“I managed 20 games and lost none”: the unusual consolation of Van Gaal, who has left his position as coach of the Netherlands

“It’s a very painful elimination,” said the coach of Holland, louis vangaalwho said goodbye to his third term in charge of the team, this Thursday at the Lusail stadium after being eliminated in the quarter-finals of the world in view of Argentina (2-2, 4-3 on penalties).

“The players fought until the last minute, they left everything on the pitch, I’m very proud. I really enjoyed this coaching cycle. It’s very painful to see how we were eliminated,” Van Gaal said at a press conference.

Albiceleste, who will face Croatia in the semifinals, had gone on 2-0 with goals from Nahuel Molina (35′) and Lionel Messi (72′ from a penalty), but the ‘Oranje’ reacted in time and managed to equalize the score, with a brace from Wout Werghorst (83, 90+11).

“Argentina had to adapt their system and we took advantage of that in the second half. We fought as hard as we could to try and come back from 2-0 down against an opponent who pressed very intensely. We made it 2-2 and we went to penalties”, analyzed the coach.

“I don’t have any kind of reproach to the players. It’s an advantage to be able to take penalties, even if you can never reproduce the situation in the match. Losing on penalties brings a lot of bad luck,” he added.

In the decisive shoot-out, ‘Dibu’ Martínez saved the first two Dutch shots, those of Virgil Van Dijk and Steven Berghuis, which propelled the Albiceleste’s standings.

“Since we’ve been here we’ve concentrated on penalties, we thought we could win. But it all went uphill,” said the coach.

Van Gal it was critical with the work of the referee in the penalty awarded to Marcos Acuña that Messi converted in the 2-0.

“First there was a fantastic goal with a great assist from Messi. Then we received a penalty which was conceded very easily. But in the second half we were able to show our football again with a different scheme,” he said the former Barcelona coach.

Van Gaal said goodbye to the national team, in what is his third spell.

“I will not continue as manager of the Netherlands. It was my last game in my third term,” said Van Gaal (71).

“What I’m leaving is an excellent group, on a personal and football level it’s a very united team with many skills. I was a coach for 20 games and we haven’t lost a single one, this is due to something.” he added.

Van Gaal will be replaced from 1 January by Ronald Koeman, whose appointment was announced several months ago.

Source: AFP