NETHERLANDS

Nickname: Oranje( The orange). 

Personal nickname: Center back heaven. 

Head Coach: Ronald Koeman. He returned for his second spell for Netherlands in 2023. As a player Koeman was renowned for scoring over 200 goals despite being a defender. 

Group F(Japan, Sweden and Tunisia). 

World rankings: 7th.

Formation: 4:3:3. It can quickly change to a 4:2:3:1 depending on the in game situation. 

Pattern of play: Ronald Koeman is a very pragmatic manager. The Netherlands are very strong defensively and will start the build up from the back. The center halfs will split up. They would be in control of the ball most of the time. I expect an overload on the left side with Gakpo playing a vital role. 

Best world cup finish: Three times runner up ( 1974,1978 and 2010). 

Team captain: Virgil Van Dijk. 

Best world cup moment: When you have gotten to the final three times you would have many great moments to pick from. 

Dennis Berkamp magical goal in the 89th minute against Argentina in the quarterfinals takes it for me. A 60 yard pass expertly brought down by Dennis before taking an immaculate dribble and outside of the foot finish. Maybe one of the greatest moment in world cup history. 

Worse world cup moment: When you lose 3 finals sad moments will be plenty. The 2010 final is perhaps the saddest. The Robben miss in the 62nd minute will go down as my personal worse moment. Robben scores that 1 -1 against Casillas and Netherlands would have had a world cup trophy by now. 

Players to watch: 

Main man:

Cody Gakpo: The Liverpool forward is a completely different player for the Netherlands and my main man. He will play a part in majority of their goals. Expect most things to go through his left wing. If he delivers, they deliver. 

Virgil Van Dijk: A boring but obvious pick. The man mountain. The Netherland leader and best defender. A threat on both ends of the box. Capable of scoring the odd goal and very useful when it comes to penalty shootouts. 

Memphis Depay: The all time Dutch leading scorer. Another obvious pick. He will probably lead the line ahead of Malen. He will be on penalties and set pieces while also dropping deep to link up play. 

Expectations: They will be expected to get to the quarters at least. 

My prediction: They will not live up to expectations. I expect a shock round of 32 or 16 loss