Netherland’s coach Louis Van Gaal steps down after quarterfinal exit against Argentina
Louis van Gaal has confirmed that he will be stepping down as the manager of the Netherlands after his side lost in the quarter-finals against Lionel Messi’s Argentina. After the game, the coach said, “First and foremost I won’t be continuing, I only did it for this period of time.
“This was my very last match of my third term as head coach. In that time I coached 20 matches [winning 14, drawing six] and we didn’t lose a single one. I don’t know how many matches we won, but you can Google ‘Louis van Gaal, Dutch team’ and see the goal difference for yourself.”
He continues saying, “I look back on it in a very positive way. With England we were the only team that was unbeaten [along with Croatia and Morocco]. I don’t think we have been beaten today. It was only a penalty shoot-out. What I’m leaving behind is a great group.
“Personally and football-wise this is a team that is very close and with a lot of skill. I was the coach for 20 matches and we never lost over that time. That’s for a reason. We’ve played against top countries as well, although those countries were eliminated earlier in the competition.”
He came back to manage the Dutch national team last year after Koeman left for the job of Barcelona and at that time, it was clearly seen how dedicated Van Gaal was. This is because Holland had a horrific Euros as got knocked out in the Round of 16 by the Czech Republic and then to take that group of players in the World Cup with a winning streak of 15 games was simply sensational. He did this with cancer that he was suffering from and despite the health issues Van Gaal pulled off to manage some great performances. Dutch are now knocked out in the quarters, but Louis has surely made some foundations for this team that how they can potentially perform in the next few years.
Van Gaal was truly an amazing coach for the Netherlands, he has never lost a World Cup match in regular time. He has been beaten only twice in the biggest sporting competition and that’s against Argentina which was because of the penalty shootout. All in all, now that is resigning, it is widely reported in the Dutch media that former coach Ronald Koeman would be back to manage the Dutch squad and Van Gaal did end the press conference by saying that Koeman would be a good successor.
