Feyenoord right back Rick Karsdorp has spoken of his pride after making his Netherlands debut in De Kuip on Thursday.
- By Michael Bell
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The 21-year-old played the full 90 minutes of Netherlands 4-1 win over Belarus and looked right at home on his international debut.
Afterwards, Karsdorp spoke to NOS, “I think we played fantastic football at times. It’s great that I could make my debut too. My day could not be better.
“I’m a team player. If we had lost here and I had played a good game, I would also have been unhappy. I had a reasonable match, it was a good debut.”
On making his debut at De Kuip, he added, “That’s especially special. I started on my ninth (birthday) at Feyenoord. I am a boy of the club. This debut is a dream come true.”
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I thought he played quite well. He’s a bundle of energy going forward and he combined very well with Promes on the right hand side. He’s still very young and needs to work on his defensive game a bit, but he looks a promising option at RB.
Keep in mind it’s only his second season as a right back, when he was in the academy he used to play as an attacking midfielder. I agree his defensive skills can be improved to be on par with his offensive drive, which he has and then some… With Gio van Bronckhorst as manager at Feyenoord he could make those steps as the manager had a similar progression as a player himself. Starting off as left winger to left/centre midfielder (where he played as a youth player) before he ended up as captain with the National squad as a left back.
Good points, Alain. It’s good for the Dutch to have some new choices at the RB position because some of the others who have played there in recent years (e.g. Van Der Wiel, Veltman, and Janmaat) have really struggled.
He and Kenny Tete are the right backs of the future for Oranje! And I believe if the start including them in the squad together they will push each other!
Definitely. They are both promising players and the competition between them both will only make them better players.