Sneijder Admits van Gaal Was Right

At a press conference, Wesley Sneijder was wondering why so many journalists were asking him questions. “It must be because I am new in the Dutch national team,” he joked. The midfielder was called by national team coach Louis van Gaal to join the team again against Estland on Friday. The 93-times international was a week ago sure that he had to watch the game on his television. But injuries of Wijnaldum and van der Vaart made the coach decide to call for the Help of Sneijder. Last Friday van Gaal said that Sneijder was not fit enough to join Orange. Earlier this summer he had to resign as captain of the team which was a hard judgement for the 93-times Dutch soccer star. Sneijder now says that he admits that he was not fit enough indeed. He says that last year at Inter, the club didn’t give him any playing time. So when he changed to Galatsaray, he gave everything he had. Apparently that was too much. In order to be fit again he didn’t stop training during the summer break. Van Gaal did notice this and rewarded him now to come back, although this was due to the injuries of the colleagues of Sneijder. The banning of Sneijder from the Dutch team caused a collision of the characters Sneijder and van Gaal. “One thing I have in common with the coach and that is that I am honest and straightforward,” Sneijder told the press. The coach told the press in another session that he had told Sneijder that when he would be able to tackle the ball from the opponents on Friday, he would see a jumping and screaming coach at the sideline. If the Dutch team wins on Friday from Estland, they would have won 16 qualification games for the World Cup on a row. The last defeat of the Dutch team during World Cup qualifications was way back in 2001. The game against Ireland was lost with 0-1 and Orange missed because of that the World Cup in Japan and Korea.