Coach Van Gaal: 'Netherlands can win the World Cup'
"The Netherlands can win the world. I am not saying we will win the world, but we can. Some strong teams have been eliminated, but the Netherlands are still here. We are three away from winning the championship. another match," coach Van Gaal said after the match at Khalifa Stadium.
Although considered the "big man" of world football, the Netherlands has never won the World Cup. They have reached the final three times but have failed, in 1974, 1978 and 2010. Under the veteran coach Van Gaal, "Orange whirlwind" is hoping to end the obsession with second place in the World Cup.
Yesterday, the Netherlands controlled the ball less, but sharp in the counter-attack. They opened the scoring after 10 minutes. From a bounce in the middle of the field, the ball was sent to the left for Denzel Dumfries to return for Memphis Depay to hit the US net. Van Gaal's side increased the lead in the first minute of injury time of the first half. It's still Dumfries who crosses back inside, and the only difference is Daley Blind's finisher this time.
In the 75th minute, the US shortened the gap to 1-2 from the ice phase to cut Haji Wright's finishing face. However, their hopes of a comeback were dashed just six minutes later, when Blind "reciprocated" Dumfries with a precise cross to let his teammate take a one-touch shot when no one was watching.
Despite becoming the first team to win tickets to the quarter-finals, coach Van Gaal admitted that the Netherlands still has a lot to improve. "The Netherlands has not controlled the ball well. When the opponent has the ball, we play rationally. But after we win the ball back, we make mistakes, we lose the ball too much. This must be improved immediately, if otherwise it wouldn't be the world champion", he emphasized, adding that even at half-time he criticized the team for losing too much ball and said that if they keep playing like this, won't win against the top teams in the world.
The victory over the US helps coach Van Gaal maintain an unbeaten record with the Dutch team since he returned to lead in 2021, with 19 matches. The 74-year-old leader is also unbeaten in the World Cup, excluding penalty shootouts.
Coach Van Gaal will give the team a day off after the win against the US, and joke that the students are too tired to work with him.
Van Gaal's coaching career spanned nearly four decades, with clubs Ajax, AZ, Barca, Bayern and Man Utd. Interspersed with that are three periods where he led the Netherlands team, including third place in the 2014 World Cup. In addition, he won the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and won the FA Cup.
