass and had a great chance to shoot with just the keeper in front but instead tried to cut inside with the ball, with three defenders converging, and she lost the ball--which made its way to Van de Donk, who slotted it home. I think of VDD as a classic overachiever: She doesn't wow anyone with her physical qualities--indeed, she's small--but by dint of hard work, mental toughness and the ball skills and tactical nou gleaned from coming up in the Dutch system (and playing against boys for years), she's risen to prominence. And I'd say much the same for Groenen as well. The Olympics will be a challenge for everyone on every team because the competition will be very stiff, like the WC, games will be physical and the stakes high.
I want to see Snoeijs, Nouwen and Wilms play against better competition. They've each got promise, and I think all three will be on the Dutch Olympic squad--but you don't learn much watching them play against Estonia and Kosovo.
On social media. I probably spend more time there than most people here do. She’s gotten more praise for Arsenal following the Brighton and Tottenham matches, but my original comment was focused on the praise for her Netherlands play. I think she’s been great lately for the Dutch, but I’m interested to see if this form holds up at the Olympics.
Praising a nr10 for her defensive work and hustle says enough [emoji6] (that's why I mentioned a while ago she should move to 8 or 6). Everyone and their grandmother can put up those numbers at Arsenal... She used to be a lot better offensively, perhaps when the Dutch were still outsiders/underdog and had more room. By her own accounts she was poor at Euro 2017 and was relieved to finally play a good game in the Final. 2019 WC was even worse...
Too late to edit but the last two games do give some reason for optimism because of the manner scored and eagerness. She most definitely used to be my fav Dutchie and thought she was way underappreciated in 2015 when all the (national) talk was about Miedema and a few other players beforehand (VDD was the key player for the team in my eyes at the time, or maybe x factor for a better term). I'm not critical of her because I can't stand her or anything, she simply hasn't performed in the NT (in the manner you may expect from a nr. 10). Should have scored in the 23rd minute as well yesterday...
Anybody remember the thread in which a good soul posted a link to all the World Cup matches? I've forgotten which one it was. Thanks.
I found the WC replays.... On another note, I saw a tweet from FC Barcelona saying that Martens is hurt. That is not good news. I'm not sure what the injury as as the Google translation described it as "an overload on a leg." Let's hope it's not too serious.
It's in UEFA Euro Qualifiers: Road to England 2021 (top of page thread). Page 7, scroll down. It is Google Drive.
Ha, that is the same one I meant it seems. Only I found the main directory in the past and there is no separate folder called WWC there even though it's supposedly from the same 'drive' [emoji848]. The Euro 2021 qualifier folder is listed on the other hand.. Thnx in any case, might be hidden in the main because it has maxed out the number of downloads/playbacks.