HOUSTON (AP) — Under intense pressure after an opening-game draw, the Netherlands delivered a dominant performance against Sweden in the World Cup on Saturday to move atop the Group F standings.
Brian Brobbey and Cody Gakpo scored two goals apiece to power Netherlands to the 5-1 win.
Brobbey’s goals came in the first half, helping the Netherlands get off to a great start and roll to the big win after playing .
The victory gives Netherlands a group-leading four points. Sweden has three points, with Japan and Tunisia scheduled to play later Saturday.
“It could be that the way we played builds confidence,” Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman said. “Now we’ve got a slightly better piece of mind with the four points. You can build on what happened now and that’s really good.”
Gakpo, who also had an assist, extended the lead to 3-0 just after halftime, scoring in the 47th minute off a cross from Denzel Dumfries. He matched Brobbey when he scored on a right-footed shot from the left box in the 54th minute.
“Today there was more variation in attacking play, more players in different positions, movement and all those things,” Gakpo said. “So it was maybe more difficult for the defenders to really mark us and we became free in in the box. I think that was the little thing maybe we missed in the last game.”
Sweden couldn’t build on its strong performance in a in its first match. The loss to the Dutch was its biggest World Cup defeat since losing 7-1 to Brazil in 1950.
Sweden coach Graham Potter said the defeat was less about what his team did and more about just how good Netherlands played Saturday. He then named a laundry list of all the stars on the Dutch squad before continuing.
'So it’s not that we’re gonna expect that everything’s going to be easy for us," he said. “It’s not that, of course. They’re a top team and they were better than us today. We have to congratulate them, but I think we’ll learn a lot from the game.”
The Dutch gameplan to play out wide to open up Sweden and cross to Brobbey worked perfectly early. He put the Netherlands on top in the fifth minute when Gakpo crossed into the middle of the box and Brobbey one-timed it with his right foot before tumbling forward to the grass.
His second goal came when he took a cross from Dumfries while sliding and just got his right foot on the ball, scoring inside the far post in the 17th minute.
Koeman credited Brobbey's success with getting in better shape after he had struggled in the past with the rigors of playing a full game.
“He’s fitter, he’s sharper and he’s developing really well,” he said.
Anthony Elanga’s left-footed goal cut the lead to 4-1 in the 59th minute and allowed Sweden to avoid the shutout.
Sweden had plenty of chances to score before that, but Netherlands’ goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen was brilliant in the first half with four saves.
Sweden appeared to have cut the lead to 2-1 on a header by Gustaf Lagerbielke in the 44th minute, but he was ruled offside. Lagerbielke . His father and grandfather are counts.
But he wasn’t the only royalty in the stadium Saturday as the Netherlands had two very special guests cheering them on with King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima watching from a luxury suite.
“The King was very happy,” Koeman said.
The crowd of 68,777 was largely made up of fans of the Netherlands, many of whom made their Oranje Fanwalk 2 1/2 miles from Rice University to Houston Stadium on Saturday morning.
Crysencio Summerville, who assisted on Gakpo's second goal, tacked on a goal for Netherlands in the 89th minute and celebrated with NBA star .
Summerville was kicked in the head late in the match and had received stitches, but Koeman said he should be ready for the next match.
“I think things are OK-ish,” he said. “He’s got a bit of a headache.”
Sweden finishes group play Thursday night against Japan at Dallas Stadium, and Netherlands meets Tunisia that night in Kansas City.
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