Sjors Ultee, d Brand new coach of SC Kampur, was NOS’s football analyst during the World Cup. On match days of the Dutch national team, he keeps a close eye on the opponent on NOS.nl and the NOS app.

Orange will meet Argentina in the quarter-finals tonight at 8 p.m. Expect an exciting but open game with Ulti Orange playing a key role in the team’s downfall. What can we expect from Argentina?

Argentina lost the opening game but have been on a good run since then. What is your picture of the team?

“Everyone was very impressed by the defeat against Saudi Arabia, but the Argentines have recovered well from it, without making an impact like, for example, France or Brazil.”

“There are really a lot of good players in the team, but it still stands or falls with Lionel Messi. It’s annoying for a team on the one hand, but on the other hand it’s definitely nice that that player is the best footballer. In this world.”

“He can’t touch the ball for half an hour and do nothing, but once he hits the ball. Messi is very difficult to stop. You can do it well for 89 minutes, but that one minute often does it. The difference.”

Is Messi the only strength of Argentina?

“It’s so much more

“But what it is: the Netherlands are praised because the team is better than the individual. With Argentina it’s the other way around: the individual is better than the team there. Not just for Messi, for example, when pressing, not a specific pressing team, they like to collapse.”

“But they can suddenly fly out. Like the second goal they scored against Australia. All of a sudden you see them press and Australia get stressed and it’s 2-0.”

Watch Argentina’s second goal against Australia in the Round of 16:

“You can see that in the build-up too. They build-up very slowly, where they play the ball too much. Until suddenly a good player comes to the ball, then they need two or three passes. In front of the keeper they are more unpredictable than the Netherlands.”

But we have provocative pressure! Will it work against Argentina?

“That will be interesting. The Netherlands like to set that trap, where they force the opponent to play the ball through the middle. Three or four people around the Netherlands can win the ball. You make the call. Our trap closes and we can counter that by forcing the opponent to play the ball in the ashes.” Well done.

“That’s Van Gaal’s provocative pressure. The funny thing about it is that Argentina likes to hit the ball in the middle. So our drop can work well, but it can also kill us. Because if Messi is on the ball the trap won’t close. Right or he sees one more opening and then they go in all directions. Let’s go.”

Analyst Hedwigs Maduro explained on Sunday what Van Gaal’s provocative pressure was:

“So it’s our strength, but a risk. But Van Gaal certainly won’t change that tactic, it’s worked well for a long time. But he will be tested at the highest level tonight. The fall of the Netherlands is important. Win or lose.”

Did you see any other weaknesses in Argentina?

“The Argentinians often leave the initiative to the opponent. They even played 5-3-2 against Australia. It gives you the opportunity to improve the game on the ball, which Van Gaal likes so much. They will give us football chances. , but of course they want us to make mistakes.

“I don’t think they do well as a team. They defend individually. One player takes a pressure, the rest follow it and hope it goes well. It’s very low from the system.”

Here’s a recap of Argentina’s four World Cup matches so far:

“We have a chance with our counters. In Argentina they are all mixed up a bit, Messi goes in all directions and the long build-up often causes players to leave position. So they can be beaten.”

The key question: How should Orange handle it?

“I said before: everything stands or falls with the question of whether the defensive plan is correct, in which the trap closes. With more people than Argentina, it is not whether we can always keep the distance around the ball very small. Not going well, we get the lid on the nose.”

“It’s also important what we’re going to do with the space Argentina give to build. We have the players for that, especially Frenkie de Jong, but we’ve also shown in this World Cup that we have difficulty playing the ball.”

“Overall, I expect a match that will come alive with individual moments of counters from Argentina and the Netherlands. There are more boring phases in between. But this time I hope we can create moments on the ball.”