Holland manager Louis van Gaal yesterday revealed that two players refused to take the first penalty after their shootout defeat by Argentina last Wednesday.
The Dutch couldn't repeat their quarter-final shootout heroics against Costa Rica as Aston Villa defender Ron Vlaar missed Holland's first kick and Wesley Sneijder also failed to score.
Argentina scored all four penalties to secure a place in the World Cup final against Germany in the Maracana Stadium on Sunday.
Afterwards, Van Gaal — who takes over at Manchester United next week — appeared to suggest that two players refused to take kicks but wouldn’t elaborate.
He said: “You need to score the first one and I asked two players to take the first ball before ending up with Vlaar.
“I thought he was the best player on the pitch so should have a lot of confidence. It just goes to show it's not easy scoring in a penalty shoot-out.
“It’s a very humiliating question to be asked who the players were,” he said.
A tight game ended scoreless after 120 minutes but Argentina went through after scoring with four consecutive spot-kicks.
Van Gaal wasn’t able to send specialist goalkeeper Tim Krul on in goal for the penalties as he did last week as he had already used three substitutes. To add to his pain, Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero once played for him at AZ Alkmaar.
“We didn’t lose against them, but the penalties are down to luck,” he added.
“I taught Romero how to stop penalties, so that hurts,” Gaal said.
—espn.co.uk
