After beating the USA: The vulnerable Dutchman Denzel Dumfries

It's certainly not meant to be malicious, but apparently there's no other way: when Louis van Gaal appears, the Dutch coach puts himself in the center of attention.

It doesn't matter whether someone completely different belongs there than on Saturday evening or not.

Denzel Dumfries won the Player of the Match award in the 3-1 win over USA after setting up two goals and scoring the third goal himself.

There has never been a game so dominated by a single player at the World Cup, so van Gaal was asked how he liked Dumfries' performance.

"I'll give him a big kiss," replied the 71-year-old coach, stepping into action and giving the sweaty player a big smack on the cheek.

That was funny, even if the technical content of this answer was rather meager.

But anyone who knows the perennial Dutch longing for a style defined by attacking wingers knows van Gaal was a very content man at the moment.

Because the full-backs Denzel Dumfries and Daley Blind, who transform into wingers in van Gaal's three-man chain system when they have possession of the ball, not only each one shone on their own side.

They had come together across the field.

The second goal was scored blind on presentation by Dumfries, the 3:1 prepared blind, Dumfries executed.

Most impressive, however, was Memphis Depay's goal to make it 1-0, with Dumfries also providing the assist.

The "Elftal" had outplayed the Americans before this goal with a number of direct passes over many stations "Those were fantastic goals, that was beautiful," said van Gaal, who is now in the quarter-finals with his Dutchmen and will be there next Friday (20:00 CET in the FAZ live ticker for the World Cup and on MagentaTV) meets Argentina.

Everything seems to be going according to plan.

“Mentally it was difficult to get over it”

But the Dutch wouldn't be the Dutch if they didn't also look carefully for their own mistakes.

Virgil van Dijk said the team had to play even more precisely "in possession of the ball", before formulating a few sentences that say something about the current relationship between the players and the public at home, in which Dumfries plays a leading role .

"We are critical, everyone in the Netherlands is critical," said van Dijk.

The fact that the demands are high is justified.

But some experts believe that the delegation currently in Qatar is making their own performances better than they are, which has angered the players.

It's a never-ending game in the orange soccer nation, which prefers to tear itself apart than its German neighbors do.

On television, former Bonds coach Marco van Basten said at half-time: "Two great attacks, the rest was a real cry." Anyone listening to Dumfries later in the stadium must have found those words quite harsh, as the right-back explained how close he was to the in criticism that is usual in the Netherlands sometimes goes.

"Mentally it was difficult to get over it," reported the 26-year-old professional from Inter Milan, who was unable to meet the high expectations in the first few games and also heard a lot.

Dumfries said he had a psychologist connected via Zoom help him because he felt "vulnerable".

This step is not easy, but he wants to "be open about it now and encourage others to seek help if they need it."

With Argentina, a World Cup giant is waiting for the “Elftal”

After the first few games, the winger was accused of not finding the right balance between offense and defense.

Dumfries is still being measured by his strong EM tournament in 2021, as a result of which he switched from PSV Eindhoven to Milan in Serie A.

He's not one of those guys who by the age of 19 are being courted by the biggest clubs in Europe, he's progressing slowly but with great persistence.

However, van Gaal was not completely satisfied with the performance either, who always talks about wanting to become world champion.

"We suffered a lot in the first half, that's not acceptable at a World Cup," he said of his team's performance before the break.

You can't really afford such a performance "against the top nations."

And with Argentina, the Dutch will meet a World Cup giant for the first time in the quarter-finals after duels against Senegal, Ecuador, Qatar and the USA.

It's a real classic in which the Netherlands will need more than two attacking full-backs.