Just over two months ago in Eindhoven, in the south of the Netherlands, Jill Roord spent several minutes touching the European sky in the final of the Women’s Champions League that pitted Wolfsburg against Aitana Bonmatí’s Barcelona. The Dutch, blaugrana target last summer after Alexia Putellas tore her cruciate ligament, she has always shown her love for the colors defended by the Sant Pere de Ribes midfielder. “It’s my dream team,” she said from Oldenzaal before playing in the biggest showcase for women’s football at club level at the modern Philips Stadion.
A duel, the one played in the month of June, which ended with an epic comeback for the Catalans to win the title of the best in Europe. Barça, who was down two goals to zero and ended up winning three to two, gave the Germans a lesson in rebellion, tenacity and aggressiveness, three characteristics that perfectly reflect the character of Bonmatí, named ‘MVP ‘ of that final, and that they will meet again with the leader ‘oranje’ in the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup (Friday, 03:00 Spanish time).
the tulip baton
The Netherlands, current runner-up in the world, cannot be understood without the new star of Manchester City, who this summer has broken the bank -more than 400,000 euros- to make it the most expensive signing in the history of women’s football. The same is true of Spain, in whose best version the crack of Barça always appears and a great reference for the Iberian team, who, before the ‘oranje’ machine, will seek to continue making history to take La Roja for the first time in its history to the semifinals of a world cup event Both wear the number ‘6’ on their teams, and both light up the game of their teams, fundamental in the framework of Jorge Vilda and Adries Jonker, Louis Van Gaal’s former assistant at Barça and Bayern Munich.
“The goal is to go further, this team has a lot to say,” said the one who in her day was one of the leaders of the famous revolt against the national team and today perfectly exemplifies the touch football of the group that leads the Madrid technician. Her presence at the Oceania event was key to reinforcing her candidacy for the Ballon d’Or – she was fifth last season – after the triplet harvested in the last year with Barça and being on her own merits one of the great protagonists of the football planet . «I always push myself to the maximum, and very rarely am I satisfied with what I do. It is something that I have always said that I have to manage, because it can cause suffering for me, “she points out in several interviews, in which she admits that she hates losing because of her super-competitive nature.
Both Bonmatí (1998) and Roord (1997) belong to the demanding centennial generation, they know each other well and have met several times in recent years, at club level, and now also on the international scene at the Sky Stadium in Wellington.
Aitana, who shone superlatively in the round of 16 against Switzerland, is in off-road mode -three goals and two assists- creating up to eight clear scoring chances and finishing 15 times so far in the tournament, good proof of her offensive impact. according to the statistics offered by Driblab, which give him an 88% success rate in the pass and up to 31 recovered balls.
On the ‘oranje’ side there is a midfielder who arrives at the meeting in ‘killer’ mode as the second scorer of the tournament with four goals to her credit, only behind the Japanese Hinata Miyazawa, who has five. The Dutch compatante greases the ‘clockwork orange’ with an 88% pass success rate, 22 ball recoveries and 18 shots on the opponent’s goal.
Arguments to excite
There is a license to dream in Spain, which can now boast of having gone further than ever, after the display of power and good play shown against Switzerland after the setback in Japan. Vilda’s are known to be capable of more, they have crossed the forbidden border of the round of 16, and have arguments to compete against anyone. The magic of Aitana, the character in defense of Irene Paredes, the goals of Alba Redondo and Jennifer Hermoso, the handle in the middle of Teresa Abelleira or the interned by the band of the former athlete Salma Paralluelo, and, of course, the talent of Alexia Putellas make them face the challenge with the confidence of the best.
The Netherlands will not be an easy rival to beat, a team that in recent years has made a definitive leap in quality and that in the Australia and New Zealand event has had an almost perfect group stage, where they challenged the almighty USA USA (1-1) and openly admit that they will win the game against Spain.
The Dutch do not have a goalscorer to avoid missing Vivianne Miedema (95 goals in 115 international games) after her all-time top scorer was injured last year to the cruciate ligament, but they do have a good puzzle with proper names to compete against to the great powers such as Lieke Martens (Barcelona), Lineth Beerensteyn (Juventus), Kerstin Casparij (Manchester City) or Dámaris Egurrola (Lyon).
“We have players with experience, who have gone far, who have played in finals and who have been at very important moments in football. Going to the semifinals would be the icing on the cake, but not the end of the road”, Jorge Vilda ambitiously pointed out the day before the match.
2023-08-09 23:12:41
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