By Amy Tennery
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Netherlands coach Andries Jonker is promising must-watch football when his team face four-times champions United States on Thursday in the Women’s World Cup group stage.
In a highly anticipated rematch of their 2019 final, the two sides will clash in Wellington with plenty on the line.
The United States are gunning for an unprecedented third straight title while the Dutch will want to revive the spirit of their 2017 European Championship win.
“This will be an example of modern women’s football. It will be a fight from the first minute until the last with teams who want to compete, teams who want to win, teams who respect each other, who both have no fear,” Jonker told reporters.
“Both want to win the group so this is going to be a really good match.”
The Netherlands opened their campaign with a 1-0 win over debutants Portugal on Sunday, when Lineth Beerensteyn suffered an ankle injury. They will likely have to manage without the striker on Thursday.
The loss is added pain for a squad already missing all-time top scorer Vivianne Miedema, who was unable to recover in time for the tournament from an ACL injury sustained in December.
They face a United States that are trying to retool their finishing power after missing a series of chances in their opening 3-0 win over Vietnam.
“We all know America has been one of the best teams in the world for a long, long time. I think they still have so much quality on the pitch but I think we’re growing too,” said Dutch midfielder Jackie Groenen.
“We have two teams with different kind of qualities who are going to match up really well.”
Groenen said she and her team mates were trying to stay focused on the present against the United States, who knocked them out in the Olympic quarter-final two years ago.
“We have a lot of respect for America,” she said. “We’re also not trying to dwell on what’s been.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in Wellington; editing by John Stonestreet)
