Netherlands drill seven past insipid Malaysia to begin on a rousing note

BHUBANESWAR: A day before their Pool D opener against Malaysia, Netherlands head coach Max Caldas was asked about their strong record in the history of the World Cup. “Yeah but when did we win last?” came a curt reply. “In 1998! That is a long time ago.”

Despite being on the podium in three of the last four World Cups, including a silver medal finish in 2014, a gold has eluded the Dutch for long. Clearly nothing but the top step of the podium satisfies the three-time winners who are here with only one aim which very much reflected with their dominant performance at the Kalinga Stadium here on Saturday.

Against a tricky Malaysian side the Netherlands thrashed their opponents 7-0 to put a statement out against all teams vying for the yellow metal. Striker Jeroen Hertzberger was in top-form to score the first hat-trick of the 2018 World Cup (11th, 29th and 60th minutes) and was well supported by Mirco Pruijser (21st), Mink van der Weerden (35th), Robbert Kemperman (42nd) and Thierry Brinkman (57th) who scored a goal each.

Such was Netherlands’ dominance that the world No.4 team scored in every quarter of the contest. The naturally gifted Hertzberger, with 212 caps under his belt, took off with a team goal in the 11th minute before Pruijser doubled the lead. Netherlands were 3-0 ahead at halftime with another beautiful goal from Hertzberger’s stick.

Though they had missed a few penalty corner chances, Mink van der Weerden’s bullet of a flick (35th) was impossible to stop despite goalkeeper Kumar Subramiam’s heroics in the Malaysian goal. Playing his 200th international, Kemperman also joined the party just before the end of the third quarter to score his team’s fifth goal.

They scored two more in the last three minutes.