Ron Vlaar insists he will not dwell on his costly penalty miss in Holland's World Cup semi-final defeat to Argentina.
Louis van Gaal was hoping to depart for Manchester United with a World Cup winner's medal, but his team were sent out of the tournament in the cruellest fashion on Wednesday night.
Holland lost 4-2 in a dramatic shoot-out after neither team could score in 120 minutes.
Sergio Romero saved Wesley Sneijder's penalty, but the crucial miss came first up when Vlaar fired at the Argentina stopper.
The Aston Villa captain, who played superbly until his penalty miss, insists he will not get too down about his part in Holland's demise though.
"It's sport and it's tough. But I'm a man and I'm not going to whinge about it," Vlaar told FIFA.com
"Of course, I know that I played well, but positive feelings pass to one side now that I've missed my penalty."
Van Gaal made it clear that he is not a fan of the third-place play-off, which will take place in Brasilia on Saturday.
And Vlaar admits it will be hard for the squad to pick themselves up for the match against Brazil, who are still smarting from their 7-1 defeat to Germany in the other semi-final.
"We're going home empty-handed," Vlaar said with a sigh.
"It's sad, because the only thing that counts is the title. There's still the third-place match (against Brazil). But it's not the same thing."
Sneijder, along with Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben, struggled to break through an organised Argentina defence during the match in Sao Paulo.
The Galatasaray midfielder thinks the Dutch should have won the match in normal time.
"We deserved much better," he said.
"Argentina were playing for penalties, which wasn't the case with us. "We tried to play.
"I missed my penalty. It's a shame. But it's particularly frustrating not to have capitalised on the chances we created over the 120 minutes."
Source: PA
