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A fair result but Netherlands should have sewn that up after Summerville’s goal. Instead they decided to cock a snook at Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels, switch to a back five and got mugged from a set-piece. Very enjoyable game all round. The group stage is so long it’s hard to mak definitive judgment from one match but both teams look well-placed to go through to the knockout stages.
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Some hopeful but ultiamtely aimless Dutch crosses into the box reek of desperation.
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National football stereotypes turned on their head. The Dutch went for Total Caution on taking the lead again and Japan threw forwards on asn started to move the ball forward with urgency, leaving their defenders unprotected by the midfield blanket.
Four minutes to go.
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Netherlands 2 Japan 2 (Kamada) Corner from the right bypasses the near-post sentry. Ogawa rises to the right of the penalty spot to head it down powerfully on to Kamada’s head and past Verbruggen who reacted very late as the deflection barely made the ball deviate.
What an end to a game that, 45 minutes ago, you’d anticipated plenty would have been snoring in their armchairs. Japan’s determination and refusal to give up has given them a lifeline, deservedly too. There is still time for them to pilfer a winner, too.
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Van de Ven’s pace enables him to catch Kamada who had been played in from the right by Junya Ito’s cute pass.
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The Dutch have retreated into a line of five and one of three and stationing themselves so deep brings alarms when the excellent Nakamura whips over a cross from the left that sails through the box to the right. The ball is crossed back in towards the back post and Van Dijk has to be on his toes to head it away.
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The attendance is announced as 69,200 and change, possibly 25 more souls. Depay is booked for running straight into Taniguchi. Shiogai replaces Ueda up top.
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The Dutch opt for ‘what we have we hold’ by switching to a back five with the introduction of Nathan Ake for Gravenberch.
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Ange Postecoglou said at half-time that Japan were historically risk averse tactically but they have now switched to 3-4-1-2 and fashion an attack down the inside-right channel with Sugawara and Junya Ito linking up slickly to work a shooting opportunity from 18 yards that Verbruggen backpedals to save.
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The substitutions have disrupted the flow.
Some statistics are there in plain sight and easily found but they can still shock you. Memphis Depay has just entered the fray and does so as the Netherlands’ all-time leading scorer. You would think that title should go to someone such as Marco van Basten (it would have been had injury not intervened), Dennis Bergkamp or Johan Cruyff but Depay is well clear with 55 goals, five ahead of Robin van Persie. He’s been a good player in his career but an all-time great? We’ll leave that to you to decide.
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In a last contribution from Doan and Watanabe, Doan plays a neat one-two with the marauding centre-back, sends him to the byline where only Van de Ven’s speed and excellent timing in a recovery tackle stops him teeing up Ueda.
Ogawa → Watanabe
Tomiyasu → Doan
Sugawara → Kubo
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Gakpo chases a diagonal pass out towards the left corner flag, brings it back upfield from the byline and cracks a right-foot shot from an angle of about 45 degrees that Suzuki bats behind with a smart, near-post save.
Kubo is struggling and signalling that he will have to come off.
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Some subs to catch up on:
Junya Ito → Maeda
Quinton Timber → Summerville
Memphis → Malen
Koopmeiners → Reijnders.
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The second water break allows us to catch our breath. But just before Kubo had lashed a 30-yard effort that almost crept in.
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Netherlands 2 Japan 1 (Summerville) A minute after receiving a yellow card for a trip on Watanabe, Summerville, who has made a career out of cutting in off the left on to his right and bending it into the top right corner, produces almost the mirror image of his trademark goal when Dunmfries’ overlapping run diddles a defender to leave a gap and allow Summerville to tack in from the right to the left and laser a shot from the right of the D into the bottom left corner, kissing the post on its path in. It’s only his third cap.
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Netherlands 1 Japan 1 (Nakamura) Nakamura is given space in the box to the left of the penalty spot to collect Sano’s pass, take a touch to shift the ball to the right and then another before spinning to skewer his shot through Van Hecke’s legs to equalise. Maeda intelligently hops out of the as a touch would have been from an offside position.
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Summerville is growing into the game and his role, steaming past Ito to cut a pass back from the byline to Malen who can’t quite get there.
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Netherlands 1 Japan 0 (Van Dijk) Reijnders cross from the free-kick is dreadful. Japan head it away at the near post but the ball is pounced upon by Dumfries who shifts it to the right to Gravenberch who whips a wonderful, dipping cross to the left of penalty spot to the captain who buries his header into the bottom right corner, adding a touch of swazz that made it bend in late inside the post.
What was it we told you in the first update? Virgil van Dijk wants to come back clutching the World Cup and what a beautiful header that is to get The Netherlands up and running. He’s coming off the back of his most prolific campaign for Liverpool (eight) and he took that wonderfully. Few defenders in history were better at scoring than Ronald Koeman, the Netherlands head coach, and he was certainly approving of that. Let’s hope it lifts the game now.
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Doan obstructs Gakpo as he tried to run past him down the left and the ref rightly awards a free-kick.
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A minute later they’re in down the right again with Summerville and Gravenberch and the latter goes for a similar centre. Once more Gakpo is five yards behind the trajectory of the cross. When Gravenberch made the run it was obvious he could only whip it through yhe six-yard box.
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Netherlands are the quicker out of the blocks, sending Summerville down the right and he beats Ito to ping a daisycutter of a cross through the six-yard box that was perfect for a back-post run. But no one did what they should have done.
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Chances have started to come in the last 15 minutes. Netherlands look vulnerable in transitions when Japan flood forward in numbers but they have also created a few opportunities themselves. As Dom King says, De Jong should help them maintain a higher tempo and Reijnders needs to get on the ball in the inside-forward channels and look for passes into Malen who is playing well.
Watching The Netherlands, actually, is a bit like watching Liverpool towards the end of Arne Slot’s reign. Precise possession, lots of passes, lots of circulation but no cutting edge. Japan are superbly well drilled and athletic but everything is in front of them and that is the easiest thing to defend against. There is opportunity here for them if they choose to pursue it.
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Dutch corner on the right is met again by Malen and Suzuki smothers it at the second attempt.
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Now Ueda slips between Van de Ven and Van Dijk to trap an inswinging curling cross from the left. His touch drops the ball into his straide but he batters his half-volley into the side netting.
There will be three minutes of water time to add on.
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Big chance for Japan after more sloppy defending, when Summerville misjudges Doan’s cross, gives Nakamura a shoooing chance from 18 yards left of centre but he slices his shot wide.
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Van Dijk tries to force a pass through the Japan press and it is picked off by Sano who triggers a counter-attack with the ever lively Maeda down the left. An overhit cross les Van Dijk off the hook. An unpopular opinion but I have thought all season that Konate copped more flak than Van Dijk from Liverpool fans but should have been the other way round though I concede Van Dijk has a Fort Knox-worth of credit in the bank.
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The Oranje are enjoying their best spell of sustained pressure but Japan are so well drilled in shape and such wonderful athletes that there’s very little space in the middle and even less down the wings.
There are always players from outside the Premier League who you want to study and, hopefully, flourish and Frenkie de Jong falls into that category. It doesn’t seem like seven years since he took England apart in a Nations League semi-final but time moves quickly – which is something you currently can’t say about the Netherlands, whose efforts in possession are slovenly. De Jong should have them playing quicker.
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Dutch free-kick on the right. Reijnders takes and whips an outswinger to the back post. Watanabe under pressure from Dumfries heads it back across his own area and Gakpo lunges at it to reach it but with no control having stretched so far, resulting in poking it over the bar.
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Suzuki fumbles Malen’s firm header at his feet from a corner but Van de Ven from a tight angle snatches at his effort from the rebound when a header across the area would have been Netherlands’ better option.
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There’s a discussion on ITV between Messrs McCoist and Champion about Dutch journalists who say that while the Dutch are functionally a good side they do lack flair and imagination. They agree with the criticism and it’s fair to say there’s no one in this side quite like Sneijder or Bergkamp, never mind Gullitt or the immortal No 14.
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Van de Ven shows us his famed pace and leaves Doan for dust but his cross isn’t in the same class as his acceleration and Japan welly it clear.
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Nakamura is teed up for a shot about 16 yards out by a pass in from Kubo on the right. But Dumfries is on him in an instant and he takes a touch and dips his shoulder to try to manipulate him out of the way. Dumfries sticks to his task and Nakamura works it back to Ito galloping upfield from the back to hoof a shot over the bar from about 22 yards. Optimistic.
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Nakamura sends Maeda offf on a run down the left. Van Hecke jockeys and forces the Celtic man to double back and offload to Kamada whose diagonal is headed out by Van de Ven.
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Japan really do turn into a 3-6-1 when the Dutch have the ball deep.
This generation... rules the nation... with hydration.
Time for a water break. Pass the Dutchie(s)...
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Summerville seems to be getting to grip with his role on the right and does a Doku style stop-explosive start number on his marker Nakamura but his thunderous cross is cleared at the back stick by Watanabe.
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Swift, incisive attack utilising a left-side triangle with Gravenberch up to Gakpo who cuts in off the left to fire a pass into Malen’s feet. His velvet touch take sit to the defender’s left but the ball spins away from him just as he was in position to shoot with his left, making him trip over his feet.
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Van Dijk, not for the first time this season, is guilty of dawdling and lets Nakamura slip down the outside but Van Hecke races over on the cover to make a crisp sliding block in his area to halt the attack and keep it away from Maeda.
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Maeda faces up Dumfries and uses his formidable engine and pace to out Dumfries under pressure. The right-back, seemingly bound for Real Madrid, does well to stand up to it and put it behind for a corner.
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Handsome pass from Kamada with the outside of his foot sends Nakamura off through midfield to send Doan down the right. Kubo joins him but Van Dijk reads the pass intended for Doan and clears his lines.
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Bright start by both sides and Japan’s first sustained period of laying siege to the Dutch penalty area ends with Maeda’s slip.
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The free-kick leads to a Japan corner when Van Dijk turns Maeda’s cross behind.
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Japan defend the corner well and also Summerville’s ping of a pass back into the box. Japan break and Nakamura is hauled down by Van de Ven who uses his pace to motor over from left to right to make a foul that should really have brought him a yellow card.
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Gakpo fizzes a pass in from the left to Malen, back to goal by the left of the D. He takes a touch, spins and rolls Watanabe and absolutely leathers a shot towards the left of goal about halfway up and Suzuki dives to turn it behind for a corner with strong wrists.
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Van Hecke, playing as the right centre-half, sprays a pass out to Gakpo on the left wing and he checks inside. Summerville, who did all his best work for Leeds and West Ham, is on the right. He is right-footed, though.
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Netherlands kick off, attacking from left to right, and they launch it forward, giving the ball away when Taniguchi wins the header. Japan have a foray up the left but also lose the ball and back come the Dutch, Reijnders looking for Malen with a smart, diagonal and Taniguchi clears again.
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The Dutch are in all orange, ditching the white or black shorts of the past. Japan wear blue shirts and white shorts. First the national anthems.
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Don’t take it to the Toon. They chin nags up there...
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But their fans have travelled in numbers and have their own matchgoing rituals
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Netherlands Verbruggen; Dumfries, Van Hecke, Van Dijk, Van de Ven; Gravenberch, De Jong, Reijnders; Summerville, Malen, Gakpo.
Substitutes Roefs, Flekken, Geertruida, Ake, Wieffer, Hato, De Roon, Kluivert, Til, Quinten Timber, Koopmeiners, Weghorst, Depay, Lang, Brobbey.
Japan Z Suzuki; Watanabe, Taniguchi, H Ito; Doan, Sano, Kamada, Nakamura; Kubo, Maeda; Ueda.
Substitutes Osako, Hayakawa, Sugawara, Itakura, Nagatomo, Seko, Tomiyasu, J Suzuki, Tanaka, K Ito, Y Suzuki, Machino, Goto, Ogawa, Shiogai.
Referee Ismail Elfath (USA)
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Malen, Summerville and Gakpo start up front in 4-3-3, Memphis on the bench.
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