The Dutch are playing in an ultra-fluorescent hue of orange here and there’s a sense that this might be some of this generation’s last chance to illuminate a tournament and send the nation closer to the holy grail. Three times World Cup finalists, and yet still they wait.
The team’s supporters, with their wry humour and sideways look on life, will not be getting idealistic about overcoming a Swedish side who reverted to their desperate qualification levels, but it’s hard to quash the optimism when you think you’ve stumbled on a centre forward.
Brian Brobbey scored twice as the Netherlands cruised to a 5-1 victory over Sweden
BRILLIANT BROBBEY
The pre-match talk had been of Swedes Viktor Gyokeres and Alexander Isak, and how much damage potentially the tournament’s two-man best strike force might inflict on the Dutch. Not Dutchman Brian Brobbey of Sunderland, whose selection hadn’t even been a question of national debate. Marco van Basten described Brobbey a few years ago as ‘technically substandard’ and claimed he lacked the fundamental principles of being a striker. He began the game with one international goal to his name.
Van Basten might want to reappraise himself of that view today. Brobbey displayed that same excellent hold-up play which was a part of his game at the Stadium of Light last season and an ability to get on the end of crosses in the way he always did at Ajax. There is a feeling on Wearside that his mere seven goals in his first Premier League campaign did not really tell the full story.
The burly 24-year-old’s substantial physique allows him that capacity to take possession and lay off the ball, back to goal, providing an outball to the runners. Ronald Koeman was shrewd enough to get wide players close to him in a way Sunderland sometimes haven’t.
Brobbey showed brilliant hold-up play but also got on the end on crosses as he did back at Ajax
SYMPHONY IN ORANGE
It helps when you have this Netherlands team’s depth of talent in proximity. It was Cody Gakpo’s performance at the last World Cup which earned him his move to Liverpool and he seemed lifted from the travails of last season at Anfield, with two goals. Tijjani Reijnders was also a dynamic player in between the lines. These were the two who combined to take Brobbey’s lay off from the centre circle and recycle the ball back into his path from wide to open the scoring.
He was nimble in converting his second, getting the faintest trace of connection on an impeccable low cross. He capitalised on a game plan which had the Dutch operating higher up the field than they had in the 2-2 draw with Japan, flooding players into attacking third. Brobbey would have had a hat-trick by half-time, had Denzel Dumfries not overhit another cross.
The vast orange ranks could barely believe what was unfolding. Though it was eighth v 34th in the world rankings, this was supposed to have been a meeting of near equals, after the Swedish hammering of Tunisia and since the second team in the group face Brazil here, everyone felt the jeopardy.
GYOKERES AND ISAK: TAKING POSITIVES
Looking on, as the Swedish story of renewal under Graham Potter unravelled so badly, was that stellar strike force in blue and yellow who didn’t see this happening. If the outcome were not bad enough, there was evidence that Gyokeres and Isak needed little opportunity to prove what a threat they were.
There was a smart early Gyokeres effort which Dutch goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen saved smartly with his feet and a beautiful, arced ball for Yasin Ayari, whose chest control squandered the chance. Gyokeres then drifted to the margins of a game which was so clinically won in his own side’s box.
There were some positives for Isak. Some may focus on his concession of the ball on the edge of his own box which allowed the Dutch to break away at speed – Crysencio Summerville providing the motor and Gakpo advanced inside the left channel to score his second, low on the angle. But his powerful run and clever, weighted pass delivered Anthony Elanga his goal for Sweden. Virgil van Dijk looked pedestrian in that moment. Isak also set up a chance for his strike partner.
There were some positives for Alexander Isak despite Sweden’s loss, after his clever pass delivered Anthony Elanga his goal
QUESTIONS FOR POTTER
Potter might have been feted for getting the Swedes here but he and his coaching team have some answering to do for a pitiful display nowhere near the level of an established continental football nation.
Four or five Swedes were jogging back through their own half as the Dutch delivered their attacking thrusts and the midfield was a desert.
The ease of Gakpo’s first goal, after a smart one-two between Dumfries and Summerville had produced a cross, told the story. Summerville was not even challenged by Sweden’s defenders when dispatching the fifth.
Graham Potter earned credit for helping Sweden to qualify, but has questions to answer after this pitiful display
Elanga produced an explosing cameo from the bench for Sweden in another consolation
ELANGA’S EXCELLENT CAMEO
The Swedes’ opening win still make qualification possible and Elanga’s explosive contribution from the bench is another consolation. To go with the blazing pace which brought him his goal came a back-heel through the legs of Micky van de Ven on the touchline to burst past him into the box, though his cross came to nothing.
But the occasion was Brobbey’s. At this stage of the last World Cup, Koeman found himself dealing with the mighty ego of Wout Weghorst, who publicly insisted he should start when he was actually never much more than an impact substitute.
On this occasion, Koeman decided that a substitute striker from the Netherlands’ first game would start the second – just as Van Basten did when hammering England at Euro ’88, which Netherlands won. What a dividend that decision paid. As the message on the T-shirts of one group of Dutch fans had it, ‘Houston, we have a solution.’
