Van Gaal does not yet announce goalkeeper choice, Depay on the bench against Senegal

Van Gaal does not yet announce goalkeeper choice, Depay on the bench against Senegal

National coach Louis van Gaal will not announce on Sunday which of the three keepers he will line up on Monday in the first Dutch World Cup match against Senegal. Goalkeepers Andries Noppert, Justin Bijlow and Remko Pasveer came along to Qatar. In the press conference about the game, he said that he “never gives up the line-up”. He does emphasize that it was “not a difficult decision” – “I am reasonably convinced of my choice”.

Van Gaal also confirmed that attacker Memphis Depay will remain on the bench during the first game. He was out on September 22 with a hamstring injury during training camp and is still not fit enough to play. That came as no surprise, says Van Gaal, “he already knew before the World Cup that he would have a different program than a match fit player”.

He calls Senegal the most difficult opponent in the group with Ecuador and Qatar. The country won the Africa Cup last February. “It’s not just any opponent.”

FIFA World Cup kicks off with a match between Qatar and Ecuador

The Dutch national team has to wait another day, but the players from the host country Qatar and Ecuador can start on Sunday. They will play the opening match of the World Cup at 7 p.m. local time at the Al-Bayt stadium.

The symbolic value of the duel is greater than the sporting one. The first whistle follows twelve years of controversy surrounding the allocation of the tournament to the Gulf state, and criticism of the human rights violations that took place in the construction of the stadiums, hotels and infrastructure for the World Cup.

The country that conquers the World Cup in four weeks can call itself the winner of the first ‘winter World Cup’. Since the first edition in 1930, all World Cups have been played in the months of May, June and July, but due to the high temperatures in the desert state of Qatar, it was not an option to organize the tournament in that period.

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