HOUSTON — The questions before this game were all about Sweden’s two superstar strikers. Graham Potter, the Swedish coach, got asked about Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres so many times you’d think nobody else on the field existed. Ronald Koeman got asked if he was scared of them. He said no. And then he let Sunderland’s Brian Brobbey, a guy with one international goal in 13 caps before Saturday, do the talking instead.
Brobbey scored twice in the first half. Cody Gakpo, who looks like a completely different player for the Netherlands than he does for Liverpool, added two more. Crysencio Summerville put the cherry on top. Final score: Netherlands 5, Sweden 1. And honestly, it could have been worse.
The Brobbey Gamble Paid Off Instantly
Koeman left Brobbey on the bench in the opener against Japan, a 2-2 draw that left the Dutch looking unbalanced. This time he started him. Six minutes in, goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen launched a long ball, Brobbey bodied Atalanta’s Isak Hien off the ball, ran onto Gakpo’s low cross and knocked it in. Classic center-forward stuff. His second was almost a replay — Denzel Dumfries fired a cross in, Brobbey got to it first, toe-poked it home. Hien had no answers.
The assumption coming into this tournament was that the Netherlands had everything except a killer in the box. Midfield class? Check. Defensive steel? Virgil van Dijk is still out there. But a striker who can actually finish? That was supposed to be the hole. Brobbey isn’t a glamour name. He plays for Sunderland, not Real Madrid. But in Houston on Saturday, he looked like the missing piece.
Sweden’s Hydration Break Adjustment Didn’t Save Them
Potter switched from a 5-3-2 to a 4-3-3 during the first hydration break. (Which, by the way, happened in an air-conditioned stadium and got loudly booed by everyone. Fair.) The change gave Sweden more life. Gyokeres started linking play with those one-touch flicks. They created chances — Ayari chose to chest a ball instead of heading it and it bounced behind him, a Gustaf Lagerbielke header got called back for offside, Verbruggen made a nice save on a curling Gyokeres shot. But the damage was already done.
Two minutes into the second half, Dumfries ran free down the right again and put another low cross into the six-yard box. Gakpo nearly missed the open goal — he kind of ankle-skewered it in from two yards out. Then he cut inside and drilled the fourth. Sweden’s defense was a mess. Hien got bullied all afternoon. The flanks were wide open. This was the same Sweden that lost to Kosovo in qualifying and plays in Nations League C with Luxembourg and the Faroe Islands. When the pressure came, they folded.
Anthony Elanga came off the bench for Sweden and scored a late consolation goal after Verbruggen finally let one through. He also pulled off a Cruyff turn nutmeg that drew some oohs from the crowd — a nice bit of history considering Johan Cruyff first pulled that move against Sweden at the 1974 World Cup. But it was too little, too late. Summerville added a fifth for the Dutch and that was that.
The NRG Stadium felt like a home game for the Netherlands. Houston has about 9,000 Dutch-born residents and it seemed like all of them showed up, plus thousands more who flew over. Orange shirts outnumbered yellow by maybe 10 to 1. The arena itself is classic Houston — all concrete and steel girders, no pretense. Inside you get photos of Texans highlights mixed with country musicians and monster trucks. It is what it is.
Koeman made his decisive move before kickoff. Potter made his during a hydration break that probably shouldn’t exist. That was the difference. The Netherlands still have questions — Brobbey has to prove he can do this consistently, and Gakpo’s World Cup form versus his club form is getting weird — but for one afternoon in Texas, they looked like a team that could make some noise.
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