Lieke Martens sees opportunities against the United States

The respect is still there, of course, but Dutch women’s football for the USA is now much less in fear of it than before and during the World Cup Final on July 7, 2019 in Lyon and the training match on November 27, 2020 in Breda. . The two games ended with a 2-0 victory for the Americans, who hold four world titles and four Olympic gold medals.

With a mutual confrontation on Friday 30 July in the quarter-finals, the Olympic tournament ends with either the world number one (US) or the world number four (Netherlands). Unlike in previous matches – the US won all of the last eight matches – filling out a toto form is no longer a chore.

American women showed themselves significantly weaker in the group stage. In two matches, 3-0 against Sweden and 0-0 against Australia, they haven’t even scored. “The unbeatable USA is no longer what everyone looks forward to,” Lake Martins looks forward to Friday’s game in Yokohama.

‘We have to play bravely’

The Barcelona player certainly sees opportunities for the Netherlands. Especially if the orange woman dared to dump the loss in the previous mutual duels. “We have to play with a lot of courage,” Martins says. “There is a lot of confidence in the team and we hope this is the turnaround. That we can finally defeat America.”

Martins, 29, also knows that America, after all, a country of women’s soccer, should not only be written off. She describes the upcoming duel as a “shot”. “It will be a high level match and I would love to play matches like that. As an athlete, you always want to measure yourself with the best.”

This could be the last game on Friday for national coach Sarina Wegmann, who will join the FA after the games. Martins: “I’m not interested in that at all, but of course we don’t. We had a great time together and we’re going to do everything we can to finish it off well.”

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The United States is too strong for women’s football again

Just like in the World Cup final, the Netherlands lost 2-0 to the United States. And as in Lyon, Orange didn’t have much to contribute on Friday at Breda.