Group F at AT&T Stadium was supposed to be the Netherlands flexing on Japan in the Texas heat, and for about 40 minutes it looked exactly like that. Virgil van Dijk did Virgil van Dijk things off a set piece in the second half, climbing over everybody in orange and blue to nod the Oranje in front. Captain stuff. 1-0. Game on cruise control.
VVD rises up and heads the Netherlands ahead just after the hour mark.
Except Japan didn't get the memo. Within six minutes Daichi Kamada had the ball in the back of the net and Jerry's World absolutely erupted — and if you've been to a World Cup match in the States you know the neutrals were ALL pulling blue. 1-1, just like that, and suddenly the Dutch had a game on their hands.
Kamada equalizes and the crowd at AT&T Stadium loses it.
The Netherlands' answer was, frankly, ridiculous. Crysencio Summerville cooked up something out of a FIFA highlight reel to put the Oranje back in front 2-1, and Barstool's gambling desk immediately threw it into the goal-of-the-tournament conversation. Hard to argue. Whatever Summerville did to that ball wasn't normal.
Summerville's stunner restores the Netherlands lead and gets the GOTT chatter going.
From there it was Japan throwing bodies forward and PFT Commenter on the timeline doing what PFT does — begging everyone watching to please, please, please not move a muscle because a draw was actually live. The vibes shifted. And in the 89th minute, off a set piece into the orange box, Japan piled on a teammate as the scoreboard flipped to 2-2. Lightning in a bottle from the Samurai Blue.
Japan crashes the box in the 89th and walks out of Dallas with a point.
Group F just got a lot more interesting. The Dutch have a point and a sour taste, Japan has belief and a highlight that's going to play on loop in Tokyo for a week, and the rest of the field now knows the Netherlands defense can absolutely be gotten to late. Doing it big in Texas, indeed.