Women’s W/Cup: Netherlands’ Player Glad Over USA Exit

Netherlands forward Lineth Beerensteyn has said she celebrated the USA’s World Cup exit as the defending champions had “a really big mouth”.
The USA beat the Dutch in the 2019 final but their title defence ended with defeat by Sweden on penalties last Sunday.
The four-time winners’ last-16 exit was their worst performance at a World Cup.
“The first moment when I heard that they were out, I was just thinking, ‘Yes! Bye!’” said Beerynsteyn.
“From the start of this tournament they already had a really big mouth,” the Juventus attacker added, before the Netherlands’ quarter-final against Spain in Wellington.
“They were talking already about the final and stuff.
“I was just thinking, ‘you first have to show it on the pitch before you are talking’.”
The USA were bidding for an unprecedented third consecutive title, having previously never failed to reach the semi-finals.
They opened their World Cup campaign with a 3-0 win over Vietnam but then failed to win another game, including a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands in the group phase which meant the Dutch finished ahead of them in Group E.
“I am not being rude in that way. I mean, I have still a lot of respect for them, but now they are out of the tournament,” said Beerensteyn.
“For them, it’s a thing that they have to take with them in the future, don’t start to talk about something that’s far away.
“I hope that they will learn from that.”
Meanwhile, Magdalena Eriksson has said it would be wrong of Sweden to single out Japan’s Hinata Miyazawa for special attention when the sides meet in the quarter-finals today.
Miyazawa is the tournament’s leading scorer with five goals.
“I think that the whole team is a threat,” said former Chelsea defender Eriksson.
“Instead of focusing on one player on this Japanese team, I think it’s important to look at their whole team.”
Miyazawa’s five goals have come from just six attempts on target by the midfielder, who plays in Japan for Mynavi Sendai.
She has helped propel the 2011 world champions to within two wins of a third World Cup final in four attempts with goals against Zambia (two), Spain (two) and Norway.
“The most impressive thing about the Japanese team is that it doesn’t really matter who is on the end of their attacks,” added Eriksson, who recently joined Bayern Munich from Chelsea.