{"id":22024,"date":"2026-06-14T05:33:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T05:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/22024\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T05:33:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T05:33:20","slug":"depay-and-verbruggen-ready-for-netherlands-world-cup-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/22024\/","title":{"rendered":"Depay and Verbruggen ready for Netherlands\u2019 World Cup opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/fifa-world-cup<\/a> The Netherlands will have goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen and top scorer Memphis Depay both ready to play in the team\u2019s World Cup opener<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coach Ronald Koeman said Saturday, on the eve of the Group F game<\/a> against Japan, that his entire team is fit. That includes Verbruggen and Depay, though the coach wasn\u2019t ready to reveal his starting lineup.<\/p>\n

The status of Verbruggen was in question after he hurt his hip in a collision<\/a> during a tune-up match with Uzbekistan on Monday, and then was held out of training Wednesday. But Koeman said the keeper returned to full practice Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

Depay, the Netherlands\u2019 all-time leading scorer with 55 goals, dealt with a thigh injury<\/a> for several weeks before playing for Brazilian club Corinthians on May 24. That was only three days before the 26-man Netherlands roster for the World Cup<\/a> was set.<\/p>\n

Koeman said Depay has looked good since the start of the team\u2019s tournament preparations.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is an important player, has been for a very long time,\u201d Koeman said through an interpreter. \u201cHe\u2019s a key part to our possible success in this World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP World Cup coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/fifa-world-cup<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/fifa-world-cup The Netherlands will have goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen and top scorer Memphis Depay both…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1091,13481,365,1057,4164,6,363,367,364,366,16159,16158,14713],"class_list":["post-22024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-netherlands","tag-asia-pacific","tag-bart-verbruggen","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-japan","tag-memphis-depay","tag-netherlands","tag-netherlands-national-soccer-team","tag-ronald-koeman","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-texas","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-uzbekistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}