The Netherlands and Ghana are playing on the World Cup friendly schedule on ESPN Saturday and the game starts at 2:30 pm ET at De Kuip Stadion and the matchup with the Dutch team from Holland is streaming online from WatchESPN and comes before the WC begins in Brazil and Ghana is getting ready for the group of death with the United States, Germany and Portugal.
The match for the teams comes ahead of the World Cup and both are into the tournament and that makes this matchup even more important, as most teams playing friendly matches to not get to play against teams that will be in Brazil. The Netherlands has Robin Van Persie back after he had an injury during the season with Manchester United and that break could come back to be a big advantage for the Dutch, as he should be fit and he is coming in after missing out on the Champions League with Man U after their rough season. Van Persie was injured back in Match against Olympiakos and did not return until late in the year and now he is looking to help his team get out of the group round.
Van Persie will get a head start with Louis Van Gaal, as he is taking over as the head of Man U next season and this time the 2010 runners up are playing a very tough set coming up in Brazil and this will be a good warm-up. Van Persie said playing Ghana will be good, as they will be intense since they have a very tough draw and he said both teams will be very aggressive. The match is in Rotterdam and Ghana will also play against Montenegro for their prep for the World Cup while the Dutch are matched up with France, Ecuador and Wales ahead of the World Cup and they have to deal with Spain and that is tough as they are the defending champions.
Ghana comes into the World Cup with a tough schedule and the Dutch are coming in with a new formation and will be looking to get that in order ahead of the World Cup. The actual tournament begins in June and teams are playing one or two more friendly matches ahead of the tournament and things begin on June 12 on that first Thursday and the Brazil team will host Croatia to open things up. The Netherlands has Australia, Chile and Spain, while Ghana has their tough group in the 2014 tourney.
