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De Haan: "This a sore defeat"
Saturday 16 August 2008
Holland's Olympic coach Foppe de
Haan was of course disappointed with the result of the
quarterfinal match against Argentina (1-2), but did
make his team a compliment.
"We played fairly well. At
first I thought: where will this lead to. But after
the strong start of the Argentineans we were able to
control the game. We had them by the balls and if Royston
scores it's over. We've been in China fourteen days
now, but I still have not seen Beijing and that is where
it all happens. During the group stages we had trouble
getting a C- but in this game they deserved a B,"
De Haan thought.
The Olympics were De Haan's last
big job as a coach, but his dream to do well here ended
a bit earlier than he had anticipated.
Despite the disappointment De Haan
said he had enjoyed some of the players of his opponents:
"It was a thrill to watch Lionel Messi. We don't
have' such a player and rely on team effort and hard
labor."
It was the first day De Haan felt
he had gotten things right about the team: "I could
feel it. We needed a bit of time, too much actually.
Otherwise we would have been a bit further today. But
hey, that can happen in sports.
He admitted that he could have
done some things a bit differently: "I have been
rather confronting towards some players. Perhaps I should
have been a bit smarter there. This group was different
from the one I coached at the European Championships.
There are a number of players in this group who very
much keep to themselves. But don't get me wrong: that
is not why we were eliminated."
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