In some senses, an international tournament such as the World Cup does not really get going until after the opening round of matches. Nerves and excitement then abate and we tend to see teams concentrate more on executing their respective game plans. Those game plans could, of course, very much depend on the outcome of that opening match. This Group E match between the Netherlands and Cameroon, for example, saw two sides with vastly different outlooks for the tournament facing one another. The Netherlands came into the tournament as one of the favourites with a number of their players being contracted to big clubs throughout Europe. Cameroon, on the other hand, were very much an unknown quantity.
The opening round of Group E fixtures were low scoring compared to the other groups in the tournament with the Netherlands securing a hard-fought 1-0 win over New Zealand and Cameroon losing 1-0 to a strong Canada side. A win then for the Netherlands would likely see them through to the last 16 where they are likely to play one of England or Japan.
In their match against New Zealand, the Netherlands struggled at times to break down a stubborn defensive block, their tendency to look to attack in wide areas, via the excellent Lieke Martens and Shanice van de Sanden, whilst dangerous was negated by their oppositions defensive block. In the end, they broke through but not with any ease. Against Canada, we saw Cameroon impress with their work defensively whilst struggling to provide any real goal scoring threat. There was a feeling going into this match that we would again see the Dutch looking to break through a stubborn defensive resistance.
This tactical analysis will show how the Netherlands managed to win the match 3-1.
Team News
There was one change for the Netherlands with the Barcelona defender Stefanie van der Gragt dropping to the bench having picked up a knee injury with Anouck Dekker of Montpellier coming into the team in her place. Even with a slight change of personnel, there would be no shift from the traditional 4-3-3 that we associate with Dutch football.
Cameroon, on the other hand, lined up in their first match in a 5-4-1 shape with a clear emphasis on maintaining a deep and compact defensive block. Their star attacking player, the wide forward Gabrielle Onguene was the only attacker to retain her place as the others dropped down to the bench.
Netherlands wide play
One of the recurring trends of this World Cup so far has been the tendency for teams to rely on wing-orientated attacking play in order to break down stubborn opposition. The Netherlands are no exception to this although given the sheer quality of their excellent wide forwards, the aforementioned Martens and Van de Sanden this should come as no surprise. Both wide players were well supported by Kika van Es and Desiree van Lunteren from the fullback positions.
With Cameroon choosing to adopt a medium passive block they were passive with their pressing when the Dutch were looking to build out from the back and progress the ball forward. This meant that the first pass from the Dutch was often clean and free although the two Dutch centrebacks tended to prefer to access the fullbacks with these passes instead of looking centrally.
From there the Dutch would look to progress the ball in towards the final third although this first pass had already triggered the Cameroonian press. When they were able to move the ball quickly out to Martens and Van de Sanden and have these players isolated 1v1 against a defensive player we saw the Dutch look far more dangerous than when the build up was slow.
We see in this example the types of positions that the Dutch looked to create as they entered the final third. The three Dutch players on the ball near side of the field are in a triangle typical Dutch positioning! with the intent being to allow them to progress the ball through and in behind the Cameroon defensive line. In these areas, we saw Cameroon work to create numerical overloads of their own to prevent the dangerous wingers getting the ball in positions where they were isolated against a single defender.
These positional structures, however, certainly were a key theme in the attacking game model of the Dutch.
