Despite the 5-1 score, Dutch players believe that things can and should be even better

The players of the Dutch team are of course happy with the big 5-1 victory over Sweden, but also believe that things should be even better. “We have had many good moments, but we also have things that we need to improve,” captain Virgil van Dijk said to NOS afterwards. “After the first ‘hydration break’, Sweden did much better.”

But after the earlier 2-2 draw against Japan after a difficult final phase, Saturday evening’s match was of course much more satisfying. “This gives a positive feeling to everyone,” said Van Dijk. “We scored five goals and we played a good game.”

Attacker Cody Gakpo, who scored twice, was also remarkably critical in addition to being happy: “Today we also gave away a lot and certainly not everything went well,” he told the ANP news agency. “There is a lot of room for improvement.”

Gakpo has now scored a total of five World Cup goals with his two goals on Saturday night and his three goals four years ago. This means he is only two goals away from Johnny Rep’s record for the Netherlands. He scored a total of seven goals in the 1974 and 1978 tournaments. But Gakpo is not so concerned with that: “My next goal is to win the next match,” he said laughing in the catacombs of the Houston Stadium.

Koeman: great victory, but…

National coach Ronald Koeman was extremely satisfied with the result and the play shown in large parts of the match, but he also saw a number of things going wrong. Especially in the second part of the first half. “It was a great victory, but plenty of things have happened that make you say: that needs to be improved.”

Koeman was very complimentary of striker Brian Brobbey, who was given a starting place at the expense of Crysencio Summerville and scored the first two goals. “The first goal had everything you want,” said the national coach. “We know that Brian can do that very well, he was great in front of the goal.”

Losing national coach Graham Potter of Sweden showed a lot of respect for the Dutch team and had no choice but to acknowledge that the Netherlands deserved to win. “We lost to a team with a lot of quality,” he said afterwards. “For me, the Netherlands is the best team in our group.”

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