Netherlands coach hails Daphne van Domselaar’s heroics in win over S. Africa, whose coach wants more help

Sydney – Netherlands coach Andries Jonker praised the performance of Daphne van Domselaar after the goalkeeper made a string of saves on Sunday to deny South Africa and help her team progress to the quarter-finals of the Women’s World Cup.

The 23-year-old Aston Villa custodian was named the Player of the Match as the Dutch recorded a 2-0 win over the African champions at Sydney Football Stadium and set up a quarter-final clash with Spain in Wellington on Friday.

“If you compare her with other ’keepers, I think she’s developed a lot,” Jonker said, after van Domselaar repeatedly kept the Banyana Banyana at bay.

“Four years ago, there were goalkeepers that could not deal with the ball just under the bar and now we’ve got a whole generation of very athletic goalkeepers, who don’t let in that kind of ball.

“Daphne is one of that new generation. They’re athletic, they’re in good shape, they’ve got good positioning, so the developments in that area are incredible and the Netherlands are right along there.”

Van Domselaar added: “It wasn’t our best game but happy to play my part in the clean sheet. I don’t know if it was my best (game) but I will be looking back with pride.”

Jonker’s side took the lead in the ninth minute when Jill Roord headed in from close range and Lineth Beerensteyn sealed the win in the 68th minute when her shot squirmed through the arms of South Africa goalkeeper Kaylin Swart.

The gloss was taken off the Dutch victory, however, when Danielle van de Donk received her second booking of the tournament to rule her out of the meeting with Spain.

Jonker was relieved afterwards that his side avoided becoming the latest big gun to be on the end of a World Cup shock.

He said his team can beat anyone, but was scathing of their first-half performance.

“We lost the ball too often in the first half and gave a few chances away,” he said.

“Daphne saved us a few times and I was happy to lead 1-0 at half time. We did much better in the second half and had much more control of the game.

“We deserved to score again and in the end deserved to win.”

The 54th-ranked South Africa will be kicking themselves after having numerous chances in the opening 45 minutes, almost all from their livewire captain Thembi Kgatlana, who plays for National Women’s Soccer League club Racing Louisville in the US.

On six minutes, the striker fired straight at van Domselaar – it was to become a theme.

Kgatlana, who scored the winner over Italy that gave South Africa their first World Cup win, was a constant threat with her pace.

Four more times in the first half, the 27-year-old could have scored.

South Africa coach Desiree Ellis was proud but felt her side should have won.

“We had a lot of chances, especially in the first half, to kill off the game,” she said.

“The chances we created should have put us out of sight... Their goalkeeper getting player of the match shows how well we played. In the end the legs were not there to push for the duration of the game.”

She later appealed to the government and sponsors to step up if women’s football in the country was to push on after their feat in Australia and New Zealand. 

“To the sponsors: I don’t know how you can ignore something special like this,” said Ellis.

“I don’t know how you can’t assist in getting us to climb up the ladder and assist in getting us better.”

Ellis said there were players in her squad who still had full-time jobs outside football and called for South Africa to establish a professional league.

“What this team has achieved, I think the corporate world needs to stand up and really take notice and be counted,” she said.

“Otherwise we will come back in four years’ time and go through the same thing... we could have gone further.

“When I looked at how the World Cup was going (with surprise results), the possibility of us winning it was there.

“So we urge the corporates to assist here. We urge the government even to step in and assist and push the corporates to come on board.

“It’s not just our senior team, it’s our youth teams as well – there’s no sponsors.”

REUTERS, AFP