Gakpo celebrates one of his three World Cup goals. /
World Cup Qatar 2022
THIS SATURDAY, at 4:00 p.m.
The Netherlands and the United States open the round of 16 with a more even match than it might seem a priori
The round of 16 breaks the ice with the Netherlands-United States, a cross with more equality than it may seem a priori. Van Gaal’s team did their homework in the first phase and passed as the leader of their group, but without brilliance. A pragmatic football that nobody falls in love with and that does not aim for very high levels in the tournament, except for the emergence of Cody Gakpo, the Dutch sensation and one of the pleasant surprises of the World Cup.
At 23, the PSV footballer is the new leader of the Netherlands. He made his international debut in June of last year and in his twelve games with the ‘oranje’ shirt he has scored six goals, three of them in the World Cup that make him lead the scorers table, and he has distributed two assists. Numbers that reinforce his powerful records at PSV where in 24 games he has scored 13 goals and provided 17 assists.
Gakpo marked Senegal with his left foot, Ecuador with his right and Qatar with his head, showing his varied qualities that were already detected before his explosion by big Europeans, such as United, who came close to signing him last summer. That is precisely the idea of the English for this winter market, but the price is not the same. For less than 70 million euros, PSV is not willing to sell Gakpo, who would come to fill the gap left by Cristiano Ronaldo’s goodbye. In fact, the player himself has confessed on several occasions that he would love to play in the Premier and, specifically, under the command of his compatriot Ten Hag, so it is clear that his destiny in January is close to Manchester.
The rooms, the best ‘yankee’ data
The Dutchman will be the man to watch for the United States, which seeks to match their best performance in a World Cup, when in 2002 they reached the quarterfinals, where they were eliminated by Germany (1-0). To do this, he has a batch of talented young people who have aroused the illusion of a country where soccer has been rubbing shoulders with the most popular sports for some time, such as baseball, the NFL or the NHL. McKennie, Weah, Pulisic, Tyler Adams, Musah, Dest… The United States have the talent and nerve to scare anyone, as they already demonstrated by drawing with England, one of the tournament favourites. The match will be played this Saturday (4:00 p.m., Khalifa Stadium) and from this pairing the rival of Argentina or Australia will come out for the quarterfinals.
