With that, the traveler had a golden hand of changing and helped his team towards the last four of the tournament in Slovakia. Whereas the traveler had previously renovated this tournament for each game considerably, he had not seen any reason to make changes and therefore the same basic eleven appeared at the kick-off as with the 2-0 win on Jong Ukraine last Wednesday. That meant that PSV player Ryan Flamingo again acted as a controlling midfielder, Thom van Bergen was the rush and RAV van den Berg Centraal played in the back.
Encounters between Portugal and the Netherlands generally lead to hot -tempered jars with many arbitral interventions. The most famous example is the eighth final of the 2006 World Cup, also known as ‘The Battle of Nürnberg’, when the referee of service attracted no fewer than twenty cards, sixteen yellow and four red cards. A record in the history of the World Cup.
Top scouts are bending over the Dutch Juniors: ‘Ruben van Bommel is becoming a rat
It was certainly not such a kick in Zilina, but the Georgian referee Goga Kikacheishvili had his hands full. With two yellow cards in two minutes for Ruben van Bommel (his father Mark opened the card festival in 2006 with a yellow card in the 2nd minute), the arbitrator left a very heavy mark on the game. Van Bommel does not make overly serious violations – in both cases on the Portuguese speed devil Geovany Quenda – but was somewhat over -enthusiastic in his zeal. After he took a potential Portuguese attack out with a beech on Quenda in the 19th minute and collected yellow for it, Van Bommel should have been wary. But the AZ striker nevertheless used a risky tackle when the Portuguese Speedy Gonzalez threatened to leave. And so there was yellow twice within two minutes and therefore a red card for Van Bommel.
Ruben van Bommel has to go with red after twenty minutes. © Getty Images
Until then, the match had shown a characteristic image for matches between a Dutch and Portuguese team. The Dutch Juniors had the ball, tried to find a hole in the close Portuguese block, but the Portuguese got the biggest opportunities on the switch. Three dangerous opportunities yielded that, even before the red card, for Tiago Tomas, Quenda and Gustavo Sa. But the man less in the Netherlands changed the game image. The Dutch Juniors went to play football as Portugal and withdrew into a defensive block. The Portuguese had plenty of trouble with that cookie from his own dough. Although there was still one very big chance before the break. Devyne Rensch defended risky in his own sixteen and hit the ankle of his opponent. Arbiter Kikacheishvili initially saw nothing in it despite the appealing of the Portuguese, but the VAR called him to the side, after which the ball went on the dot.
Calculated Quenda, the Sporting striker, who was sold for 52 million euros to Chelsea, failed to use the opportunity. NEC goalkeeper Robin Roefs went the wrong way, but the use of Quenda hit the post, causing the Dutch to escape a backlog. Further in the first half that applied to the Portuguese. After a great action by Million Manhoef, who sprinted the entire Portuguese defense and put the ball well, Van Bergen did not get the ball past goalkeeper Samuel Soares.
The Portuguese started energetically in the second half and managed to play one big chance. However, Roefs saved the use of Paulo Bernardo. In the sequel, the same game image could be seen as before half -time with eleven against ten. Portugal tried to find a hole, but the Dutch Juniors were fine and the defensive block was further strengthened with Bjorn Meijer as a left back. A defensively stronger left back than Ian Maatsen, which moved to midfield. In the meantime, the Juniors and Coach Michael Traveler are annoyed by referee Kikacheishvili. There was not much to say about the big decisions, which had fallen to the disadvantage of the Netherlands, but the Georgian whistled very unilaterally. He left several Portuguese offenses unpunished and in the event of an unfortunate violation by Kenneth Taylor, he immediately pulled yellow again, so that the Ajax player sustained a suspension for the next match.
Jong Oranje brightened and fought with dedication. Everyone always threw himself in front of a Portuguese shot. The Portuguese national coach Rui Jorge brought Ajax player Carlos Forbs, who for the time being this summer returns to Amsterdam after a rental period at Wolverhampton Wanderers, as an extra attacking impulse. But it was a change from the Dutch Juniors who would make a difference. With his speed, AZ attacker had already taken care of the rising left back Bjorn Meijer, when he himself was the end point of an attack and the Netherlands shot the semi-finals (1-0