Rafael van der Vaart believes that Jeroen Stekelenburg could have asked Virgil van Dijk more critical questions after the game between Latvia and the Dutch national team (0-1). The reporter of the NOS asked the captain of the Dutch, among other things, whether it is ‘not difficult to keep your head up’ in the entourage in which football had to be played against Latvia. “We didn’t get those questions before,” says Van der Vaart in the studio of the NOS.
“It got a bit too exciting at the end, yes. If you look at that last chance… This is a game that everyone expects us to win and that’s completely normal. I think we did. We had many opportunities, but he only went in once”, Van Dijk initially analyzes the duel in front of the camera of the NOS. “We have analyzed them well and it is a team that does not give up and keeps running. They don’t put a lot of pressure, but they play the ball very opportunistically. We knew it wouldn’t be over even though we were ahead. In the end we did everything we could to keep a clean sheet.”
“How hard is it to keep your head up? You made a mistake too. Then you have played in all stadiums in the world and that seems so difficult to me”, Stekelenburg then asks about the entourage in the Daugava stadium in Riga. “Mistakes are part of football”, Van Dijk responds. “I’m not going to make excuses why mistakes are made, we have to deal with that better. The field was not optimal, but that was the case for both teams. We should have acted better at the stages where they became dangerous. Anyway, we have three points, go back to the Netherlands and play another important game on Monday.”
Stekelenburg then wonders whether it ‘makes sense to analyze such a match’. “I think we will definitely analyze it with the national coach. That is also good, it is also part of it and everyone wants to take steps. As a group, as a player. This is only possible by looking critically at errors and points for improvement,” says Van Dijk. Finally, Stekelenburg wants to know whether ‘evenings like these will ever be fun’. Van Dijk: “It’s part of it. And I’m enjoying it immensely, I’ve been out for a long time and I’m still making strides. the Dutch is the highest achievable as a Dutch footballer. captain. Yes, great.”
“It was bad, wasn’t it. These are the evenings that don’t make us happy as analysts,” Van der Vaart starts in the studio of the NOS. Fellow analyst Pierre van Hooijdonk points out that these are also evenings ‘which don’t make you happy as a player’. Van der Vaart continues: “I think… We were just listening to Van Dijk and I think Stekelenburg could be a little more critical with his questions. It was very bad: ‘You play normally at Liverpool and now here’. We didn’t get those questions before.”
Presenter Tom Egbers stands up for Stekelenburg. “That can be an explanation that you normally play on a full Anfield. That is different. You can also ask a question, right?” emphasizes Egbers. “Of course it’s different, but you can adjust to that in advance. As a journalist you can say that it was a dragon of a match and that you don’t just have to play the ball over the sidelines. I think it could have been a little more critical, let me put it this way. This was very understanding.”