Messi's celebration of Louis van Gaal at the World Cup in Qatar sparked heated discussions among fans. And behind this action, there is actually an untold story. Back at 3 a.m. on December 10, a year ago, the World Cup in Qatar was burning. Morale is high for Argentina, who are facing up to their old rivals the Netherlands after beating Australia. The two sides played to a 2-2 draw after 120 minutes of play, and finally won 6-5 on aggregate in a penalty shootout, and Argentina successfully advanced to the semi-finals.
There were 15 yellow cards throughout the game, and Messi showed a rare display of anger after scoring the goal, rushing to the sidelines and making a gestural gesture to the Dutch dugout. So, what's the story behind this move?It turned out that Van Gaal had been the club coach of Riquelme, Saviola and Di Maria. At the peak of their careers, there were conflicts between them and Louis van Gaal, especially after Riquelme joined Barcelona in 2002, when he was ostracized and hidden by then-manager Louis van Gaal, which led to Riquelme's career in Europe not going well.
The gicho celebration is Riquelme's signature move, which originated from the Italian children's puppet show "Gicho Mouse" in the 60s of the last century. Therefore, Messi made this move to the Dutch coach's bench after scoring a goal, in fact, he was provoking the old coach Van Gaal. Although Van Gaal and Messi do not have much direct intersection, why is there such a deep contradiction between the two?It all stems from their different philosophies about football. As a Dutch coach who values team football and overall coordination, Van Gaal does not value the performance of individual players.
He is prejudiced against South American players, those who seek free play and individual performance, so it is not surprising that they are suppressed and excluded. In addition, based on his own football philosophy, Van Gaal has repeatedly criticized Messi in public. This antagonism is not just on a personal level, but also extends to the feud between Dutch and Argentine football. As the representative teams of South American technical football and European all-attacking and defensive football, the Netherlands and Argentina have played each other many times in the World Cup, and the conflict between them has continued. Argentina won the 1978 World Cup final with a 3-1 victory over the Netherlands.
Similarly, in the semifinals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Argentina eliminated the Netherlands 4-2 on penalties. At that time, the head coach of the Dutch team was none other than Louis van Gaal. Therefore, ahead of the quarterfinals of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Van Gaal once again incited emotional warfare. He said there was still a settlement between the Netherlands and Argentina. He also claims that they have found the secret to defending Messi, as Messi often hangs out on the pitch and the Dutch team can take advantage of that. The match between the Netherlands and Argentina is always in full swing, and even Messi has received a yellow card.
The remarks sparked controversy on and off the pitch and provoked Messi's displeasure. However, as an honest man, Messi has never responded or expressed any emotion before. But in the game, the fierce attack, reversal and 15 yellow cards from the referee made Messi, who was no longer the little man who had just debuted, unable to endure it any longer, and as the captain of the Argentine national team, he chose to stand up. After the match, Martinez revealed that Messi told him that he was going to score two goals in this game, which showed Messi's attitude and determination. After the game, Messi approached Van Gaal for a theory.
Looking back at the history of football, Argentina and the Netherlands presented fans with a great match that has been hailed as a masterpiece of the world. However, the unmistakable coach Louis van Gaal was unable to lead the Dutch team beyond the uncrowned king's conundrum due to his stubbornness, and eventually left the World Cup in disgrace. Louis van Gaal is still holding on to his criticism of international football and making claims that the World Cup has been booked for Messi. Recently, Messi gave an interview to an Argentine journalist to express his apology, saying that he regretted Van Gaal's misconduct during the game.
Finally, the debate on South American football and European football has attracted attention. There are two pieces of news that have recently sparked people's thinking, one is the high-level dialogue between Zidane and Messi, they said that there are not many players in the number 10 position on the pitch now!The other is the controversy over Ten Hag's authority within Manchester United. It seems that the debate and the story about the future of football will continue. (Uncle chats about ball works).