Louis van Gaal is a man apart in Qatar

 

Louis van Gaal as the sentimental choice to win this World Cup feels like a fault in the space-time continuum. And yet the austere, brusque character who led Ajax to glory in the 1990s and whose tedious freeze-frame football had mid-2010s Manchester United fans barrelling to the concourses has reconfigured as world football’s friendly uncle. His treatment for cancer and the reality that, at 71, this will likely be his final stand on the world stage has softened hearts, though. He has softened, too.

Van Gaal has also emerged as a rare voice of conscience in an elite class where the next pound will always be chased ahead of principles. “It’s ridiculous that the World Cup is [in Qatar],” he said earlier this year. “Fifa says they want to develop football there. That’s bullshit. It’s about money, about commercial interests.” Take note, David Beckham and others.

With Fifa set to collect a record $7.5bn of revenue and stadiums dotted with empty seats as the Doha supercity empties out in the tournament’s latter stages, such plain-speaking has been proved correct. Van Gaal, though lately banning political questions as they might distract his team, continues to have the ear of the journalists. Not for him the “we want to win” or “this is football” cliches trotted out by his contemporaries.

At Fifa’s main media centre on Thursday, the great man’s press conference was a sellout. Those hacks who sat through his United team’s matches would regularly wonder why he couldn’t just do press conferences for a living, such was the richness of entertainment compared to the plodding football out on the field. In Qatar, it’s been much the same. His Netherlands team would win few prizes for artistic impression and, while playing Argentina in the quarter-final recalls the Brilliant Orange team meeting the same opposition in 1974 and 1978, Van Gaal’s team are functional, less-flying Dutchmen and liable to use the long ball.

The Argentina game also brings Van Gaal up against one of his former United players, Ángel Di María, with whom he had a difficult relationship. “My problem in Manchester was the coach,” said Di María last year. “Van Gaal was the worst coach I ever had in my career.” On Thursday, the Dutch manager sidestepped the winger’s complaints before delivering one of the comedic gems the hacks had queued up for.

“Well, he is one of the very few players who ever said that,” he said. “And usually it is the other way round … a head coach sometimes needs to take decisions that don’t always end well. There’s somebody next to me here, Memphis Depay. The same thing happened to him. He also played for Manchester [United] and now we kiss each other, mouth to mouth. We’re not going to do it now.” Cue that uproarious laughter only a room full of journalists can produce.

Should the Netherlands prevail, they would end the hopes of another sentimental choice to win this World Cup, Lionel Messi, and Van Gaal has a plan for him. “Messi is the most dangerous creative player, he is able to create a lot and to score goals himself,” he said. “But when they lose the ball he doesn’t participate much, this gives us chances.”

Many a coach has set a plan for Messi and failed miserably, though few have the experience and charisma of Van Gaal. If defeat to Argentina proves to be his last stand in football, he will be missed. He has proved a man apart in Qatar, and the game needs more leaders like him. JB

by John Brewin,

GUARDIAN