The the Dutch women revanched themselves on Tuesday for last week’s hopeless practice defeat in and against Spain. One hundred days before the start of the football tournament at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the team of national coach Sarina Wiegman was far too strong for Australia, which, due to the corona restrictions, only had access to players from European clubs. The exhibition game in De Goffert between the number four and the number seven in the world ended in no less than 5-0. Jessica Torny and Rick de Rooij were strikingly enough in the stands. Both have been mentioned as successors to Wiegman for some time.
The Dutch football players started with the same eleven players in the friendly game against Australia as four days earlier against Spain, which was 1-0 too strong. At the time, the reigning champion of Europe owed it mainly to goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal in Marbella that it did not take a heavier defeat against the number twelve in the world. Wiegman nevertheless announced on Monday that he would change (almost) nothing against Australia.
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The the Dutch team immediately faced a lot of problems against Spain in the first half, but Wiegman’s team took the lead in Nijmegen after a few minutes. On a pass from Vivianne Miedema, Jill Roord scored after four minutes. Miedema initially saw her shot being saved by goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold, but then she did not overlook her Arsenal teammate Roord: 1-0.
Lieke Martens shot the vice-world champion 2-0 after twenty minutes: the attacker pulled in from the left and aimed the ball in the short corner, although Arnold apparently could have done more. After less than half an hour of play, the half-time score appeared on the scoreboard. Sherida Spits conquered the ball in the sixteen-meter area of Australia with a good sliding and put it back to Miedema, who served the completely detached Jackie Groenen: 3-0. The visitors got no further than a shot by Haley Raso from the edge of the penalty area.
Australia, which lost 5-2 to Germany last Friday, was significantly more eager after the break, but that did not lead to a connection goal. It was the the Dutch Lionesses who struck for a fourth time after 67 minutes through Lineth Beerensteyn. Martens served the substitute, who had replaced Sherida Spitse at half-time, with a nice high pass and Bayern Munich’s attacker lobbed the ball over Arnold who came out.
With the 5-0, Miedema was at the basis of a goal for the third time. After unfortunate defending of Australia, the ball eventually reached Daniëlle van de Donk, who now scored after two missed opportunities. It almost became 5-1 when Van Veenendaal released a shot from a distance and Dylan Holmes had the ball in front of it, but she missed.