Louis van Gaal’s mission to win the world title with the Orange has again failed in Argentina. Where the South Americans blocked the Dutch national team’s way to the final at the 2014 World Cup, things now went wrong for the Orange in the quarter finals. After the Orange had come back great in the final phase with Plan B and had dragged out extra time due to two goals from Wout Weghorst (2-2), just like in Brazil, things went wrong for the Dutch national team in the final penalty series.
It was a spectacular final phase in which the Dutch national team, which had not forced anything offensively for most of the match, with the strong Weghorst and Luuk de Jong in the team, did shake the Argentinians, who defended a 2-0 lead. Weghorst’s 1-2, who nodded the ball wonderfully into the goal after a perfect cross from Steven Berghuis, who had also come in, was the first serious opportunity in the 83rd minute for the Orange, which had played a literally hopeless match for so long.
At that time, the Dutch national team still had seven minutes of regular playing time and, as it turned out, ten minutes of injury time to produce the equalizer. It eventually fell due to the time wasting of the Argentines in the eleventh minute of injury time. It was Weghorst himself who deserved a free kick, because he was beaten to the ground by three Argentinians. Teun Koopmeiners and Cody Gakpo lined up behind the free kick and where the Argentinians counted on a kick from Gakpo, the Orange came with a smart, rehearsed free kick. Koopmeiners pushed the ball low next to the wall to Weghorst, who pushed the ball into the goal from the turn and gave the Orange an extension.
frustration
The frustration was great with the Argentinians, who already believed themselves to be in the semi-finals. As it turned out earlier in the tournament, the Orange had trouble enforcing anything offensively with this tactic. For a country that prided itself on its attractive and attacking football in the past, it was very scant that the number of attempts on goal was limited to one for a long time, a shot far wide from Steven Bergwijn.
It was the seventh quarter-final for the Netherlands at a World Cup. On five previous occasions, the Orange managed to advance, resulting in three lost finals (1974, 1978 and 2010), a third place (2014) and a fourth place (1998). Only in 1994 at the World Cup in the United States had the quarterfinals been the final station.
Argentina played a home game in the imposing Lusail Stadium with tens of thousands of Argentinian fans in the stands and an estimated total of about 50,000 sympathizers, compared to only a small group of Dutch people, about 1400. Argentina’s belief in Messi’s mission to his fifth World Cup title is huge and that was boosted by the surprise elimination of big rivals Brazil earlier in the evening.
Van Gaal was confident that the Argentinian national coach Lionel Scaloni had adapted his team’s system to the 5-3-2 system used by the Netherlands. “That says that they are very afraid of us,” said the Orange national coach.
Don’t break pots
Van Gaal himself had brought extra speed into the team with Steven Bergwijn. Gakpo moved one line back to the number ten position and top scorer Memphis Depay got his favorite attacking constellation, as he had said after the game against Qatar.
That attack failed to break pots in the first half. Where the Dutch national team barked but did not bite, Argentina was threatening. Especially when Lionel Messi, the Argentinian phenomenon, got the ball, it was alarm phase one. The Orange tried to keep him far from the goal, but every now and then he escaped attention.
Where Messi placed the ball high over a shooting opportunity, he was at the base of the opening goal in the 35th minute. Messi drove the ball towards the edge of the box and, despite Nathan Aké’s guard, managed to give a magnificent through ball, which released Nahuel Molina in front of the keeper. He had run away from Daley Blind and could no longer be thwarted by Virgil van Dijk.
The explosion of joy in the gigantic Lusail Stadium was enormous. The Argentines were overjoyed. Knowing that the Argentine defense gives little away, La Albiceleste took a huge step towards the semi-finals with the opening goal.
Miracle
In an attempt to get the Orange to play football a bit more, Van Gaal made a double substitution at halftime. Bergwijn and Marten de Roon had to make way for Steven Berghuis and Teun Koopmeiners. That didn’t change the game image much. The Netherlands was allowed to have the ball from Argentina, but the Orange team did nothing in the enemy penalty area. The offensive powerlessness of the Orange in this phase of the match was painful to watch. Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez could have brought a folding chair with him, so little was he put to the test.
But as long as the margin was only one, there was still a chance that a stray ball from Orange would fall in. Perhaps a little earlier than planned, Van Gaal switched to plan B. Daley Blind was unable to continue and Luuk de Jong came in his place, causing Gakpo to move to his favorite left flank. That plan B had come to light during the match, because Van Gaal or one of his assistants had left a note with the scenario of two strong strikers on the bench, after which it was photographed.
That plan B seemed to be thwarted when Argentina doubled their lead. Denzel Dumfries tapped Marcos Acuna in the penalty area and the Spanish referee Mateu Lahoz put the ball on the spot. Although he had missed against Poland in the third group game, Messi went after the penalty and this time he shot the ball in flawlessly: his fourth tournament goal and 95th in total for the Argentina team.
Penalties
Van Gaal only added a big striker with Weghorst, who had received a yellow card as a protesting reserve in the first half. That resulted in the tying goal, when Weghorst cleverly put his head against a Berghuis cross. The Dutch still had seven minutes of regular playing time and injury time to force the equalizer and that was enough to force extra time. That was the case for a long time. Penalties had to make the decision and it went wrong again against the Argentines.