Van Gaal: For Oranje, this is the real start to the World Cup

The World Cup is really going to start for the Netherlands now, said national men’s football team manager Louis van Gaal on Thursday. He spoke during his final press conference before the quarter-final match against Argentina, which takes place Friday at 8 p.m.

“Argentina is a top country in my eyes, with top players in their squad,” according to van Gaal. “I don’t want to do a disservice to the other countries that we have beaten. But Argentina and possibly Brazil in the next round are still different countries.”

To prepare for Friday’s match, he said he asked former German international Bastian Schweinsteiger for advice on how to handle Argentina. During this tournament, Van Gaal has had regular contact with Schweinsteiger, who is working as a television analyst.

"I obviously can’t say what he told me about Argentina," said Van Gaal, who worked with Schweinsteiger at Bayern Munich and Manchester United. "But I did learn something from it. I sometimes hear things that I haven't heard from my scouts yet."

Schweinsteiger, who is now 38, is supporting Oranje following the early elimination of Germany, Van Gaal claimed. "Bastian was a player who played with his brain. And football is also a game that must be played with the brain, I talked about that with my players today."

Van Gaal gets defensive about Dutch defending

The manager had to defend his team’s playing style once more as he has been criticized for overly defensive football. He did so with visible annoyance. “I was the coach at Ajax with a very attacking DNA,” he told the press in Doha. “I then learned from my time in Barcelona that you can’t always do that. That was the first time I thought about it differently and developed a different vision.”

Van Gaal played with a five-man defence at the World Cup of 2014, where the Netherlands finished third. “In 2014, you saw my new vision for the first time. I got all kinds of criticism then. Now a lot of countries and teams play this system, about half the world. You could say that my vision has evolved.”

Oranje manager clarifies comments about Brazil

Van Gaal said he sees Brazil as the favorite to win the World Cup this year. The manager was responding to his comments earlier in the week when he called Brazil a “simple counter team” that isn’t particularly complex, but waits for their opponents to lose the ball and jumps on a counterattack.

“But that is not how I said it,” said van Gaal. “I reacted to what the Dutch media have said about the Dutch team and Brazil. Brazil plays nearly the same as us. But they have brilliant, technical players. Sometimes it goes great for them, but there are also games where it does not go so well.”

Brazil faces Croatia on Friday in the quarter-final and will then face Argentina or the Netherlands if they are victorious. “Brazil is the favorite in my eyes. I have always said that. We have a chance of becoming world champions. We have the best team; that is the difference with other teams.”