Netherlands don't want to face Mexico due to the tight schedule
The Netherlands held a press conference where they spoke about the tight schedule they have in this international break with three games to be played in just seven days.
Mexico’s national team is thrilled to play European teams in this FIFA international break because they can test their level ahead of the World Cup qualifiers in Concacaf. On the other side, however, the Netherlands would rather not face Mexico because that means they have to play three games in seven days.
Tight schedule
The Netherlands are more focused on the games against Bosnia and Italy for the UEFA Nations League that are going to be played on 11 and 14 October. During a press conference prior to the friendly against Mexico the newly appointed Netherlands coach Frank de Boer said he would rather skip this game.
“It is not ideal to play a friendly game when you have two other official matches in such a short period of time. We could’ve had an entire week to prepare the UEFA Nations League’s games and a lot of my players saw activity this past weekend. Due to the pandemic a lot of players have had little rest due to the change of schedules so I would have to make a lot of adjustments for Wednesday’s game,” said de Boer.
The Netherlands coach also talked about the level the Mexican team has ahead of the friendly scheduled for Wednesday. “Every friendly game leaves you with a different conclusion and this will help for the games we have in the UEFA Nations League. Mexico is a great team with quality players. If I was Mexico’s coach this would be the type of games I would demand to improve the level and show that the country has a lot of talent.”
Van Dijk doesn’t know many Mexican players
Virgil van Dijk is generally regarded as one of the best defenders around and he has won everything with Liverpool in the past two years. He was sitting alongside Netherland’s coach Frank de Boer during the press conference and was asked about his knowledge of the opposition.
“I know about Javier Hernández, Hirving Lozano, but he is not going to play [due to testing positive for coronavirus] and some other few players. It is very hard to play against Mexican footballers and everyone knows that as a team they are very tough to beat. It should be an intense game and we always want to win,” Van Dijk added.