A game that felt boring suddenly turned on its head in the second half, leading to a 2-2 draw between Netherlands and Japan.
Netherlands opened their World Cup campaign with a thrilling draw against Japan.
The Dutch have a record of not losing their opening World Cup game and they threatened to go ahead in the opening ten minutes of play when Donyell Malen wriggled himself to find some space and test Suzuki.
The first half was one way traffic as Japan camped in their half while the Netherlands struggled to break them down.
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The Netherlands came close again through Malen who could only fire straight at Suzuki while Gakpo who saw a lot of the ball in the first half found himself in a bit of space from a corner but could only slice his shot over the bar.
Japan finally got chances in the final moments of the first half but neither Nakamura nor Kamada did enough to shake the back of the net.
In the second half, things got interesting as Van Dijk put Netherlands ahead with a superb header five minutes after the restart.
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Before the Netherlands could grab a hold of the game, Japan pulled level through a sublime goal from outside the box. Nakamura found space on the edge of the box, unleashed his shot which took a slight deflection off Van Hecke to beat Verbruggen.
With the game wide open, both teams were going at each other and once again, there was a frenzy in the stadium.
Gravenberch finds Summerville on the edge of the box after beating two players. Summerville in turn, wastes no time to unleash a shot which beats Suzuki and makes it 2-1 to the Netherlands.
With that goal came a bit of comfort and Netherlands began playing with a bit more swagger. Although Kubo came close to scoring a stunner for Japan, the Netherlands controlled the game and should’ve gone ahead after Gakpo saw his shot saved again by Suzuki.
The missed chance would later haunt them as Japan pulled level again in the 88th minute. Junta Ito’s corner finds the head of Ogawa who heads the ball to the unsuspecting Kamada.
The bounce on Kamada’s head was just enough to beat Verbruggen and make it 2-2.
Japan will be glad to have taken a point off Netherlands while the Dutch side will go back feeling like they lost.
