The Netherlands and Wales are playing a World Cup friendly match on Wednesday and the game is on ESPN, ESPN3.com starting at 2:30 pm ET and streaming from the WatchESPN website as the team from Holland tries to get a nice performance against a team not going to Brazil in 2014 and it will be from Amsterdam Arena before the national team travels for the tournament.
The Netherlands comes in looking to get back to the final and Spain is the favorite to repeat along with Brazil, Argentina and Germany. Argentina has one of the best players in the world in Lionel Messi, while the Germans are strong from top to bottom. Brazil has a ton of one name players and Neymar is leading the way as the home nation feels like it has a great chance to win as well. Netherlands is in the same group as Spain and they start off their run against the defending champions.
The team played against Ghana on the World Cup friendly schedule last week and they head into the tournament looking to start off fast. The Dutch team opens the tournament with a matchup against Spain and they will play that on June 13 in Salvador and then they have five days until their next match and that is against Australia and will be in Porto Alegre. The third matchup in the group stage comes against Chile and that will be in the main stadium in Sao Paulo and comes on June 23 for their last group matchup. Wales is not in the World Cup and the Netherlands will have to make sure they keep their fitness against a lesser skilled team.
Robin van Persie is the key for the Dutch side, as he is one of their best players and he has a knack for scoring goals. Van Persie had a tough year at Manchester United with the way the team played and that could give him move motivation in the World Cup. Van Persie was injured towards the end of the season and he missed over a month and that break actually could help the team now, as he will be fresh and ready for Brazil.
Spain has a ton of talent and some of the other top players in the world will have tough roads, including Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo is coming into the tournament after a Champions League win with Real Madrid and he is a bit banged up, as Ronaldo is dealing with leg and thigh injuries and some knee pain, but he is not expected to miss any games. Portugal is in the Group of Death in Group G with the United States, Germany and Ghana. The team is looking to get off to a strong start and they begin with Germany and then play against the US in the Amazon before a matchup with Ghana.
Check here for the Netherlands and Wales live coverage from ESPN for the World Cup friendly match.
