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AFP/Sao Paulo
Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal has revealed two of his players refused to step up to take the first penalty in Wednesday’s 4-2 World Cup semi-final shoot-out loss to Argentina.
The ill-fated honour eventually fell to defender Ron Vlaar, whose effort was saved by Argentina keeper Sergio Romero.
“I asked two players ahead of Vlaar to take the first penalty,” van Gaal told Dutch news agency ANP.
“They refused. Vlaar in my view was our best player. Unfortunately he didn’t score,” the Manchester United-bound coach added.
Unlike in the quarter-finals against Costa Rica, the Dutch fell down in the penalty shootout, with both Vlaar—who played a brilliant game until then—and veteran Wesley Sneijder failing to score against Romero.
“Our penalties against Costa Rica were incredible. That should have given us confidence,” said van Gaal.
“You have to maximise the first penalty shot,” he added.
Van Gaal said he would have brought in replacement goalkeeper Tim Krul, who faced the penalties shootout and saved the day against Costa Rica, to take over from regular goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen.
“But I’ve already used my three substitutes at that time.”
“In the end Romero stopped two penalties,” he said.
Meanwhile, van Gaal said the third place playoff was a pointless exercise that “has nothing to do with sports.”
“I think this match should never be played and I’ve been saying this for 10 years,” Van Gaal said after his team were knocked out by Argentina on penalties.
“It is unfair we have one day less to recover than our opponent so that is not fair play either,” he added.
“But the worst thing is I believe that chances are that you lose twice in a row. And a tournament in which you’ve played so marvelously well you would go home as a loser just because you could possibly have lost the last two matches and this has got nothing to do with sports in my view.”
“So, in a football tournament particularly not at the last stage you shouldn’t have players playing match for third-fourth place. Because there is only one award that counts and that is becoming world champion.”
The Netherlands will face host nation Brazil, who were hammered 7-1 by Germany in the other semi on Tuesday. The match will take place in the capital Brasilia.
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