Preview: Netherlands – Japan

The Netherlands and Japan both won their opening games at this World Cup and hope to add another victory when facing each other this Saturday.

The Dutch beat Denmark 2-0 on Monday and are on course for a spot in the next round. The style in which Bert van Marwijk’s men beat the Danish was not quite as the fans expected with a team that showed little inspiration without the recovering Arjen Robben.

The Bayern Munich forward is unlikely to play in the group phase, according to the manager, who did leave some space for speculation saying that anything is possible.

Nigel de Jong and Robin van Persie will have to be careful against Japan after picking up yellow cards in their opening game.

The Japanese surprised with a 1-0 win over Cameroon in their opening game and seem highly motivated to deliver another good result against their Dutch opponents.

Yasuyuki Konno, who did play against Cameroon, suffered an injury and won’t be able to feature in this match.

Only Yuki Abe was booked in his team’s first group game and the defender will have to avoid conceding another yellow card if he wants to avoid suspension.

These two sides also faced in a friendly last September, with the Netherlands winning 3-0. Goals were scored by Robin van Persie, Wesley Sneijder and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.

Saturday’s encounter will take place at Durban’s Moses Mabhida stadium with kick-off scheduled for 13:30 local time. The appointed referee is Argentinian Hector Baldassi.