Louis Van Gaal

DOHA - After much posturing, the Netherlands now need to deliver if they are to fulfill their own prophecy at the World Cup, starting with the opening clash of the knockout stage against the United States on Saturday.

There has been much talk — all from the Dutch camp — of the team's potential to go all the way in the tournament in Qatar, principally from veteran coach Louis van Gaal, who enjoys a little mental coaxing and sparring.

With its spot in the World Cup already clinched, the Netherlands is using the March international window for a pair of friendlies against Denmark and Germany in Amsterdam. 

While Virgil van Dijk, Frenkie de Jong and Memphis Depay were arriving at the KNVB Campus in Zeist on Monday, 70-year-old manager Louis van Gaal was giving a customarily unfiltered press conference on player selection, his choice for national team successor and the prospect of a World Cup in Qatar. 

Van Gaal didn't hold back when asked to discuss the host nation.

There was every reason for Dutch stress on Tuesday evening: The ghost of the failed 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign; Saturday’s calamitous draw with 73rd-ranked Montenegro despite leading 2-0 with less than 10 minutes to play; Louis van Gaal’s bike accident on Sunday and fractured hip, forcing him to watch this key clash against Norway from a wheelchair in a box seat; an empty De Kuip in Rotterdam after the country entered a three-week lockdown period with Covid-19 cases soaring.   

Since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, Manchester United has looked like a completely different club. On the pitch as well as in the board room it has looked like a club without a plan. The Red Devils are enduring their worst campaign since the Premier League came into existence in 1992. There is a lack of long-term vision and at the moment the club is a shell of its former self and mired in mediocrity.