DBasia.news – Frank de Boer failed to carve a neat record during his debut match as the new coach of the Dutch national team. Oranje lost 0-1 to Mexico in a friendly match which was held at the Amsterdam Arena, Thursday (8/10) am, WIB.
De Boer is trusted to train the Dutch national team to replace Ronald Koeman, who left for Barcelona in mid-September. However, the decision of the Dutch Football Federation (KNVB) to appoint De Boer as Koeman’s replacement received criticism. The reason is, the 50-year-old coach has had a bad record in his career coaching the club. After a good performance with Ajax, De Boer was devastated when he coached Inter Milan and Crystal Palace. He left Inter in less than three months and was dismissed by Palace after seven games.
But De Boer did not want to worry about his failure to win in his debut match as coach. He defended himself by saying this was only a friendly match and he did not play the best Dutch player. In this match, the Oranje did not have Frenkie de Jong and Daley Blind. De Boer played Owen Wijndal and Teun Koopmeiners as debutants in the Dutch national team.
“The result may not be very pleasant, but this is just a training match. We didn’t play our best players. I think that’s enough to be an excuse. We know, De Jong is an important player in this team, but we can’t forget, Koopmeiners also performed quite well in midfield, “De Boer said after the match to NOS, as quoted by Goal, Thursday (8/10).
The former Atlanta United coach also had strong reasons not to play the best Dutch squad in this match. De Boer wanted to rest De Jong and Blind to face Bosnia-Herzegovina in the UEFA Nations League match this weekend. The Netherlands will then face Italy in the middle of next week.
“Of course, we want to always win. However, in this match, I have to make choices and those choices are quite logical. We didn’t play a number of players, as we still have two games to play. After all, I’m not the only national team coach who suffered a defeat on his debut match, “concluded de Boer.