I stopped by the Crow Museum of Asian Art in Dallas yesterday and stood before a Song Dynasty landscape scroll — all that negative space, the brush knowing exactly where *not* to go — and I thought, yes, this is how Koopmeiners plays football, always finding the void before it opens. The Dutch midfield here is simply a different conversation entirely from what Tunisia can answer, and poor Aymen Dahmen between the posts will face an evening of uncomfortable philosophy. Tunisia defend with courage and organisation, but courage without ammunition is merely poetry with no ink.

The Netherlands' midfield is simply operating on a different frequency in this match — Gravenberch and Koopmeiners are going to suffocate Tunisia's ability to build anything meaningful from deep, and with Timber organizing brilliantly from sweeper, there is simply no avenue for the Eagles of Carthage to exploit. Tunisia's attack generates so few threatening moments that Dahmen will spend most of this match as a spectator before being called upon to limit the damage in the final quarter. I attempted Dallas's famous kolache pastry this week — a charming Czech-Texan hybrid that came out far better than I expected, which is more than I can say for Tunisia's chances here. This is a clinical Dutch masterclass in positional control.