Netherlands - Argentina: Persistent debt

*Netherlands - Argentina: 2pm Saturday, December 10, on MetaSports.

On the world football map, the Netherlands is a force. They are the pioneers, initiating new tactics. However, so far, the Land of Tulips has never won the world championship, although it has been three times in the World Cup finals in 1974, 1978 and 2010. In the times the Netherlands played most impressively, Argentina played twice. the role of a hindrance.

In the 1970s, when Rinus Michels brought the total football philosophy to the top, Johan Cruyff's Netherlands lost 1-3 to Mario Kempes' Argentina after extra time in the 1978 World Cup final. By the 2014 World Cup, when Louis Van Gaal brought the three central defenders back to counter tiki taka, thereby repaying the debt they lost to Spain four years ago, they fell again in the semi-final penalty shootout against Argentina.

This is the sixth time the Netherlands and Argentina have met in the World Cup. Only the pair of Brazil - Sweden and Argentina - Germany (both seven times) has a history of confrontation more than that. The predestined relationship between the two teams was warmed by individual statements before the ball rolled. Notably, Argentina striker Angel Di Maria called Van Gaal the worst coach he has ever worked with. Scaloni is angry that confidential information related to Rodrigo de Paul's injury has been leaked.

The Netherlands showed a stable face on the way to the quarterfinals. As commented by coach Lionel Scaloni, the upcoming opponent balances attack and defense. Along with England, the Netherlands won the most matches (3) and lost the least (0). "Orange whirlwind" has scored eight goals in four games. Midfielder Cody Gakpo contributed the most goals with three goals divided equally in three group stage matches. Goalkeeper Andries Noppert, the tallest player in the 2022 World Cup (2m03), is third in the number of saves with 15, just behind Wojciech Szczesny (Poland, 23) and Vanja Milinkovic-Savic (Serbia, 16 times) ) according to data from Squawka.

As for Argentina, they live off the breath of Lionel Messi, who contributed three of seven goals and an assist. While Van Gaal was consistent with his forte 3-5-2, Scaloni proved to be quite sloppy tactically. He ranked Argentina 4-2-3-1 in the opening match against Saudi Arabia and then turned to 4-4-2 in the victory against Mexico. In the last two matches, against Poland and Australia, the Argentina coach preferred the 4-3-3 scheme but left open the possibility of changing the scheme in the pre-match press conference.

Van Gaal's Netherlands isn't as flamboyant as it was eight years ago. They played more pragmatic and proved dangerous in counter-attacks. FIFA statistics show that the Netherlands outperforms Argentina in the number of times when the opponent loses the ball (321 compared to 243). Before the match, Van Gaal emphasized this ability of the home team, by criticizing Argentina captain Messi "lazy" to support the defense.

"Messi is the most dangerous creative player. He can break through, create and score goals by himself. But Messi is not involved much when Argentina lose the ball. This will open the door for the Netherlands," he said. . Van Gaal also called on his students to stand firm under pressure from the stands, when Argentina fans were sure to overwhelm them. "It will not be easy to play in front of 40,000 opponents and we only have 1,400. But I believe the Dutch players are professional enough to cope."

Argentina needs to get over its defeat against European teams if it wants to continue. Since their defeat to Uruguay in the 1930 World Cup final, their nine defeats in the knockout stages of the World Cup have all come against European teams. Meanwhile, the last three times in the quarterfinals of the World Cup, the Netherlands went on. Their only defeat in this round was in 1994, against Brazil - the team then won.

In terms of personnel, the Netherlands has a full force when right-back Jeremie Frimpong recovers from an ankle injury. Stefan de Vrij did not attend the training session on December 4 but returned. On the Argentine side, as information leaked before the match, De Paul had muscle pain so he was not sure to play, similar to Papu Gomez. Scaloni confirmed Di Maria has recovered from a hamstring injury and can play.