Column | From the Netherlands to Argentina

The Netherlands was not only eliminated by the Argentinians on Friday, we were also extremely bullied and not by a random Argentinian, but by the king of the schoolyard himself: Lionel Messi. At least that’s what it looked like on the Dutch side of the mourning tube.

In South America, Argentina has been at the top of the list of most hated countries on the continent for decades. Argentinians are known for being arrogant, loud and self-righteous, but Friday night’s behavior seemed excessive even to Argentinians.

Looking for an explanation for all that poison on the field, I visited the Argentinian internet, where I immediately ended up in a compilation of statements from the Dutch press, all with Spanish subtitles. Valentijn Driessen said: “Argentina plays with ten, right? … except for three or four moments, Messi doesn’t do anything … the ball is their biggest enemy.” Johan Derksen agreed: “The Netherlands is much better than Argentina, it is a poor team with a good goalkeeper.” The claim in the Netherlands that Messi was slow, old and barely played was widely reported in Argentina. It was also regularly mentioned that Van Gaal hated South Americans.

Saturday the Argentine newspaper explained The clarin explain why Messi treated Louis to a ‘Topo Gigio’ – that is the name of the pose with the hands on the earcups, named after a mouse with large ears from children’s programs. In 2001, Juan Román Riquelme had humiliated the management of Boca Juniors, with which he was at odds, with a Topo Gigio. Riquelme was sold to FC Barcelona. Van Gaal is said to have welcomed him there with the words: “You are the best player in the world when you have the ball, but if you don’t have it, we play with one man less.”

What Van Gaal recently said about Messi sounded like an echo of 2001. In the Dutch choir that sang that Messi did nothing without the ball, Louis was the prima donna. Compared to Argentinian national coach Lionel Scaloni, who said he considered it an honor to compete against Van Gaal, our national coach came across as somewhat arrogant, vocal and self-righteous. Even in Argentina.

During the penalties, the Dutch had apparently shouted at the opponents to make them drop their lunch boxes. Wout Weghorst had been bullying from the start, so when “the nineteen” came to shake hands afterwards, Messi scolded him. Wout had started, Messi said.

When you develop an inexplicable dislike for someone, it may be because you see qualities in the other person that you hate about yourself. Liars hate liars, perverts hate perverts, and self-righteous, loudmouthed, bullies hate self-righteous, loudmouthed, bullies. If you put aside all the “he said this” and “he started” of the world-famous adult eighth-finalists, the bickering between the Argentinians and the Dutch can be explained by their similarities in their lesser qualities. The Argentinians of Europe were eliminated by the Dutch of South America.

The most crazy thing about the whole show remains that the world pays more attention to the fight in the schoolyard than to the thousands of workers who died laying the tiles.

Carolina Trujillo is a writer.

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