Netherlands 3-1 USA (Depay 10′, Blind 45+1′, Dumfries 81′ | Wright 76′)
AL RAYYAN – In the end, it was a lesson. The Netherlands briefly flirted with the foolish notion of giving USA a chance, but within five minutes had decided it was not a good idea. There are very few minutes when any team – or its supporters – can truly relax at a major tournament, where hubris and pride wrestle around every corner. Throughout six minutes of stoppage time, those in orange in stands serenaded vanquished opponents with a song: “Always look on the bright side of life”.
The USA have individual players who may well form the base of World Cup quarter-finalists, but they do not have a team. This is a high-class midfield that protects a lower-tier defence and served a striker who has one season of regular goalscoring in MLS. Louis van Gaal is unbeaten in 19 matches in his latest stint as Netherlands coach. He is not in the business of being caught out by the upstarts.
Van Gaal has always been fairly agnostic about the Dutch desire for possession: “When you have a lot of ball possession, you have a lot of ball possession to create chances, not to play the ball around and not score.” Here was a masterclass. In the first half, Netherlands had far less of the ball but did far more with it. In Cody Gakpo and Memphis Depay, Van Gaal has two of the better counter-attacking forwards in world football. Why not use them?
The Khalifa International Stadium has a London Stadium feel to it, a cavernous bowl in which you sit half a mile from turf thanks to a moat of coloured Astroturf that covers a running track. The atmosphere was often sedate, despite the stakes. Perhaps supporters are simply sick of being asked in a shrieking voice “ARE YOU READY?” and “ARE YOU GONNA MAKE SOME NOISE?”. No, just to spite you.
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But the distant view was a perfect vantage point of Van Gaal’s strategy. His team allowed the USA to dominate possession and territory too. Sergino Dest and Antonee Robinson, Gregg Berhalter’s two full-backs, were allowed to overlap and underlap at will. It created the impression that the US had the Dutch under the cosh.
Here’s the twist. Van Gaal presumably counted upon two things, having watched the US in the group stages and particularly against England. Firstly, for all their possession and invention, the US have been really bad at turning promising positions into clear chances.
Secondly, the defenders who possess the pace in the US defence are those full-backs. Gakpo and Depay were nominally picked as strikers, but one of them is usually found on the wing. Play a ball in behind a full-back, for a forward or Denzel Dumfries, and you are in. Walter Zimmermann and Tim Ream were made to look silly, concentrating so much on charging back towards their own goal to make up the ground that they forgot to check where Depay or Daley Blind were.
This Dutch team has multiple gears. Their move for the first goal was exquisite, a slow-and-slower-to-lightning-fast switch-up that some teams still left in this tournament are incapable of producing under pressure. The composure to retain possession and the courage to risk losing it combined to produce something deeply beautiful. There were shades of Cruyffian philosophy within it, the difficult play made to appear as simple as clicking your fingers.
The worry for those who await the Dutch next – most likely Argentina – is that they seem to be growing into this tournament. Depay, who played 28, 45 and 66 minutes in the group stage matches, is fully fit. Gakpo continues to be a menace but now has company. Dumfries appears to be a player who only performs to his maximum in major tournaments. They are the reverse mullet, all party at the front and business at the back, where Virgil van Dijk surveys his kingdom. We get another few more days of Louis yet.
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