Written by Sam Borden at New York Times.com
It was not even two years ago that Louis van Gaal was being hailed as a genius. In the crucible of a World Cup quarterfinal, van Gaal, then coaching the Netherlands, substituted his starting goalkeeper in the final minutes of extra time and then — with a grin on his face — watched the backup make two critical saves in the subsequent penalty-kick shootout as his team advanced to a semifinal against Argentina.
Never shy — van Gaal once declared, “Congratulations on signing the best coach in the world” after he was hired by the Dutch club Ajax — he reveled in the global acclaim he received in Brazil, showing his playful side (and his ego) in a series of entertaining interviews. It was expected that van Gaal’s magic that summer would follow him to his next job, as coach of Manchester United.
It did not. Van Gaal was fired on Monday, two days after winning his only trophy with the club and one year short of completing the three-year deal he signed before the 2014 World Cup. Van Gaal, who was the first Manchester United coach who was not British or Irish, will reportedly be replaced by another confident manager from the continent: José Mourinho, the Portuguese tactician who once nicknamed himself the Special One.
Van Gaal, of course, was supposed to be special, too. He had won titles with Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich in previous stops, and in that summer of 2014, he was seen as the stabilizer, the veteran presence who would bring an end to the tumult that followed Alex Ferguson’s departure from United in 2013. David Moyes, who had replaced Ferguson but was dumped even before the end of his first season as coach, was a blip. Van Gaal was held up as the rock.
But soccer, like all sports, is a funny thing. Permanence is unattainable and so it was for van Gaal, whose early bravado about how it would take just three months for United’s players to adapt to his (presumably advanced) tactics looks misguided, if not silly, on the far side of his tenure. The results never materialized, and van Gaal could not even fall back on the coach’s trope that his team was unlucky. United scored only 49 goals during this Premier League season, or one more than Sunderland, which finished fourth from last and was nearly relegated.
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