Dutch women's football players to meet defending champion US in 2023 World Cup group stage

The Netherlands women's national football team was placed by lottery in a group with the United States in the group stage for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next year. The team of national coach Andries Jonker was in Pot 2 at the draw and was placed in Group E with the U.S., which means that the Orange team will play all their group matches in New Zealand.

The Netherlands against the U.S. means a repeat of the World Cup final of 2019, when the "Lionesses" lost 2-0 to the American football players. The game against the U.S. is on July 27 in Wellington.

From Pot 3 came World Cup debutant Vietnam as opponent. The third opponent of the Dutch team will only be announced at the beginning of next year and will come from the international play-offs. Then the last three tickets for the World Cup are at stake. Cameroon, Thailand or Portugal end up in Group E with the Netherlands. Jonker's team will also play the first group match against one of those countries on July 23, in Dunedin. For the game against Vietnam on Aug. 1, the Orange will return to Dunedin.

The World Cup kicks off in Auckland on July 20, with the final in Sydney on Aug. 20. The matches in groups A, C, E and G will be played in the New Zealand cities of Auckland, Dunedin, Wellington and Hamilton. In Australia, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide house the matches in groups B, D, F and H.

The Dutch football players had quite a bit of trouble qualifying for their third World Cup in a row. After the disappointing European Championship last summer in England, where the Orange squad got stuck in the quarterfinals as the defending champion, the KNVB decided to dismiss national coach Mark Parsons. With his successor Jonker on the bench, the Orange only won the last World Cup qualifier against Iceland 1-0 well into injury time. As a result, the team avoided the play-offs and qualified as group winners for the 2023 World Cup.

Jonker was present in Auckland at the draw. The national coach attends many seminars there on all organizational aspects of the World Cup. In the coming days, Jonker will be looking for suitable training facilities and hotels together with the team manager. In the coming month, the participating countries must record their choices. Jonker will fly back to the Netherlands at the end of next week.