Monterrey, June 30 (IANS) Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman cast doubt on his future on Tuesday after a penalty shootout loss to Morocco eliminated his team from the World Cup.

Koeman said he was still coming to grips with the result at Monterrey Stadium, which marked the Netherlands’ earliest exit at the World Cup finals since its round of 16 elimination in Germany 20 years ago.

“I haven’t resigned. I’m going to reflect on my future. Right now, the disappointment from the match is still very fresh. I’ll gather my thoughts, and maybe I’ll come to a conclusion by tomorrow morning,” he said after the match as quoted by Xinhua.

Cody Gakpo had given the Netherlands the lead in the round-of-32 clash with a 72nd-minute strike before Issa Diop forced the match into extra time with a 91st-minute equalizer.

Justin Kluivert, Quinten Timber and Crysencio Summerville all missed their attempts for the Dutch in the shootout.

“It was a difficult draw from the moment we saw Morocco in our group, but that’s football,” Koeman said. “We put a lot of energy into this match, and it went back and forth. Maybe Morocco created the better chances. We took the lead, and I didn’t think they had a real solution, then they scored a fortunate goal.”

“It’s even more painful when it comes in stoppage time. We were also unlucky in the penalty shootout.”

Koeman defended his decision to switch to a five-man defense and denied his tactics had been too defensive.

“We conceded far less than we did against Sweden and Tunisia. If the equalizer hadn’t been scored, people would probably praise the decision,” he said.

“I felt the change was necessary. Too often in previous matches we gave opponents too much space, and if that had happened tonight we probably wouldn’t even have reached extra time. People see the game from the sidelines, but I’m with the team every day. If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t change anything,” he added.

Koeman admitted his team’s shortcomings in attack had been telling.

“I thought we could have been more dangerous on the left with Micky [van de Ven] and Cody,” he said. “We could have moved the ball quicker. We got into good positions on the right a few times, but the final pass wasn’t good enough. You can ask whether playing with five defenders affected our attacking play.”

Despite being the runners-up three times (1974,1978,2010), the Netherlands have never won the FIFA World Cup, and their wait for glory will continue for four more years after the round of 32 exit.

–IANS

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