There is a verb that has recently entered the always dynamic and curious lexicon of football that I am very fond of. This is the word “specular”. There are teams that speculate on the game, footballers that approach the narrative of the match in a speculative way. Which is like who says to study the game, understand what’s coming, contemplate reality and only then act. The game speculates who does not want to catch, at least in certain and certain moments, who does not want to take the initiative. It is likely to be the old “pragmatism”, who knows, but in this football thing we always like to innovate in the dictionary, even when we don’t have to.
Having said that, the best of this Netherlands – United States of America, the game that opened the round of 16 of this 2022 World Cup, is that nobody speculated: it was a dynamic, open game, with bard transitions and eyes on the goal of both teams. And in the end, the one who, among individual talent on the field and on the bench, was at a higher level won.
And this superior level also presupposes some, there it is, pragmatism. Strategists are just like that and Louis van Gaal has been at this football thing for longer than many of us walking the planet. The start of the game, lively and energetic, with the United States on top, needed some objectivity, which the Netherlands did not take long to provide. At 3′, Pulisic missed a clear opportunity and, in response, Memphis Depay scored in the Netherlands’ first promising chance, in a beautiful quick move that turned the flank, with Frenkie de Jong getting rid of the pressure, the ball going from player dressed in orange after player dressed in orange until reaching Dumfries, slightly faded in this World Cup until this Saturday. The lateral crossed late and Memphis-not–Tennessee appeared in the 11 meter zone to pull over. Very simple and effective.
The United States, who were already well into the game, continued to harass the area, with Weah and Dest scaring them. But it would be at a stage when the match was even deadlier – and with the North American players begging for the break – that the 2-0 appeared, an almost copy of the first, with the difference that it all started with a throw-in in right. A couple of tables shaped the play well, with Dumfries again crossing late. This time it was Daley Blind to pull over.
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The break didn’t change the game, which after the break came back fast, proactive. Tim Ream would have reduced it in the first few moments if Cody Gakpo hadn’t been on the line to save and then Memphis Depay’s failure festival began, with three clear opportunities each separated by 10 minutes. All wasted.
On the other hand, the entry of Haji Wright into the attack presupposed a more direct football from a team that suffered and scored few goals in the group stage, but that does not shy away from looking for them: this from football be superior to soccer it used to be much more true. And it was even the substitute who brought some excitement back to a game that always seemed to be open, despite the greater Orange competence in the decisive moments. After a missed opportunity, in the corner Wright gave a magical touch to the ball that turned into a kind of hat that deceived Noppert. An apparently involuntary touch, who knows, or not, let’s think not, let’s believe that it was all for the beauty of the game.
What mattered at the time was that the United States could dream of a draw.
The problem is that four minutes later, at 80′, Dumfries stopped assisting to score himself, coming from the wing to deliver a wide cross from Blind. Perhaps too hard a blow for the United States, which, there it is, did the country a favor. football never speculating with the game. The North Americans are going home, but with the certainty that there is a good generation for the World Cup at home, in four years’ time. And the Dutch will rest in the ‘quarters’ knowing that, next, Argentina and Messi may come, but with people like Depay, Dumfries, Aké or Van Dijk gradually rising in level in Qatar. No speculation.
