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Once in Oranje: Andre “Pinball” Hoekstra

December 14th, 2008 | By: Jan | 13 Comments »

They only stood in line to sing the Wilhelms once. We discussed Edwin Vurens and Barry van Galen already. This time it’s Feyenoord midfielder Andre “Pinball King” Hoekstra.

The current Excelsior assistant coach was at the top of his game in the 1983/84 squad, led by one Johan Cruyff and playing along side the likes of Ruud Gullit, Peter Houtman, Mario Been and Andrej Jeliazkov. Andre Hoekstra, scouted from neighboring town Capelle a/d IJssel, would earn himself a nickname, score many goals and secure a spot in Oranje. He won the title and the national cup in 1984 and scored a total of 19 competition goals.

Hoekstra (now 46) looks back at his only Oranje game.

Hoekstra came from the amateurs and never was regarded a tremendous talent. His biggest assets were his workrate, his power in the duels and his big big lungs. He worked hard, very hard, for JC and Gullit and always had time to move into the box when he could. “I knew, with JC playing along side me, that whenever I ran into the box, the ball would come. And exactly where I needed it. Scoring 19 goals is not that difficult when you play with Cruyff.”

His nickname was a result of his lack of technical skills. “I couldn’t dribble. I would break my ankles if I tried to trick someone. So, I just ran into space with the ball and I was almost always lucky. The ball would ricochet back into my stride and I was always coming out of challenges with lucky bounces. I earned the name Pinball King… I’m proud of that.”

The selection for Oranje did come as a surprise for the dynamic battler. “I was never selected before, in the youth I mean. It was my first season at Feyenoord and I was very focused on that. Didn’t even occur to me that the team manager (Kees Rijvers) would consider me. When some players had to cancel, I got the call.”

It was a friendly against Denmark, in March 1984. The first game after the bizar events with Spain and Malta. Holland thought it was qualified for the EC84 in FRance, but Spain knew to beat Malta 12-1.

The prep for the game against Denmark was weird. “The players’ bus broke down. We all needed to get our own cars and some players took a cab. That’s how we traveled to Amsterdam.”

Oranje played a tremendous game against Denmark, which had qualified for the EC. “We started well and dominated. Wim Kieft scored after 22 minutes and Rene van der Gijp scored the 2-0 six minutes later. We decided to keep the gas on. We needed to get that debacle with Malta out of our system. My Feyenoord mate Peter Houtman scored the 3-0 after the break.”

In the 59th minute, Andre Hoekstra’s moment is there. “Gijp was going deep on the wing and he got the ball. He placed the ball at the near post and I only had to walk it in. It was a kick to score in my debut game. I was happy to be part of it and suddenly I was on the score sheet as well. That was just magic.”

Houtman would score the 5-0 and Van der Gijp scored his second three minutes before the end. Denmakt would reach the semi finals in France. “Most players were able to shrug the disappointment of not qualifying off, but when we saw Denmark perform so well, we did look back at our friendly.
I did well against Denmark and knew that I had a chance to make it to the EC if we’d qualified. But, that wasn’t to be. I only got selected that one time.”

Line up Nederland: Schrijvers; Ophof, Silooy, Gullit, Wijnstekers; Hoekstra, Rijkaard, Van Tiggelen; Van der Gijp, Kieft, Houtman.

Tags: Cruyff, Group C, Gullit, Hoekstra, Houtman, Rijvers

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Comments

By goose | December 14th, 2008 at 2:39 pm

Hoekstra ; Koning van de kluts!

Eredivisie update

Ajax – NAC ; 3-0 ; pretty easy win for Ajax. NAC really seems to have lost it since the injuries

Fc Den Haag – Roda JC ; 1-1 ; terrible game to watch (believe me!), two teams desperate not to loose, Den Haag were lucky in the end to get the point

Heerenveen – Graafschap ; 2-0 ; Another hard win for Heerenveen, their manager is still under some pressure

Willem II – NEC ; 1-2 ; Hard fought win for NEC, pretty fysical game

Feyenoord – AZ ; 0-1 ; another loss for Feyenoord but they didnt play bad at all! I reckon against almost any other team they would have at least got a point .. AZ is really strong and i hope they keep it up till the end

Vitesse – PSV ; 1-1 ; again, two teams out of form who are afraid to loose…think Stevens is regretting taking the pSV job, hard times ahead in Eindhoven

Groningen – Fc Twente ; 1-4 ; together with AZ the best team at the moment in Holland .. Steven has a great, hard working, easy scoring team … player to watch at the moment ; Elia … 4th loss in a row for Groningen

Fc Utrecht – Volemdam ; 0-0 ; terrible teams, terrible game, terrible result

Heracles – Sparta ; 2-1 ; very important win for Heracles .. Sparta will have to watch it this season

Stands ;

1.AZ : 35
2.Ajax : 32
3.Fc Twente : 30
4.PSV : 26
5.Heerenveen : 26
6.NAC : 26
7.NEC : 25
8.Groningen : 23
9.Fc Utrecht : 22
10.Willem II : 21
11.Heracles : 19
12.Feyenoord : 16
13.Sparta : 15
14.Den Haag : 14
15.Roda JC : 14
16.Vitesse : 12
17.Graafschap : 12
18.Volendam : 8

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | December 14th, 2008 at 4:14 pm

Thank you Master Goose

By Carlos | December 14th, 2008 at 5:43 pm

Goose,watched AZ this weekend and tho never been a great de Zeeuw fan, he was amazing ??? Together with Schaars they absolutely dominate midfield and the amount of times he robbed players and flicked passes to team mates running thru seriously remind me of how Arsenal play on their good days. Surely a big team will come calling for him soon and now I can see why he gets selected for Oranje. Do you read it like that too ?

Posted from Singapore

By Jan | December 15th, 2008 at 7:50 pm

I didn’t see AZ play but I know De Zeeuw and Schaars together are lethal. I always liked them. But, they are good in Van Gaal’s system! Which is comparable to Arsenal, I guess. But De Zeeuw in another set-up looks mediocre.

How “bad” was Feyenoord?

By tiju | December 15th, 2008 at 11:06 pm

@jan & carlos
De saaw is very very good hardworker with lesser skills and idea and schaars stamina is unstoppable ofcourse we need those lungs in our mid coz lungs of roban,robin,hunter,vaart are not enough for even 90 minutes

Posted from India

By Carlos | December 16th, 2008 at 1:50 am

Jan – actually Feyenoord were not really “bad” at all and had enough chances to get a point or even win. It could have gone either way. AZ was good in the first half and Feyenoord’s passing and some great dribbling by Wijnaldum, da Silva should have ecored from close range…it was a good game to watch but really if AZ plays like they did in the first half they can beat anybody – it was scary, bit like Ajax 94/5.

Posted from Singapore

By Jan | December 16th, 2008 at 2:15 am

Great! Well, you gotta give it to Louis. He knows how to gel a team together. I really hope they win the title and upset AC Milan, Liverpool and Lyon in the group stages. Then maybe whip Chelski’s arse, steam on via Juve and Man United to beat Barca in the finals!!! Yeah…

By tiju | December 16th, 2008 at 4:22 am

@carlos
this is why i told wijnaldum should be picked up instead of kuyt.why should we sacrifice Wijnadum,de guzman for a proven unprolific striker(kuyt)

Posted from India

By tiju | December 16th, 2008 at 4:23 am

whatever kuyt is doing for the team,the same thing can be done by wijnaldum and De-guzman
Portugal and kuyt sucks

Posted from India

By finnster01 | December 16th, 2008 at 5:07 am

Kuyt doesn’t suck, but Portugal does.

By Carlos | December 16th, 2008 at 6:14 am

tiju, perhaps we can just agree to disagree, there are far better football brains than ours out there, Benitez obviously likes Kuyt and he is a little above average coach, certainly better than any of us bloggers. He may be in Madrid end of the season and will probably bring his favourite 3 in 1 player along. I am NOT a big Kuyt fan, but boy his work rate and how much he covers is amazing. He always gets chosen ahead of Babel and I would say Babel rates well above Guzman,Wijnaldum, whatever else unproven orange wannabe there is. Please no more about Kuyt OK cos I dunno why I am defending him