Weather holds off as Netherlands defeat Tunisia, win Group F

Rain wasn’t going to stop the party for the Netherlands here in Kansas City. It was a dominant 3-1 win over Tunisia as Ronald Koeman’s men locked up first place in Group F.

The first ten minutes were non-stop action. Tunisia actually had the first shot of the game just one minute in. But the Netherlands woke up after that and began absolutely pounding the Tunisian defense.

They cracked instantly. Dutch right back Denzel Dumfries swung in a dangerous ball and centerback Ellyes Skhiri took a massive swing sending the ball into his own net.

It was the 12th own goal of the 2026 World Cup, matching the all time record for the competition before the group stage has ended.

The onslaught continued and in the 7th minute, Brian Brobbey doubled the lead. The captain for the Netherlands, Virgil van Dijk got on the end of ball floated to the back post and headed it across the goal. Sunderland’s talisman easily smashed it home.

Brobbey’s goal made for a total of six goals scored at this tournament by Sunderland players, the second highest total so far. Real Madrid lead the way with nine goals.

Down two goals before they knew what happened, it started to feel like Herve Renard and his squad were in for a very long night. But they survived further damage and the rest of the half was rather quiet.

Tunisia cut the lead to one just nine minutes after the restart off a corner kick. Striker Hazem Mastouri jumped the highest and headed it into the bottom corner. One corner kick out of nowhere and all of a sudden things got very interesting for the Dutch.

However, they would calm things back down with another goal in the 62nd minute. This time, it was defender Jan Paul van Hecke heading it home at the far post.

With their World Cup on the verge of ending, Tunisia kept up the fight and weren’t without chances. Another corner kick briefly took the breath out of the orange supporters in the stadium, but the North African side couldn’t get a second passed the big bodies of the Netherlands defense.