The stars are falling one after another before the start of the World Cup. A few hours before Qatar and Ecuador will officially open the tournament, news came from the Belgian camp that their medical team failed to clear Romelu Lukaku for Wednesday’s game against Canada. And roughly at the same time, news from the Netherlands squad are that Memphis Depay will also miss some games in Qatar.Group A – Four continents collide as African champions look to break the mould and reach for glorySo far, he will miss only one game, an opener against Senegal today at 19:00, but with injuries you really are never certain, especially with hamstring. And if you have an injured player which scored 42 goals in 81 matches for your team (friendlies included), you are going to miss him for sure.“It will be a blow for us just like Sadio Mane missing for Senegal is a blow for them. Mane is an extraordinary player. I wanted him when I was the manager at Manchester United. I chased him at the time. I am a fan of Mane. He can break open a match and I would say Senegal will really miss him. But the same applies to us. We are missing our top scorer and king of the assists in Depay” said Netherlands manager Louis Van Gaal at the press conference.World Cup deserves the best players: Van Dijk laments his friend’s cruel injury blowThe experienced coach has been at the helm of Oranje for two times now, and in his third (and last) mandate, he obviously wants to do more than 2014 Brazil World Cup third place finish. Van Gaal even said he had a more quality squad than eight years ago. The 71-year-old, in his third stint as national coach and who led the Dutch to a third-place finish in Brazil in 2014, said the quality in his squad is even higher than the team he brought to Brazil.“I believe that this group of players are well-connected to each other together, they work well together in a professional way, and I think that will always contribute to success. In 2014 we came third with a squad that was of lesser quality than this one, and with this group I expect more” said the Dutchman.WORLD CUPSunday, Nov 20thQatar – Ecuador 0-2 (0-2)/Valencia 16 pen, 31/Monday, Nov 21st16:00: (1.35) England (4.60) Iran (10.5) B19:00: (6.00) Senegal (3.70) Netherlands (1.62) A22:00: (2.65) USA (3.00) Wales (2.90) B
