After failing to qualify for Russia 2018, Netherlands are out to make amends when they lock horns with Argentina for a place in the World Cup semi-finals on Friday.
Louis van Gaal's side face the not-so-insignificant task of silencing arguably the world's greatest-ever player, Lionel Messi, in their quest for a maiden world crown, having reached the semi-finals in 2014 and the final in 2010. Van Gaal has been typically outspoken on his desire to break the Oranje's duck, and his side's chances have been sufficiently boosted in Qatar by the breakthrough of in-demand star Cody Gakpo.
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 12 months, Gakpo's name should register. The potent PSV Eindhoven forward is one of the most coveted players in Europe and has attracted countless Premier League admirers during that time.
After shunning the opportunity to join one of English football's lesser lights in the final days of the summer transfer window, Gakpo has taken his game to another level this year - which is no mean feat when you consider he chalked up 36 goal contributions last term.
But for Loran Vrielink - the man who knows Gakpo "better than anybody" and has played a silent part in his remarkable evolution over the past 12 months with his tactical analysis company, Tactalyse - Gakpo's consistency is no surprise.
Vrielink is a tactical coach who holds weekly sessions with Gakpo and other European stars. They go through hundreds of video clips of tactical decisions from games to help mould and develop the 23-year-old's on-field behaviour.
"I don't look into numbers; we are interested in behaviours," he explains to Mirror Football.
A former pro-basketball player in the Netherlands, Vrielink founded Tactalyse in February 2016. He recognised, during the early days of his coaching career, that tactical instructions are often given to a team as a whole, but there is a dearth of players who actuallyy receive tailored tactical advice on their own specific roles.
Thus, Tactalyse's mission is simple: to provide professional football players with the sort of extensive, individual analysis that their clubs simply cannot provide.
It was during his time as a PE teacher that he crafted and perfected his methodology. After challenging his students to change their behaviours through video clips, Vrielink discovered that the children, who were always of the opinion that they were great, were left "impressed" and reacted better to being showed their defects. While coaching at a pro-club, Vrielink quickly identified a "lack of attention" in tactical analysis.
He explains: "What I saw [in pro-clubs] is that the individual attention is so low compared to basketball. In basketball, there was so much great detail that helped you stop an opponent; in football, it was 'push him out wide' or 'get the ball'. That was it."
Like any grand idea, Vrielink's vision has grown from humble beginnings. Initially, he worked with low-profile players for free. But over time, his brand has grown: Tactalyse is now fully licensed and has 23 coaches in 14 countries, including the UK, Netherlands, Spain and France, working with clients all across the globe.
Gakpo is one of their more well-known clients. But Vrielink's clientele includes five Premier League players and numerous renowned names from around Europe. The last 18 months have been pivotal for the company. From 30 clients two years ago, Vrielink now works with over 175 players on a weekly basis. Some have been working with Tactalyse for over six years.
He explains: "This service doesn't exist in other countries. Nobody has heard about external tactical coaching - everybody has heard of mental coaching, physical coaching, technical coaching, but tactical coaching doesn't exist. So our first step is convincing people that this is beneficial for the players."
The company offers two services: analysis for pro-players, like Gakpo, who want to delve deeper into the tactical side of the game that perhaps isn't on offer at their club, and tailored tactical lessons for youth team players.
"We see most of our players are smarter players. Football is played in the head. Technically and physically we are so far [advanced] but decision-making is crucial.
"The World Cup will be decided by really simple details: by one mistake or an optimal reaction in a game situation. The smarter players, we see they understand faster and earlier that they need to adapt to become a more complete player. Decision-making takes over at the top level."
Vrielink has been working with Gakpo for almost a year. Their paths first crossed in January, when Tactalyse's services were mentioned to Gakpo by a lawyer who was in contact with Watford defender William Troost-Ekong. The Hornets ace himself has been working with Vrielink for almost five years.
Intriguingly, most players who get in touch with Vrielink reach out when they are experiencing "a dip", but Gakpo was bang in-form and doing his burgeoning reputation no harm at the start of the year. Putting in extra work with Tactalyse to hone Gakpo's tactical awareness and behaviours was seen as an ideal opportunity to take the forward's game to the next level.
"They [Gakpo's team] were really with the mindset like 'we want to go to a new competition, a higher level, but where do need to invest in'? Then, this came on their path and they directly believed in it and went full in.
"Because he was already performing on the pitch, I was able to spend a lot of time on his development plan to ensure he can continue to perform and develop at an optimal level."
Vrielink has already stressed that Tactalyse doesn't dwell too much on figures and statistics - a bold approach in a data-driven world. But Gakpo's numbers this year are evidence that his work with Tactalyse is bearing fruit.
"We never focus on goals and assists: goals and assists are the results of focusing on changing his behaviour on the field. The decision-making is crucial to getting goals and assists.
"The consistency of performing is also crucial. Cody showed that last season: every game he became better and better and he created more chances. The statistics are there to show the outside world that he is consistent with his actions. He's a really smart player and developing fast."
Developing fast almost feels like an understatement. Gakpo has been electric for PSV this year and played himself onto the summer wishlist of many European heavyweights with his form at the tail-end of last season. Manchester United flirted with the idea of prising Gakpo away from the Eredivisie in the final days of the summer transfer window, while Leeds and Brighton were also keen but, ultimately, a blockbuster move failed to materialise.
Remarkably, Gakpo has not been affected in slightest. In fact, it appears to have been the catalyst for him to take his game to the next level. Already this term, he has amassed outrageous returns: 30 goal contributions (13 G, 17 A) from 24 games almost defies belief. But while others may be surprised, Vrielink certainly isn't.
"The more you are in front of the goal, when there is a possibility of a cross, for example, the bigger the chance you will score. There are different details that we teach with him. For example, Cody is dribbling less, but he is more efficient in his dribbling. He's touching the ball less, but he is scoring more goals; this isn't a coincidence.
"This guy can score one, two, three times per game. For PSV, in one game, he scored one goal and three assists. For us, that was not a surprise: in that game he created 16 chances. So, from 16 chances, four results is normal.
"There was a big article on Erling Haaland [recently]. He was more like: 'give me the ball five times because I want to score' instead of 'give me the ball all the time'. He doesn't need to have the ball [all the time] to score. A lot of players will demand the ball and go lower on the field to touch the ball, but will not have any influence on the result. As an attacker, you need to score. So, by changing that behaviour and showing a player why that is so important, you can accelerate their development so much better. That's the kind of thing we did with Cody."
Unsurprisingly, Gakpo's Eredivisie form nudged him not just into the Netherlands' senior ranks, but into Van Gaal's first choice XI. After making his international bow at the delayed European championships last summer, Gakpo has evolved into one of the most instrumental figures in the Netherlands team that has won plenty of admirers during the World Cup.
Gakpo's stock is at an all-time high after plundering three goals in three games during the Group Stage. With Memphis Depay not at 100 percent, he has taken centre stage and thrived. But his role in the national team has thrown up new challenges for the forward and Vrielink to sink their teeth into.
Gakpo has already played in three different positions at the tournament, something his recent Tactalyse sessions have centred around. But doing so has required sacrifices on both sides. For Vrielink, his role requires him to be adaptable to meet the needs of all his clients, but this month, a particular focus has been placed on meeting the needs of the five whom are in Qatar. For Gakpo, his usual Tactalyse sessions have eaten into his own personal time between games.
"You either call your family or friends, or you call us," Vrielink says when asked about the difficulties of keeping to their usual schedule around the tournament. "But Cody sees the results and the value of doing it and that's why it's standard office programme that we do sessions between every game. It's normal for him; it's part of his life now.
"In my opinion, you have to prepare players if you're moving them around. And that takes time. So , who is helping Cody to understand his body orientation, his motoric aspects? I know every detail of him. He's a left winger, but I can help him to play as a right striker. I prepared him, I helped him and helped him understand what he could do better.
"To be a top player, you need to adapt. The fact Cody has managed that, says a lot about how he is as a person. He is able to adapt.
"Not all the games he has played, at the World Cup and for PSV, have gone perfectly this season. But if you can adapt as a player tactically, then you can go really, really high. The fact he is able to do that says everything about his evolution - there are not a lot of players who are capable of doing a similar thing."
While Gakpo is thriving at the tournament and is very much in the public eye, Vrielink's other clients who are in Qatar are "a bit shy" and enjoy anonymity - something he is eager to change going forward. And he believes that the lack of additional tactical training outside of clubs could be the catalyst for more players to go public and, ultimately, encourage others to enlist the services of him and his company.
"In the world, there are a lot of technically brilliant players. But tactically, they have no clue what they are doing. With a lot of players, we ask: 'on an individual level, what their coach is asking from you'? And they don't have answers to that. We are there to help them and give them guidelines to help them perform better for the team and that coach."
Vrielink estimates that around "90 per cent" of his clients fall into that category.
And while that may sound alarming, he insists nothing surprises him in football anymore. It's not clear whether or not this is driven by an oversight from many professional clubs or is simply down to time restraints. He does, however, anticipate that will change over the next few years.
Already, there are signs his prediction could be coming to fruition.
Tactalyse recently struck a deal to collaborate with Eredivisie outfit SC Cambuur after a successful trial. Vrielink and his team will be working with the club's second team for the rest of the season. The plan, he hopes, is to work with the club's whole youth academy next year, all being well. Tactalyse already work with plenty of highly-rated youngsters at some of the biggest clubs in Netherlands, including Ajax.
Certainly, Gakpo's continued success would do his prediction no harm.
But what of Gakpo himself? After hinting that there were tentative plans for Gakpo to move to the next level in the summer, Vrielink admitted that it was only a matter of time before his star client embarked onto bigger and better things.
Whether that means Manchester United rekindle their interest and stump up a premium price for Gakpo just months after passing on a deal remains to be seen. Perhaps even they will be gazumped; the reigning European champions, Real Madrid, have emerged as another potential suitor this week.
"Players always hear things through their agents when stuff like that is going on. I think a lot of players try to avoid reading stuff like that, especially during the World Cup.
"The first six months when I coached him, he was already scoring and assisting goals, so I had time to prepare him for the next competition. It could have been that he went to a different, higher competition in the summer, but it didn't happen. Now, it's just a matter of time whether he goes in the next window or the summer, but he will go."
"Everybody is asking the biggest question: 'can he do it at a higher level'?" Vrielink asks coyly. "We will find out sooner or later."
You suspect he, like Gakpo, already knows the answer.
