I agree with the Netherlands head coach Louis Van Gaal for blasting FIFA for its refusal to scrap off the World Cups third-place consolation match. It is against fair play that FIFA claims to promotes. It gives the two semi-final losers little time to recover from the previous loss, and certainly guarantees one of the two teams to lose twice in a row in a tournament at such a high level. That is emotionally detrimental to players and traumatizing! Additionally the third-place game is rarely memorable and has never been popular since inception. In the recent past we have seen that teams often select weakened teams in order to give playing time to squad members who have gotten little playing time in the tournament. Just imagine how traumatizing to Brasil if the Dutch are to beat Brasil 7-1 like they lost to Germany! It is arguably that as an example, the Netherlands have nothing to gain even if they win this game. Only to Brasil does this game serve a purpose; that is if they are to win- which is desperately seeking to regain some pride following its crushing 7-1 semifinal defeat to Germany. FIFA has insisted on keeping the match as part of the World Cup schedule and it has been a part of the format since the inception of the competition.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 16:19:27 +0000