Argentina and PSG forward, Lionel Messi has slammed Netherlands coach, Louis Van Gaal over pattern of football play as Netherlands give them their longest evening in the World Cup so far.
Messi had criticized the coach’s pattern of play which he called “long balls” which was great advantage for the Netherlands tall players and a disadvantage to Argentina’s averaged height players.
Messi, who scored in the subsequent shootout, was left unimpressed by how Van Gaal had resorted to use one football playing pattern to drag the Dutch back into the game.
According to Sky sports, Messi said, “Van Gaal says that they play good football, but what he did was put on tall people and hit long balls,”
Also reacting on the referee’s attitude and decisions on the pitch, he said the the referee was not up to the task of game like the FIFA World Cup match.
The referee, Antonio Mateu Lahoz had booked fourteen players in the match for Yellow Cards with Argentina claiming nine of the cards, even their star player, Messi was not left out of the book.
He said, “I don’t want to talk about the referee because you can’t be honest. If you talk they sanction you, FIFA must think about it, they can’t put a referee like that for these instances, they can’t put a referee who isn’t up to the task.”