Even opportune fighting football was not enough for the Orange

Even opportunistic fighting football and a dose of luck were not enough for the Dutch national team to qualify for the semi-finals of the World Cup. Just like in 2014, the Orange lost to national coach Louis van Gaal of Argentina on penalties. The Orange seemed dead and buried much earlier, but was saved in the injury time of regular playing time by Wout Weghorst, who made it 2-2.

The Orange held out with some fortune in extra time and cherished the hope that this time they could win against the Argentinians with penalties. Van Gaal had prepared a penalty shootout down to the last detail. But to no avail. Virgil van Dijk and Steven Berghuis saw their efforts turned by the Argentinian specialist Emiliano Martínez. Goalkeeper Andries Noppert didn’t stop one.

Argentina thus became the deserved winner of a crazy evening in which both teams played a tactical ‘chess match’ for a long time and the team of star player Lionel Messi was the better team for a long time. After Argentina had come 2-0 through a goal from defender Nahuel Molina (assisted by Messi) and a converted penalty kick from Messi fifteen minutes before the end, Van Gaal’s dream of becoming world champion seemed over.

The 71-year-old national coach managed wonderfully with plan B, an all-or-nothing offensive in which all hope was pinned on the long strikers Weghorst and Luuk de Jong. Hardly anyone would have thought possible that Weghorst would score twice in a chaotic final phase. But Messi’s dream of winning the World Cup to crown his successful career is still alive. Argentina will meet Croatia in the same Lusail stadium on Tuesday, which eliminated Brazil on penalties earlier in the day.

Not a top favourite

If you only look at the result, you can conclude that the Orange played a good tournament. The selection was simply not a top favorite for the final victory. The Netherlands, with only Virgil van Dijk, Frenkie de Jong and Memphis Depay, has too few football players of international standing for that. It was therefore difficult to understand why Van Gaal kept claiming that the Netherlands could become world champions.

Van Gaal tried to compensate for the lack of quality by making the Orange a very close-knit group so that the internationals on the field would take that extra step for each other. And that coupled with a very conservative way of playing in which the initiative was left to the opponent to surprise them in the ‘changeover’ – as Van Gaal calls it. That had to be the recipe for the first world title of Orange.

Van Gaal drew criticism from domestic and foreign football fans with his ‘polder cataccio’. The national coach from Qatar waved it off in his headstrong way by stating that the laws in international top football have changed. According to Van Gaal, the ‘Dutch house style’ with four defenders, three midfielders and three strikers is no longer of this time for teams that want to compete for the world title. It was therefore not to be expected that Van Gaal would adapt to Argentina.

The Dutch played in front of 80,000 spectators in the familiar 1-5-3-2 formation and waited for an error by Argentina to strike via a counter. The Orange started this quarterfinal for the first time in Van Gaal’s ideal line-up: Noppert in goal, Nathan Aké, Van Dijk and Jurriën Timber in the center of the back, Daley Blind and Denzel Dumfries as wingbacks, Frenkie de Jong and Marten de Roon in midfield and in the front the trio Depay, Cody Gakpo and Steven Bergwijn. But that just didn’t lead to success and certainly not to good football.

Step by step

Van Gaal had prepared his team step by step in recent weeks for a confrontation with a great football country like Argentina. According to the national coach, the initial phase of the World Cup was the completion of a learning process in which the players increasingly understood the assignments of their teacher. After a rough start against Senegal (2-0) and a off day against Ecuador (1-1), the Orange against Qatar (2-0) and the US (3-1) started an upward trend. At least, when it came to the execution of Van Gaal’s game. Except for one beautiful goal from Depay, who completed an attack over twenty discs against the US, there was little to enjoy from the Dutch national team.

Van Gaal’s enormous confidence in a good outcome did not seem realistic. The data already showed that the Orange performed above its position. That was initially painfully clear in the duel with Argentina. The Netherlands was outclassed on all fronts by the team of national coach Lionel Scaloni. With 40,000 Argentinian fans against 1,400 Orange supporters, the South Americans had a psychological lead before the game. And after the 2-0 it seemed over, until the Netherlands switched to fighting football. The Orange miraculously came back to life, but can now go home.