Dutch keeper Sari van Veenendaal and returning England striker Jodie Taylor may be Arsenal team mates but they’re both fixed on ‘friendly’ success on Tuesday, writes Tony Leighton.
Striker Jodie Taylor will step back into the England team aiming to win a “cat and mouse” game against her Arsenal team mate and Netherlands goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal on Tuesday.
The two nations are set to meet at the Koning Willem II Stadion in Tilburg, where next July England will finish off their European Championship finals group stage games against Portugal.
After recovering from an Achilles injury sustained in March, Taylor is delighted to be back on the international scene and relishing the prospect of facing Van Veenendaal – who is also up for the challenge!
“I’m just happy to be on the trip after a tough year,” said Taylor, “but it will be awesome to play against Sari. She’s very solid, an extremely good shot-stopper and her reactions are unbelievable.
“But she’s beatable. I get to train with her every day at Arsenal and you get to see tendencies in each other’s game – and as I’ve been out for so long this year I’ve seen a lot more of her than she’s seen of me.
“You see strengths and weaknesses, and I’ll be able to point out one or two things to my England team mates. It’ll be like cat and mouse, but for me it will be about the ways we can get the ball past her.”
As determined as Taylor is to get one over her club colleague, Van Veenendaal is equally focused as she looks to keep a clean sheet that she hopes will be the basis for a Netherlands victory.
A friendly fixture it may be, but for both teams it is an important match in their preparations for Euro 17 – particularly so for the Netherlands as they will be the host nation for the finals.
Van Veenendaal said: “The Euros are an amazing opportunity for women’s football in the Netherlands. I am really looking forward to the finals and I believe they will really boost the game in our country.
“The game against England will build on the interest that is already being shown in the country and for me it will be very interesting, but also quite strange, to play against some of my Arsenal team mates.
“I am very happy to see Jodie Taylor back in action after her injury; she’s a smart, intelligent striker with that special quality to be in the right place at the right time to score goals.
“Of course I want to see her doing that for Arsenal and I look forward to playing with her next season. But on Tuesday my focus will be on stopping her and any other England player from scoring.”
The Netherlands recently hammered Scotland 7-0 but have lost their two games since, 4-2 to Germany and 3-2 to Belgium, while England head into Tuesday’s match on the back of a nine-match unbeaten run.
Taylor added: “The girls have done great while I’ve been out. We’ve got a really strong squad with new players coming in, old players still around and doing well, so I wasn’t expecting to be selected.
“But I’m just really pleased to be here, and I want to help us end the year on a high with a good performance and a good result to set us up for what will hopefully be an exciting and successful 2017.”
