Van Dijk is not satisfied with the performance of the Netherlands
"I think the Netherlands can still play better than they showed today," Van Dijk said after the win at Khalifa. "I feel the team is playing better game by game. The Netherlands can play beautiful football, and have shown it many times against the US."
According to the captain, the captain also thinks that the Netherlands can be stronger if they control the ball well. Yesterday, Van Dijk and his teammates only had 42% of the ball. In the group stage, except for the victory over Qatar in the last leg where they controlled 63% of the time, the Netherlands also only achieved 54% and 55% of possession against Ecuador and Senegal.
Before the US, the Netherlands entered the game slowly but opened the scoring from 10 minutes. After opening the ball to the right of Cody Gakpo, Denzel Dumfries stretched a touch for Memphis Depay to cross the corner to beat goalkeeper Matt Turner. In the first minute of compensation, the Netherlands doubled the gap under the same scenario. Dumfries went wide to the right and then stretched to let Daley Blind shoot a touch to the near corner.
In the second half, the US shortened the score thanks to Haji Wright's ice cut. However, the Netherlands quickly maintained a two-goal gap, with Dumfries' diagonal volley in the 81st minute.
Van Dijk was particularly delighted with the Netherlands' first two goals, saying his teammates had thoroughly practiced such situations. In particular, the orange team completed 20 consecutive passes before Depay opened the scoring, the most passes leading to a Dutch goal at the World Cup since 1966.
While Depay hit 43 goals, just seven short of Robin van Persie's record for the Netherlands, Blind became the second oldest player to score for the orange team at the World Cup at 32 years and 269 days.
Similar to coach Louis van Gaal, Van Dijk confidently affirmed that the goal of the Netherlands is to win the Gold Cup in Qatar.
With two assists and one goal, Dumfries was voted player of the match. He is the first Dutch player to create two goals in the first half of a World Cup match, and the third player to contribute to three goals in a Dutch game at the World Cup, after Rob Rensenbrink (twice). in 1978) and Johan Cruyff (1974).
After the game, the 26-year-old emphasized that this performance was a response to criticism that he did not play well in the group stage. Dumfries also revealed Van Gaal was not satisfied despite the Netherlands leading 2-0 after the first half, and asked the whole team to put more pressure in the second half.
