26 USAROU van der Ende
Of all four teams in the final round of group matches, it was probably Romania who were playing for the most. With a point against the host nation they would ensure qualification; they executed their game plan very well, and their 1-0 win saw them finish as Group A winners. The home crowd and perhaps home team became tetchy especially when Romania tried to slow the pace of the game down.
Not too much to say about Mario van der Ende's performance - with his characteristic strong leader style, he had no problems here. The first caution could perhaps have been avoided (John Harkes can be pretty p*ssed off that he missed the Brazil game for that) and he missed a reckless foul in the second half. His foul detection was quite tight and there were a small handful of incorrect calls. Good performance overall.
Gordon Dunster made a clear mistake at 51' and correctly indicated an offside at 62'. He and Jan Dolstra were widely unchallenged.
| Mario van der Ende - 8,3 Jan Dolstra - 8,4 Gordon Dunster - 8,3 Jamal Al-Sharif NED, NED, AUS | United States 0-1 Romania Group Stage |
 Harkes (41') - Not Respecting 9.15m Clavijo (49') - Tackle | Răducioiu (62') - Delaying the Restart Petrescu (72') - Tackle |
A decent, but a bit inconsistent performance by van der Ende. He could have avoided the caution in 41' by punishing an earlier such attempt or open the cards with the blatant dissent by Wynalda or the tackle that led to the free kick itself. One clear reckless card given after advantage, one not.
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