After the mismatch in Houston, what (hopefully) promises to be a more even affair: the Netherlands v Japan.
It’s eight v 18th in the FIFA rankings, although the Samurai Blue are the team in form, having won six matches in a row heading into this summer’s tournament. They’ve claimed the scalps of England and Brazil in that time.
Kick-off in Dallas is at 21:00 BST.
TEAM NEWS
As expected, Memphis Depay ($7.3m) is among the substitutes for the Netherlands.
The 32-year-old attacker has had an injury-hit season and played only 45 minutes of Oranje‘s final pre-tournament friendlies.
Donyell Malen ($6.1m), who led the line in those two kickabouts, spearheads the attack.
Crysencio Summerville ($5.3m) made a late, successful charge for the right-wing spot, winning caps one and two in the last fortnight. He starts tonight.
Eight of the Netherlands’ starting XI, including Summerville, ply their trade in English football.
As for Japan, again, it’s pretty much as expected, especially after it was confirmed yesterday that Wataru Endo would depart the national team camp.
Just two of the players on show tonight don’t qualify for Scouting Bonus: Virgil van Dijk ($5.5m) and Denzel Dumfries ($5.7m).
A lot of Fantasy managers swerved these two nations in Round 1, indeed, but Japan players – and in particular, the uber-attacking ‘defender’ Ritsu Doan ($5.1m) – may be auditioning ahead of next weekend’s clash with Tunisia.
LINE-UPS
Netherlands XI: Verbruggen, Van de Ven, Van Dijk, Van Hecke, Dumfries, Reijnders, De Jong, Gravenberch, Gakpo, Malen, Summerville.
Subs: Roefs, Flekken, Geertruida, Ake, Wieffer, Hato, De Roon, Kluivert, Til, Timber, Koopmeiners, Weghorst, Depay, Lang, Brobbey.
Japan XI: Z Suzuki, H Ito, Taniguchi, Watanabe, Nakamura, Kamada, Sano, Doan, Maeda, Kubo, Ueda.
Subs: Osako, Hayakawa, Sugawara, Itakura, Nagatomo, Seko, Tomiyasu, J Suzuki, Tanaka, K Ito, Y Suzuki, Machino, Goto, Ogawa, Shiogai.
