Coach Ronald Koeman admitted in Amsterdam on Wednesday that the Netherlands national team's loss (1-0) to Algeria at home, in the last preparatory match for the 2026 World Cup, is a "warning bell" before the team travels to the United States to compete in the finals next week. Anis Haj Moussa scored the winning goal for Algeria four minutes before the end, disrupting the atmosphere for the "Windmills", which will play a second friendly match against Uzbekistan in New York on Monday.
Published on: 04/06/2026 - 15:59 Last updated: 04/06/2026 - 16:08
Coach Ronald Koeman admitted that the Netherlands' 1-0 loss at home to the Algerian national team, in a World Cup preparatory match held on Wednesday, was an alarm bell before the team headed to the United States to begin its campaign in the tournament next week.
The Algerian national team scored the winning goal in the last minutes of the match, on the eve of the Dutch national team's travel to New York, where it will play another friendly match on Monday against Uzbekistan, which is participating for the first time in the World Cup.
"I absolutely hate losing, and we should have won this match," Koeman said with obvious disappointment. "We have to win such matches at home; our position in the classification dictates that."
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Dutch control did not translate into goals
Koeman pointed out that his country's national team, ranked eighth in the world, imposed its control during the first 25 minutes and created several opportunities, but failed to capitalize on them. He said, "When you do not decide the match within the first 25 minutes, you end up facing yourself. If you have four or five clear chances, you have to translate them into goals." He added, "Even if you don't score, that shouldn't become a problem. But then we made things difficult for ourselves, sometimes we lacked aggressiveness, and we were simply too lenient."
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Algerian winger Anis Hadj Moussa, a Feyenoord player, scored the only goal of the match four minutes before the end, disturbing the atmosphere of the Dutch team before its departure on Thursday.
“There is no need to panic...but it is an alarm bell.”
When asked whether losing in the preparation period was better than in the World Cup, Koeman replied, “No, winning always gives you a positive feeling, but losing is a bad thing. There is no need to panic now, but we need to review all the details. What happened can be described as an alarm bell.”
The Netherlands plays in Group F alongside Japan, Sweden and Tunisia in the World Cup finals.
France 24/Reuters
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