Feel-good Dutch ready for Messi

A video of Louis van Gaal dancing into the team hotel after his team's victory over the United States went viral and there is no shortage of joy in the Netherlands camp as they prepare to face Argentina in the World Cup quarterfinals.

No strangers to a bit of in-fighting in the past, this Dutch squad is very much united as they gear up to face Lionel Messi and company on Friday with a semi-final place up for grabs.

"The vibes are good, we have a lot of fun times with the team, the communication with the trainers and the staff is very good. So yeah, the feeling is great," defender Jurrien Timber told reporters on Tuesday.

Defender Nathan Ake said the players felt very much together.

"We know when to relax and get our heads a little bit out of the football, but we know when to focus as well, and that time is coming very soon," he added.

Barring the path to the last four is an Argentina team powered by Messi, who is trying to win the one major prize to elude him in his glittering career.

Captain Virgil van Dijk was wary of the Messi threat.

"It is an honour to play against him," said Van Dijk before deflecting any one-on-one comparisons ahead of the meeting at the Lusail Stadium. "It is not me against him, or the Netherlands against him, but the Netherlands against Argentina.

"No one can do it on his own, we will have to come up with a good plan."

"The difficult thing about him is when we are attacking, he is chilling somewhere in a corner or something," remembered Van Dijk. "You have to be so very sharp in terms of defensive organisation. They always looked for him to try to make it difficult for us on the counter."

Van Gaal opined that he did not 'believe' in individuals.

"I believe in teams. I don't believe in individual players. I hope we can prove that. But of course we play against teams that have a lot of individual quality and individual quality can always decide a match. All those top countries have those kinds of players. Of course Messi is the most important player of them, the most creative. Those are always the most important players."

Frenkie de Jong thinks also underlined the importance of playing as a team, adding that he had no fear.

"We have to try to dominate the game and make sure that we as a team are better than Argentina," said De Jong. "We are not just playing against Messi. We have to focus on playing really well as a team."