At the Netherlands – Qatar, something happened to me that has never happened to me during important football matches: I fell asleep. Just for a moment, but long enough to miss the change of some players. Then I wondered who had replaced whom – only to find that it didn’t matter. It was sleep-inducingly bad.
No one has excelled so far, not even Cody Gakpo, who scored nicely, but otherwise showed as little as the other attackers. In midfield, Frenkie de Jong was drowning in players who didn’t understand him, so he started soloing too much. In the rear, the wingbacks were invisible and Jurriën Timber made as many mistakes as he did recently at Ajax. Only with the new keeper, Andries Noppert, could I – and many others – find comfort.
Over the years, Van Gaal has undergone a wonderful metamorphosis as a coach: from offensive to defensive. He has also had success with that, such as at the 2014 World Cup (third). But it’s as if he’s now squeezed his team into such oppressive tactical armor that all creativity has disappeared from it.
This week I was reminded of the criticism from Rafael da Silva, a Brazilian former player at Manchester United, who felt that Van Gaal left too little to the intuition of his players; they were only allowed to act on his instructions. Playing the ball with one touch was not allowed, control was paramount, so that the speed disappeared from the game. The Dutch national team also plays remarkably slow in Qatar.
The players are not complaining about it yet, but they are sending out concerned signals. Van Dijk shows that he prefers to play in a different system, Depay has a preference for another player (Bergwijn instead of Gakpo) next to him. Nevertheless, according to the national coach, ‘we’ can still become world champions. He also knows that this is an almost hubris-delusional assumption, but what he wants most of all is to instill ‘confidence’ in his boys, football jargon for ‘confidence’. Will that still work in time? I consider the following three scenarios the most.
1. The Netherlands beat the United States on Saturday. Everyone is overjoyed, including me, and Van Gaal will say: “I predicted it, didn’t I? You are always too negative in the Netherlands, and especially the media, Valentijn Driessen with his newspaper in the lead.”
2. The Netherlands loses to the United States. The Telegraph cheers under the headline: “Van Gaal played a high game, but failed”. Comment from Van Gaal: „If the boys do not keep to the agreements and the orders, I am also powerless. We had the qualities to go far, but in football it also comes down to mental resilience. We simply do not have a culture of struggle in the Netherlands. So be it.”
3. After beating the United States in the quarterfinals, the Netherlands will probably meet Argentina, a team against which it does not have a chance, but which will prove to be a size too big. Then Van Gaal will say: “It’s great that I reached the top eight with this material. We have blown our game again, we have not gone off. Anyone who thinks otherwise has no idea. Where is Truus? She is the only one in the Netherlands who will always believe in me.”
A version of this article also appeared in the December 2, 2022 newspaper