Valentine Driessen hits out hard at Moroccan journalist

For Valentijn Driessen and his colleagues at De Telegraaf, too, the world championship in the United States, Mexico and Canada is there in terms of following the Netherlands national team. The critic from Westland will be sharpening his knives over the coming days, because knowing Driessen, he won’t leave a single chip of Ronald Koeman and his approach.

In Monterrey, Orange bowed out to Morocco on penalties, which will face Canada in the round of 16 on Saturday. The debacle of the Netherlands national team also in no way deserved qualification for the round of 16, but the way in which the Netherlands must leave the tournament will be the subject of conversation in the coming days.

Valentijn Driessen was definitely not in the right headspace beforehand with his prediction, because the critic from De Telegraaf predicted that the Netherlands would advance easily at the expense of Morocco, but nothing turned out to be less true. A few hours before the match, Driessen took the opportunity one more time to put a Moroccan colleague flat on the ground.

The journalist from Morocco would have liked to stoke the fire for a moment and started talking about a moment from now 12 years ago. In the press room of Oranje, the journalist pointed to the Mexican home crowd in the stadium in Monterrey. The journalist began talking about a possible 'home advantage' for Morocco because the Mexicans still haven't forgotten how Arjan Robben at the time managed to win a penalty in the match against Mexico. Driessen couldn't take it anymore and launched into a fierce rebuttal.

“And according to the Moroccan journalist who asked that question, the whole stadium will be behind Morocco, because they are against the Netherlands because of that situation in Brazil. Yes, we’ll have to see about that. I believe that that governor here was also very enthusiastic about Orange and on Oranje-Mars. Not a little either.

'So yes, we’ll see which way that turns out. I spoke here today with Orange supporters. It was a man who had a Mexican wife and who thought that there would actually be a lot of support for the Netherlands again, because the color of the state is also orange'.

'And maybe he also finds that very fun. And the little flags above the road, those rotating blue little flags—that are also the flags of the province, not because of the Netherlands, but that’s why they think it’s nice that the Netherlands also has those rotating blue ones. So he also saw all kinds of reasons why there would be support for the Netherlands', as Valentijn Driessen said. 

'Truly, the Moroccan journalist himself was sitting there with such a smile about his question. It was so well thought out, as if nobody had ever come up with it", Driessen lashed out hard at the Moroccan journalist in question. A few hours later, the tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada has unfortunately already come to an end for Oranje. And Valentijn Driessen? In the coming hours and days, he will be sharpening his knives.