They are
currently ranked by FIFA as #8 in the world.
They won the Algarve Cup last year [they weren’t so hot this year,
though]. In 2017, they ended Germany’s
22-year reign at the summit of European women’s football by winning Euro
2017. They struggled to qualify for this
year’s World Cup, but they have yet to lose in this year’s tournament. They
survived a marathon match against Sweden to advance to the World Cup
final. The Netherlands women's national
football team [The Orange Lionesses] is the only thing standing in the way of the United States successfully
defending their world championship. What makes them tick?
Strengths: The
main strengths are in attack. This is not a team that plays
conservatively. When you've got three of
the four top scorers in the history of your team on your side, you are in great
shape. Lieke Martens has had a strong tournament, but striker Vivianne Miedema
is the country's all-time leading scorer with 61 goals, and she's just 22 years
of age. She is a goal-scoring machine, scoring 31 goals in 27 appearances for
her club team, Arsenal. Martens isn’t the only Dutch attacker worth noting,
either. On the opposite side is Shanice van de Sanden, who coincidentally plays
for Lyon. She’s a speedster capable of racing up the right wing and into the
box at will. The Netherlands’ main source of attacks is from the flanks. They
love to play with width and they rotate the ball around the flanks a lot. With
the full-backs sitting quite high, the center-mid drifting wide, and the winger
dropping deep – they are often able to open up spaces and attack the flanks
with their passing. Martens, Miedema, and
van de Sanden are in the same league as Tobin Heath, Alex Morgan and Megan
Rapinoe. American defenders Crystal Dunn
and Kelley O’Hara will be very busy on Sunday.
The aerial game
is a Dutch strength. Five goals
out of the 12 scored have come from headers.
Watch out for set pieces [corner kicks, free kicks]. Dutch midfielder Sherida Spitse has set up
four goals and all of them have been from set plays. Spitse is flanked by the
energetic Jackie Groenen [who scored the game-winner against Sweden] and the often-elusive
Danielle van de Donk. She is an outstanding
playmaker in her own right, but she’s also developed into an all-around
midfielder over the last few seasons.
The Dutch like to play diagonal long passes from the back. The players that are responsible for these
passes are defender Dominique Bloodworth and midfielder Spitse. Both of them have extraordinary vision and
are able to deliver perfectly-weighted, accurate passes almost all the time. The
Dutch always want to advance quickly. This is why we see a lot of long forward
passes from behind, usually diagonally. To
prevent these passes from happening, the opposing team should mark and press
these two aggressively. If you give them time and space, they’ll deliver those
passes. These diagonal passes are
extremely vital in the Netherlands’ attacking play as they always looked to
break quickly from wider areas.
The Orange Lionesses seem to break quickly whenever they
find gaps to exploit. And they are, of course, even more dangerous after
winning possession. They try to launch a quick counter immediately after winning
possession in the middle of the pitch. The forwards are always ready to make a
run and the passers seem to always know where to pick out these attackers. They love to catch the opposing team napping
on the break. They are extremely quick and dangerous on the
counter. They press aggressively and try
to win the ball from as high up the pitch as possible. They tend to press
immediately after losing possession and brake forward quickly after that.
Weaknesses:
They conceded in three straight games before a shutout against Italy in the
quarter final. Sometimes it is due to playing too cautiously on defense, and
other times the team will double team and leave space open in the middle. They
have to be more alert there. The
Netherlands do have one very good, and very physical, defender in Stefanie van
der Gragt, but she’s injury-prone. The rest
of the defense has the same problem as the team as a whole: they’re young and
inexperienced at the top level. That problem is more pressing in defense,
because there’s not a vast wealth of talent like there is in front of them. They practice the maxim of “a good defense is
a good offense.” The Dutch defenders don’t
have to defend as much because the ladies in front of them are always
attacking.
If they beat the Americans on Sunday, they will have done
so in their very first final.
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