The Northern Netherlands is the home region of one of the star players of the Dutch women’s football team, Vivianne Miedema. On Tuesday night, the team secured a spot in the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup 2019.
Translation by Hans De Preter
Miedema, the all-time top scorer and one of the most potent attackers of the Dutch women’s team, comes from Hoogeveen in the province of Drenthe. Miedema began her career at SC Heerenveen, scoring a ridiculous 78 goals in 69 games across three seasons, before moving to Bayern Munich and then on to the English Women’s Super League champions Arsenal WFC.
On the website of RTV Drenthe, she says she is looking forward to the next match of the tournament on Saturday, a quarterfinal against Italy. Miedema is confident that the Dutch national team can beat Italy, but the Italian defenders will be gunning for the Dutch top scorer.
“Offensively dangerous”
“I have basically seen every Italy game at this tournament, I think they play very well. Especially offensively they are very dangerous,” says Miedema, who has happily watched almost every game so far. She commented on the other teams’ performance shortly before the match between the Dutch team and Japan, which Oranje won 2-1 – on Tuesday, Italy defeated China to secure their own quarterfinal spot.
“With the Italians, the pace of the game goes up and down very quickly. We shouldn’t go along with their pace, but be calm on the ball. Then we definitely have a chance. You don’t just walk over Italy. They have developed, but so have we. If we beat them on Saturday, the road to the Olympic Games will also be open. And we really want to go to Tokyo: I expect that it will be a wonderful afternoon of football. “
Surprise
If the United States eliminates hosts France in the quarterfinals on Friday evening, the stakes in the game between the The Netherlands and Italy will be even higher: the winner will not only qualify for the semifinals, but also for the Olympic Games in Tokyo next year.
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