But its lack of attacking ideas-- only when Juan Veron attacked down the middle in an effort to link up with Gabriel Batistuta did Argentina look dangerous-- forced a frustrated Ariel Ortega to try to force a penalty decision.

It was a fall too far for the referee's liking.

Ortega was about to be booked for his tumble in Edwin van der Sar's box, seen by many as a valid penalty, and ended up with a red card for headbutting the goalkeeper.

When Dennis Bergkamp scored the Netherlands' winner in the final minute there was no time left for an exhausted Argentina to save the match.

"We felt fatigue from the match against England. We didn't have time to recover," Veron said. Argentina had 24 hours less rest than the Dutch after their second-round matches.

"We knew if we pressed higher up [the field] things could get complicated," he said. "That's why we waited to counterattack."

Passarella said he considered his team's performance to have been "very positive." "Our objective was to be among the top four teams. We were not able to accomplish this but we played very well anyway."

Passarella, who had always said he would stand down after the finals, appeared to have built a World Cup-winning side on the back of an eight-match streak without conceding a goal, a young squad and the goalscoring feats of Batistuta.

But he was a victim of his own fear of losing, picking sides to counter the opposition rather than exploit their own merits, a fact that irritated critics like his one-time mentor Cesar Luis Menotti and teammate Diego Maradona.

A player reared at international level on the attacking mentality of Menotti, Passarella became a national team boss more in the mold of the defensive Carlos Bilardo, Argentina's other World Cup-winning coach.

Appointed after Argentina's disappointing 1994 Cup campaign, when it lost in the second round, Passarella was bidding to become the third man to win the World Cup as a player and coach.