Goalkeeper wanted. Possibility of traveling to Qatar. It is necessary to know how to stop penalties. Reason in the KNVB, the Dutch Football Federation. Ask for Louis van Gaal.
The coach's obsession is not new. He comes from afar. Perhaps you have to go back to the beginning of 1993. With the excuse of an Ajax defeat in Auxerre, he decided to seat Menzo to bring in Van der Sar, a goalkeeper of almost two meters who had great footwork. A ban had just come into force that goalkeepers could not catch the ball with their hands if a defender passed it to them. And Van Gaal took the step.
Almost thirty years have passed but the Dutch coach, now the coach of his country and having just turned 71, still has his concerns.
In Barcelona, the Blaugrana club had made a large outlay for Vitor Baía at the request of Robson. A year later, in 1997, Van Gaal landed at the Camp Nou championing the need to sign another goalkeeper yes or yes. The chosen one was an unknown Ruud Hesp, a compatriot of his, who was already over thirty and who played in the modest Roda. The coach got away with it and Hesp was the starter, winning two leagues and a Cup... on penalties.
But there is still more. In his second stage at the Camp Nou Van Gaal he dared to make a certain Víctor Valdés debut. While for AZ he noticed the Argentine Sergio Romero, whom he signed when he was 20 years old.
Van Gaal has been followed all these years by the goalkeeper coach Frans Hoek and a man of his complete confidence. In 2014, between the two, they devised the most surprising change in the World Cup in Brazil. In the 119th minute they put Tim Krul on the field to get under the sticks in the penalty shootout against Costa Rica in the quarterfinals. The goalkeeper saved Ruiz and Umaña's shots and gave the Netherlands a pass to the semi-finals.
Perhaps for this reason, thinking of repeating the invention, the Oranje coach has skipped the unwritten rule of summoning three goalkeepers and, in the last break before Qatar, has made a list with four goalkeepers. Van Gaal wants to work and see ex-Barcelonista Cillessen up close, who now plays for NEC Nimega, Flecken (Freiburg), Noppert (Heerenveen) and Pasveer (Ajax). The last three had never been international.
But it is that on Wednesday he invited two more goalkeepers. Biljow (Feyenoord) and Scherpen (Vitesse) went to the Zeist campus for a specific penalty shootout session. A seventh, Tim Krul, protagonist of 2014, denied the invitation, losing his options. “I am looking for the best penalty taker and we are testing all the goalkeepers. I always look for the small advantages and that is why I pay special attention to this topic”, reasons Van Gaal, always a revolutionary.
