A devastating attacking performance gave Netherlands a thumping 10-3 win in their first Group F match, underlining their status as one of the tournament favourites. But Zambia and the brilliant Barbra Banda in particular caused them problems at the back, and Sarina Wiegman will know her team have work to do.
Zambia started the match well, creating the first scoring opportunity – missed by Grace Chanda – then, on 9 minutes, Vivianne Miedema notched the first goal of a first-half hat-trick to give Netherlands the lead.
Two more goals followed, on 14 and 15 minutes, the first scored by Lieke Martens and second by Miedema, before Banda yanked her team back into things. But three more goals in the final 15 minutes of the half, to Miedema, Mertens and Van de Sanden, put Zambia in terrible trouble, and going into the break, you feared for them.
The second half featured more of the same, though the pace slowed. Midema scored her fourth and Netherlands’ seventh on 59 minutes before taking a rest, then Jill Roord, Lineth Beerensteyn and Victoria Pelova added 8, 9 and 10. But just as it looked like USA’s 13-goal record winning margin – achieved against Thailand in the 2019 World Cup – was under threat, the brilliant Banda scored twice in two minutes to give the scoreline a fairer feel.
Netherlands are one of the favourites for the gold medal and rightly so – they have attackers as good as any team in the competition But the way they defended against Zambia will be a concern because they gave up numerous chances and did not look able to protect their high line by pressing the ball in midfield.
On the other hand, this was only their first game and playing for the opposition was Barbra Banda, who somehow played on both right and left flank, her pace and trickery too much for both Dutch full-backs. Currently, Banda plays her club football for Shanghai Shengli, but it would be incredible if any of the world’s biggest clubs were not watching her and reaching down the back of the sofa. It seems foolish to draw conclusIons on the strength of one game, but whoever gets there first will surely not regret their decision.
