Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman refuses to apologize for his conservative tactics.

In the first round of Group F matches at the World Cup on Sunday, the Netherlands took the lead twice but were held to a draw by Japan in the final stages of the match.

After the match, when faced with criticism regarding his conservative tactics and substitutions, Dutch head coach Ronald Koeman firmly defended his decisions.

In this match, the Netherlands took the lead twice. However, in the 70th minute, Koeman made substitutions, not only taking off the active Christencio Somerville, but also bringing on center-back Natyhan Ake to switch to a three-center-back formation.

This shift to a passive defensive formation directly ceded control, allowing Japan to launch a fierce attack and score a last-minute equalizer in the 88th minute. Faced with criticism that this tactical regress led to the dropped points, Koeman refused to admit to any substitution errors, instead attributing the problem to the players' defensive execution.

In a post-match interview, Koeman said, "There were problems with our defensive pressure on the flanks. If you look back at this game, those two goals we conceded can only be attributed to our own poor defensive performance."

"Football is a wonderful sport. After Japan scored their second goal, they switched to defense. We had a chance to score a third goal. Therefore, I don't regret my choice."

Furthermore, Memphis Depay, the striker who had been announced as recovered from injury and eligible to start, only came on as a substitute in the second half, failing to score and receiving a yellow card. Facing criticism, Koeman stated that the team's performance was merely below par and accused the media of underestimating the strength of their Asian opponents.

“This was definitely not our best performance. We would certainly prefer to win the first match, but we need to keep growing throughout the tournament,” Koeman added.

Image source: Internet