The http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Netherlands-c753 boss was content with the goalless stalemate in an international friendly game against Die Mannschaft, while admitting that his troops performed better in the second-half.
Netherlands and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Germany-c2904 played out a evenly fought goalless stalemate in an international friendly game at Amsterdam Arena on Wednesday, November 14.
The Oranje head coach, Louis van Gaal, has open heartedly admitted that Die Mannschaft staged an impressive show, though, he also added that they failed to create many goalscoring opportunities.
“I enjoyed the way Germany played in possession. They were quite impressive. We allowed them too much space and they took advantage of that. They didn't create many chances, though”, the former Bayern Munich boss was quoted as saying to the media in the post-match press conference.
The Dutch trainer, who took the reins of the Flying Dutchmen earlier this year following Bert van Marwijk’s decision to step down from the managerial hot seat in the aftermath of a disappointing Euro 2012 campaign in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ukraine-c3032, went on to reveal that his side put in a decent performance in the second-half.
“We improved after the break. We didn't want to press them all over the pitch, but provocatively press them. That helped us create space for our attackers”, Van Gaal concluded.
Germany commenced proceedings in Amsterdam as the better unit, and threatened Netherlands’ defence on a number of occasions in the opening 45 minutes. However, they failed to break the deadlock, with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Marco-Reus-c23733, Mario Gotze and Ilkay Gundogan all missing out decent opportunities to hit the back of the net.
After the half-time break, the Oranje staged a much better show, and created a couple of good goalscoring opportunities. However, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Manuel-Neuer-c23424, much to the dismay of Van Gaal.
Reus had a perfect chance to win for his side right at the stroke of full time whistle, but the Borussia Dortmund star fired over the crossbar.
Netherlands will lock horns against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/France-c2899 on February 6, 2013.
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