World Cup 2022: Netherlands can aim very high after victory against United States

The United States and their “boys” are back home. Despite the promise and potential shown on Qatar’s turf this World Cup, we can’t help but feel that the country that continues to talk about “soccer” still has a thing or three to learn before taking on the old. Football forces.

The Netherlands is one. New Amsterdam taught New York (3-1) a lesson in the round of 16 of this World Cup on Saturday, December 3 at Al Rayyan. Above all, a lesson in realism and a message for the competition: Louis van Gaal and his players get straight to the point, not worrying too much about whether they are the prettiest.

If the sight of only an orange shirt among the over-50s still evokes the imaginations of the Cruyff years, in 2022 the Dutch footballer will no longer sport long hair or the idea of ​​total football. If it still has this technical note, it gives first of all in efficiency. And this is just the beginning. “We always want to improve and since the start of the tournament he has been getting better and better every game.Dutch defense boss Virgil van Dijk warns. We scored fantastic goals. »

“Care” for Depay

The first quarter summed up the qualities of this team well. From the lost American ball, the Oranjes carry the iron with quick passes, preferential schemes that we find worked and the excellent conclusion of Memphis Depay (10^e). “We have to take care of it, it’s incredibly important”Warned Van Gaal ahead of the match about his striker, who suffered a hamstring injury at the end of September and has barely recovered.

From the beginning of the tournament, the former Lionel left the light and goals (three) to Cody Gakpo. On Saturday, the PSV Eindhoven prodigy – whose next club is of more interest to journalists in the mixed zone than a World Cup match – did not score. The player of the match is called Denzel Dumfries.

Despite his name, the guy doesn’t take films, but gives assists: one for Depay, respectively, and another for Daley Blind before half-time. But the right piston also knows how to get the job done. Five minutes after American Hope’s goal on a missed Mager (a backhand goal) that turned into an unstoppable lob by Haji Wright, Dumfries scored with his left foot to kill this start of the American Revolution. Detached and smiling, the Inter Milan player sparked a tactical tussle about this defense in the three (or five) when the opposition attack.

In a country where 4-3-3 may be constitutionally fixed, this choice is challenging, despite exceptional results, following the return of Louis van Gaal in August 2021. “There’s a lot of criticism of our system in Holland because most teams defend with four. But today I assisted Daley in the goals we scored. [Blind], the other side and it turns me into one of mine. Therefore, today we have demonstrated the features of the system, and we hope that this will continue. »

Did you make way for the Argentine obstacle?

At the age of 71, the Dutch coach won’t start rejecting his ideas. What else should we expect from a man who can claim “Louis van Gaal has nothing more to learn”A night of non-qualification for the 2022 World Cup? “It’s always the same story, so I’m used to it and I think my players are also used to it., He whispered about the critics at the press conference held the previous day. We will calmly continue the path we are on. »

Barring the Australian exploits of the evening, this path leads to Lionel Messi and his team-mates in the quarter-finals. The Argentina shirt evokes the opposite feelings for the Dutch. There’s that legendary goal that Dennis Bergkamp scored to send his side to the semi-finals in Marseille in 1998, but the Netherlands also lost one of three World Finals against the Albiceleste in 1978 in Buenos Aires.

For Louis van Gaal, he has not forgotten the semi-final elimination against Argentina eight years earlier. But the man did not renege on his promise to his wife to retire under the Portuguese sun, nor did he fight prostate cancer to stop it in such a good way. “I have been saying for a year: we can be world champions. I’m not saying we will, but we can.”he said on Saturday. His team in Qatar is just like him at the moment: confident, impervious to criticism and ready to finally join the closed club of world champions.