Van Gaal leads the Netherlands to the quarterfinals after beating the United States and offers Memphis new life

The Netherlands team is like a snowball.

It could fall off at any moment, because it is fragile, as always.

But along the way it grows, increases its volume, compacts itself, asserts itself and creates.

The move to the quarterfinals, after beating the United States at the Khalifa Stadium in Doha (3-1), is a giant step for a group that only had one player with intact self-esteem.

It is

, a cacique of the area but without hitting.

The rest arrived emotionally through the floors.

did it in full treatment for prostate cancer, already overcome.

If he manages to transfer to them the faith that he has always had in himself and that has helped him so much against the disease, the Netherlands can be that snowball that, already in the quarterfinals, is not going to fall off a cliff.

or

came to this team

after experiences in Barcelona that have depressed them.

The Camp Nou is no longer paradise for the Dutch, except for the sun and the sea.

The midfielder has been told by Van Gaal that he will never shine as long as

is around .

In the national team he wants him as the leader of the midfield.

With Memphis he has not hesitated, nor did

, in the national team as in Barça, except for the problems he had at the start of the World Cup.

In the round of 16, he started as a starter, along with

.

The response was colossal.

Within minutes, he struck inside after a diagonal pass from

on a counter-attack that also featured Gakpo.

Memphis continued to be active and fine, especially when the United States left space, although

got his hand on a very tight shot, after a hit from nowhere, without momentum, and later on a header.

That is his quality.

He is a puncher.

It is to suppose that

already knows it.

REACTION TO USA'S GOAL

The test that the Netherlands has not passed is to go behind on the scoreboard, which is when the strength of the teams is really measured.

The pressure to which Ecuador subjected him at the end of his game raises unknowns that will be cleared up when faced with such a situation.

Against the United States, when they saw their advantage reduced, they reacted exceptionally with Dumfries' goal, but they always had the initiative on the scoreboard, it is true.

The United States could have placed Van Gaal's team in that situation, but

lost the one-on-one that was found right at the start due to an error by the Dutch defensive line.

was in action the goalkeeper that is needed in this tournament, a goalkeeper who decides, now that the World Cup is really starting.

He proved it again against a very hard shot from

.

, on loan from Barcelona to Milan, also tried without success.

The United States had an excellent presentation, well prepared, with high pressure, but they lacked offensive clearances and hit the few chances they had.

The only goal, which left the scoreboard for five minutes with the slightest advantage for the Dutch (2-1), was given by a rebound, when he hit a cross on

and entered the goal in a strange way.

He also lacked some luck.

Gakpo took a shot under the goal line.

It was an unnatural place for the forward, but providential.

Before the United States could change sides,

arrived in the box in a similar way to how Memphis had done to beat the American goal again.

In his case, virtue is not being in the area, but arriving.

It would be the same that Dumfries would have in the third goal to end the minutes of hope that the North American fans had, dressed in the stars and stripes in a thousand and one ways, even in a turban, irreverent as it may seem to some.

The defense never found out where it had come from.

The Netherlands awaits the winner of the match between Argentina and Australia.

If it is the first, the semifinal of the World Cup in Brazil will be repeated, in which the team led then also by Van Gaal fell, on penalties.

The elimination of the United States leaves the tournament without any of the hosts of the next World Cup, Canada, Mexico and the United States itself.

They have four years to improve.

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