Van Gaal slams third-place match

Agitated Dutch coach brands play-off ‘unfair’.

SAO PAULO: Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal lashed out at the World Cup’s third place play-off match on Wednesday after his side’s semi-final defeat to Argentina.

Van Gaal’s troops must now travel to Brasilia to face World Cup hosts Brazil on Saturday for a game he believes should have been scrapped years ago.

“I think this match should never be played,” Van Gaal told reporters. “I’ve been saying this for 10 years. But we’ll just have to play it.”

Van Gaal said the match condemns the losers to finish a tournament after another defeat, and that one side always has an extra day’s rest.

“It’s unfair also because we have one less day to recover, so that’s not fair play,” he said. “But the worst thing is that chances are you lose twice in a row.

“And after a tournament in which you’ve played so marvellously well, you’d go home as a loser just because you’ve lost the last two matches.

“You shouldn’t have players play a match for 3rd-4th place, because there’s only one prize that counts and that’s becoming the champion,” said Van Gaal.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s injured striker Neymar will attend Saturday’s third place play-off when the battered World Cup hosts take on the Netherlands.

“Neymar will come here [to Brazil’s World Cup base], he’s going to accompany the team to Saturday’s match,” confirmed Brazil football federation spokesman Rodrigo Paiva to R7.com.

Coach regrets not being able to use Krul

Van Gaal was left to regret the fact he could not use his specialist penalty-saver Tim Krul in the semi-final shootout.

Jasper Cillessen had never saved a penalty in his professional career and he failed to stop all four spot-kicks, sending Argentina into the final after Ron Vlaar and Wesley Sneijder’s efforts were saved.

The Dutch beat Costa Rica on penalties in the quarter-finals after Van Gaal brought on substitute keeper Krul just for the shootout and he made two fine saves.

But Van Gaal had used all three substitutions against Argentina, including taking off exhausted striker Robin van Persie in extra time, so Cillessen had to stay on the field after the match ended 0-0.

“If I had had the opportunity to substitute Jasper I would have done that, but I had already used three substitutes so I couldn’t do that,” the Dutch coach told reporters.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2014.

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