Argentina against the Netherlands. A battle that ignites the imagination for every football fan and brings up a lot of nostalgia from the classics of the past. In the meeting that will be held tomorrow (Friday, 21:00) in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Qatar, there are also quite a few stories and closings of circles on the grass, as well as on the lines.
The oldest coach against the youngest coach
It will not be easy to find greater contrasts than between Louis van Gaal and Lionel Scaloni.
The orange boss is a 71-year-old genius, who retired back in 2016 after being fired from Manchester United and returned for a third term in the national team when he was called to the flag. He is a very opinionated person, with a big mouth and a huge heart, enjoys attracting fire and attention, and paints with bright colors every room he enters and every press conference he attends. He has vast experience in all possible arenas, he led a very young Ajax squad to win the Champions League in 1995, spent two drama-filled terms at Barcelona, won the Dutch championship with lowly Alkmaar, left his mark at Bayern Munich which he almost led to the treble, and to list all Even a thick book would not be enough for his exploits.
Along with great successes, Van Gaal also knew jarring failures and went down in history even when he failed with a great Dutch squad in the 2002 World Cup qualifiers. Nevertheless, he had the courage to return to the national team, and the second adventure was much more positive. In 2014, Argentina was the one who knocked out the Oranges in the semi-finals on penalties, after a zero draw, so this time, for Van Gaal, it will be the perfect time to take revenge. If he loses, it could be the last game of his career, although his name has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the Belgium national team as well, and he refused to rule out that option outright.
When Van Gaal starred with the national team in Brazil 8 years ago, Scaloni was still an active player at Atalanta – the last team in a good career on the grass that is mainly remembered for winning the Spanish championship with La Coruna. After hanging up his shoes, he decided to try out as Jorge Sampaoli’s assistant in Seville, continued with him to the Argentina national team, and after the fiasco in the 2018 World Cup, he was appointed by the association as a temporary head coach mainly for budgetary reasons. Unexpectedly, he managed to establish his position, the temporary job became permanent, and last year Scalloni led the Albiceleste to win the Copa America – their first title since 1993.
He is only 44 years old – the youngest coach in the current World Cup, has never coached a team, does not like being in the spotlight, prefers not to stand out and work quietly behind the scenes, and his approach to life is the opposite of Val’s. His career as a coach is just beginning, and it may be varied and fascinating in the future, but for now his experience in a very limited position, and he has not yet guided Argentina against a European team of the caliber of Holland. For him, this is an opportunity to prove himself, because the doubts really didn’t disappear even after winning the jackpot.
Closing Messi’s circle?
Leo Messi played his first match in the team at the World Cup against the Netherlands. Although this was not his debut in the tournament, because 3 days earlier he came on as a substitute for the last minutes against Serbia and Montenegro, and even scored the last goal in the glorious 0:6 victory, but it was still exciting and formative for him to be on the pitch from the first minute on June 21 2006, 3 days before his 19th birthday, with the number 19 on his back. Scaloni, who was also in the Argentina squad in that World Cup, watched from the bench in the 0:0 draw in Frankfurt, in which the flea struggled to express himself.
This point was enough to finish in first place at home ahead of the Oranges, and it was Messi’s only game with the team in the tournament in question. In the following World Cups, he had 20 more games in the squad, so against the Netherlands it will be the 22nd time. If he loses, it will also be the last time, in a kind of particularly sad closing of the circle. It will be his third match against the Netherlands – the opponent he faced the most number of times in the World Cup, together with Mexico and Nigeria who were always drawn with Argentina in the group stage, until they failed to qualify for the tournament this time.
Manchester derby in the background?
Julián Alvarez is Argentina’s great hope on the wing. The 22-year-old striker of Manchester City removed Lautro Martins from the lineup and scored wonderful goals in the two games he started, against Poland in the group stage and Australia in the round of 16. He is now ready for the biggest challenge of his budding international career and will be up against the 23-year-old Dutch winger who scored in all 3 games in the group stage against Senegal, Ecuador and Qatar. Cody Gakpo was expected to be a significant player in Van Gaal’s lineup at the World Cup, but his rise exceeds even the most optimistic expectations, and therefore his chances of leaving his beloved Eindhoven in the upcoming transfer window in January have increased. According to the reports in the British media, the leading candidate for his signature is Manchester United, so the meeting with Alvarez can be defined as a rehearsal for a future derby in the Premier League. Both reach it with fantastic individual momentum, and both may even find the net, but only one will be able to celebrate at the end.
Goalkeepers who came off the bench
Andries Neufert’s story is nothing short of amazing. For many years he didn’t get a chance anywhere, and waited on the bench in modest teams – in fact, less than a year ago he was still a substitute in the tiny Go Ahed Eagles. You can read more about his special plots here. He didn’t even imagine that he would be able to represent the team in the World Cup. Now, the man who made it to the World Cup in total from Hirnbein will stand between the posts in the quarter-finals against Messi – it’s a far-fetched scenario that until now is a little hard to believe happened in reality.
The thing is, if there is anyone who can fully understand Neufert, it is Emiliano Martinez, who belonged to Arsenal’s staff for nearly a decade, but never got a chance. He sat on the bench in most cases even when he was loaned to much smaller teams, such as Sheffield Wednesday, Wolves and Getafe, and if someone had told him then that he might in time become a national hero in his homeland he would have found it a little hard to believe.
After moving to Aston Villa in 2020, that dream came true, and Martinez not only took his place in the Copa America lineup, but was also one of the main responsible for the win, which he excitedly dedicated to Messi. Now he has also reached the World Cup, and his tremendous save in the closing minutes in the round of 16 against Australia only emphasized how huge his part was – almost all the players happily jumped on him and hugged him. Against Holland’s talented forward line, it will be one of the biggest challenges of Martinez’s career, for whom winning the World Cup will be an unimaginable reward for the patience he has shown for so long. But there is also a million times more illusory option – imagine that the world champion will actually be Nofert!
