Oranje 1974: Rob Rensenbrink

September 1st, 2009 | by: Jan | Comments(18)

Holland prides itself over the years to have produced so many great players. With strikers like Cruyff, Geels, Kist, Houtman, Kieft, Van Basten, Bergkamp, Kluivert, Van Nistelrooy and Huntelaar or goalies like Pieters Graafland, Hiele, Van Breukelen, Van Beveren, Menzo, De Goey and Van der Sar.

Some say that goalies have to be a tad crazy. At the same time, the infamous left wingers always have a mind of their own. Traditionally, Holland always produced great left wingers, although Oranje did suffer times of droughts. We had Coen Moulijn, Willy Brokamp, Bert van Marwijk, Piet Keizer, Pierre Vermeulen, Bryan Roy, Peter van Vossen, Marco Overmars and most recently Arjen Robben but at times right wingers like John van ‘t Schip had to act as left winger.

In that list, the name of Robbie Rensenbrink seems to be one of many, but if JC wouldn’t have played football for Oranje, it would have been the former Anderlecht player who’d be the star of the World Cups.

Rensenbrink was always a bit of a loner, as left wingers usually are.

One of the most under-rated players of the 1970’s, Dutch forward Rob Rensenbrink – nickname The Snakeman or the Contortionist – had a bit of everything in his game. An intelligent left footer with a fantastic touch, he was tall enough to be used as a traditional centre forward yet possessed a great dribbling technique that meant he could also play out wide, where he was more than capable of leaving 2 or 3 defenders bamboozled in his wake. He probably wasn’t as good a finisher as strike partner Johny Rep, but his overall game was better – his movement off the ball was excellent, often baffling the opposition with some of his runs and ability to find space. It’s hard to believe he didn’t reach 50 caps for the national team, and this is often put down to the fact that he left Holland to play in Belgium for almost his entire career, and that in the early 1970’s the ‘Royal Pair’ of Cruyff and Piet Keizer was the preferred option up front for de Oranje.

Rensenbrink started out with Amsterdam club Door Wilskracht Sterk (DWS for short) who, although now an amateur club, were a genuine force back in the 60’s and at the time of Rensenbrink joining them had only just been crowned Eredivisie champions. He soon began to make a name for himself with DWS and after only a couple of seasons with the first team he’d been called up to the national team by then manager Georg Kessler, making his debut in the goal-less draw against Scotland in 1968. With many of the other top Dutch clubs sniffing around him and mulling over a deal it was a big surprise when he agreed to be transferred over the border into Belgium, for a two year stint with Club Brugge. Rensenbrink knew back then that he wanted to play himself financially independent. Ajax was out of the question – being a DWS lad – and in Belgium, pay was much higher than in Holland back then.

The Belgian outfit had only won the championship once in it’s history but were ambitious and saw the young Rensenbrink as a key player to help them break the 10 year strangehold of Anderlecht and Standard Liege. It nearly worked – Rensenbrink’s ratio of a goal every other game fired them to the runners-up spot in 1970 and 1971 but also alerted the attention of bigger clubs. Expected to move back to his native Holland, Rensenbrink surprised everyone again by staying put in Belgium and transferring to Brussels’ giants Anderlecht. He would become a legend at the Parc Astrid, forming a great understanding with a number of similarly attack-minded players, notably Belgian midfield duo Ludo Coeck and Paul Van Himst and Hungarian striker Attila Ladynski. Rensenbrink’s goals and flair brought the title back to Brussels at the end of his first season there and then again two years later.

The 1974 World Cup in West Germany was Rensenbrink’s first international tournament appearance. Up until then Rensenbrink had played second fiddle to Ajax striker Piet Keizer, who’d been Cruyff’s strike partner both domestically and internationally. However, arguments between Cruyff and Keizer had led, amongst other reasons, to Cruyff transferring to Barcelona, and coach Rinus Michels decided that rather than pair-up two forwards who were hardly speaking, he would play a three-pronged attack with Rensenbrink and young Ajax striker Johny Rep aiding Cruyff, who was effectively given a free hand to weave his magic as he saw fit, anywhere across the front line. It started well enough with Rep scoring twice in the opener against Uruguay. Dissapointingly though for Rensenbrink, Keizer was brought back in for the next game against Sweden at his expense, but an ineffectual performance by the Ajax man saw Rensenbrink return to the fold in the final group game against Bulgaria in Dortmund. Rensenbrink responded with a man of the match performance as the Dutch eased through to the 2nd stage of group matches with a 4:1 victory. From that game until the final the Rensenbrink-Cruyff-Rep partnership was in full flow, with a 4:0 demolition of Argentina, followed by Rensenbrink’s first tournament goal in the 2:0 win over East Germany. With no semi-finals taking place the final group game was in effect a decider as both Holland and holders Brazil went into the game with two victories each.

A classy Dutch performance saw them through as winners, but at a cost – Rensenbrink substituted because of a leg injury just after Cruyff had scored the second. Rensenbrink,Cruyff and Rep had proved so effective that Michels was loathe to change it and after some intensive physio Michels decided to gamble and play Rensenbrink from the start. It didn’t pay off though, a struggling Rensenbrink had to be substituted at half-time by Rene van de Kerkhof, and the Dutch attack lacked the cutting edge that had been so prominent throughout the rest of the tournament.

Back on the domestic front, Rensenbrink agreed to stay at Anderlecht, despite overtures from a number of top European clubs who had been impressed with his contribution at the World Cup. Strangely though, despite bolstering the team with the likes of Rensenbrink’s international team-mate Arie Haan and talented youngsters such as Franky Vercauteren and Francois Van der Elst, Rensenbrink and Anderlecht wouldn’t win another title during his remaining time there, although they would famously appear in three Cup Winners Cup finals in a row, winning two of them in 1976 and 1978, along with two European Super Cup triumphs over much-heralded Bayern Munich and Liverpool sides. Rensenbrink scored goals in all four of these finals, and had a fantastic pedigree in European competitions for Anderlecht, firing 30 goals in just 43 matches for les Mauves.

1978 saw Rensenbrink head to Argentina for his second World Cup tournament. The national team were now under the helm of Ernst Happel, and whilst the team had lost the services of Johan Cruyff and Wim van Hanegem the rest of the Dutch legends from the 70’s were assembled for one last assault on winning a trophy. Without Cruyff, there was added pressure on Rensenbrink and Johny Rep to do the business up front, assisted this time by Rene van der Kerkhof. Rensenbrink got off to a flier at the start of the tournament, scoring a hat-trick in the opener against Iran, two of which were tucked away from the penalty spot as he’d taken over the duties from Johan Neeskens. A goal-less draw against a decent Peru team featuring the likes of Cubillas, Chumpitaz and Oblitas meant that the Dutch looked clear favourites to make the second group phase, even a narrow defeat against an under-performing Scotland team would take them through. Another Rensenbrink penalty put the Dutch one up (it was also notable for being the 1,000th goal in World Cup history), but two quick goals either side of half-time, followed by that Archie Gemmill wonder goal put the Scots in dreamland and Rensenbrink and his team-mates on the verge of an early exit. With 22 minutes left another Scottish goal would, incredibly, take them through, but Rep’s phenomenal strike clawed them back and they scraped through as runners-up on goal difference. The second phase of group matches were much better, Rensenbrink scored another penalty, his 4th of the tournament, as they thrashed Austria 5:1 in Cordoba. This was followed up with a classic ding-dong encounter with old foes West Germany, Rensenbrink helped to set up Rene van der Kerkhof’s fantastic late equaliser in a game that the Germans had led twice. The Dutch, Italy and West Germany all went into the last game with a chance of making the final, with only Austria out of the running. Suprisingly, the Austrians, inspired by Hans Krankl, would beat the Germans 3:2, leaving the door to the final open to the winners of Holland’s match with Italy in the Estadio Monumental. Italy went ahead in the first half through an Ernie Brandts own goal, but the defender would make amends early in the 2nd half when he grabbed the equaliser before Arie Haan lashed home one of his trademark thunderbolts to book Rensenbrink and co’s place in the final.

Rensenbrink and that darn post!

So having gone into the tournament in a bit of a state – arguing over formations, money, and how many stripes they were prepared to wear on their shirts (again), the Dutch now found themselves in a 2nd consecutive final. Yet, having entertained the World again, they left with nothing. Kempes gave the Argentinians a first half lead, and they were only eight minutes away from lifting the trophy before substitute Dick Nanninga equalised. Then came the agony for Rensenbrink – played though by Ruud Krol in the dying seconds, he hit the post. And with that Holland’s chance had slipped away. Another Kempes goal, followed by one from Daniel Bertoni, handed the hosts the trophy. Rensenbrink finished the tournament as the 2nd highest scorer, just behind Kempes, but if that last-minute shot had gone in then people would talk of the Dutchman in the same way that they now talk of Kempes.

Rensenbrink would play for Holland in some of the qualifiers for the 1980 European Championships, but his last appearance in that famous orange shirt would be a 2:0 defeat in Poland, midway through the qualifying campaign in 1979 as the great 70’s team started to be dismantled. And having spent nearly ten years at Anderlecht, Rensenbrink finally left in 1980, joining many other big European names for a quick winding down period in the States, Portland Timbers being his destination.

He returned to Europe in 1981 though, and during his short spell at French Ligue 2 club Toulouse, he helped them gain promotion back to Ligue 1 for the first time since the club was re-formed back in 1970. It was a relatively low-key way to end a career in which he should probably have earned more caps for the national team, and also more credit, because when people talk about the great Dutch team of the 70’s, Rensenbrink, along with fellow forward Johny Rep and those midfield Wim’s van Hanegem and Jansen, are often overlooked because of the public’s obsession with the genius of Johan Cruyff, and to a lesser extent Johan Neeskens. But the likes of Rensenbrink and Rep were fantastic players in their own right and deserve more acclaim for their roles in that great team, particularly the Cruyff-less campaign of 1978.

Rensenbrink won many prizes in his career and would have been chosen as the European football player of the year in 1976 if not West Germany but Oranje would have won the EC1976. West Germany did win it and Franz Beckenbauer got the crown.

Rensenbrink was a tremendously gifted player. Quick, gracious, with a style a la Robben. He was also a strong header and he scored easily.

After his active career, Rensenbrink had achieved exactly what he wanted: financial independence. And contrary to many of his peers (Cruyff, Van Hanegem, Neeskens, Krol, Jansen) he’d never return to any official position in football. Asked what he’d do after his active career, the answer was simply: I’ll go fishing. And he did…

Rensenbrink: “Every four years when Oranje goes to another WC, some tv station invites me to re-hash that situation with that post….sigh…”

Rensenbrink was a humble and modest man. He had a good relationship with JC, although he openly criticized Johan’s theatrical gesturing during the match. He felt Nees made a meal of too many challenges and Wim van Hanegem was criticized by the Snakeman as being too slow.

In a rare interview, Rensenbrink looks back on his time at the WCs in the 1970.

Q: Looking back at the WC1974, it seems Oranje did miss a lot of chances as well?

Rensenbrink: “Ah well… We dominated most matches and you do get a lot of opportunities, but to say we needed to have scored more… I don’t know. This team was probably the most complete and balanced football team ever. I don’t think we could have done better, bar the finals, hahahaa….”

Q: Your name was mentioned in that infamous Bild Swimming Pool incident?

Rensenbrink: “Sure, I was there. When “it” happened. Although nothing happened. We were chilling out, went to the pool and some women appeared and dove in the pool with us. What could we do? We couldn’t tell them to leave! It was a set up for Bild and literally nothing happened. But the media blew it up and our wives became nervous and started calling us up. That was less fun. But it was all one big hoax.”

Q: You weren’t fit for the finals?

Rensenbrink: “I was injured against Brazil, but I was able to train 100% on the Saturday. I could do everything and was declared fit by the doctors. So I played, but during half time I had to say to Michels that the battery was flat. I simply didn’t want to do it anymore. That injury did play up again. What can you do?”

Q: In 1976 Anderlecht played for the Super Cup against Bayern. Anderlecht won 4-1 and you scored two goals and dominated the game. Revenche against Swarzenbeck?

Rensenbrink: “No not particularly. I thought Swarzenbeck was the weakest link in the German team and it wasn’t that hard to outplay him. I was happy with the result, but we were in our top and Bayern had lost it a bit.”

Q: In that year, Beckenbauer won the Ballon D’Or and you were runner up…

Rensenbrink: “Beckenbauer was a truly elegant player, trying to solve everything with his skills. I admired him. He played un-German, almost. I liked him and I liked Overath. Great players. But we never watched West Germany, or any other team. In those days, you didn’t care who they were or how they played. We played our game and they would have to adapt to us. I still don’t watch a lot of football, although Ballack today is one of the best. Also an un-German player. Most Dutch people hate the Germans, but I never have that. I admire their tenacity and discipline. Most Dutch players were ok with the Germans, back then. I think JC and Beckenbauer were buddies for a while.”

Q:Paul Breitner claimed he was verbally abused by the Dutch?

Rensenbrink: “Oh? I didn’t hear that… But I was left winger and Breitner left back. It’s possible that Van Hanegem and Suurbier said something to him, hahaa…. Although I can’t see these two speak German! Hahaahaaaahaaa….”

Q:What do you think of this Oranje and their chances for the WC?

Rensenbrink: “As far as I’m concerned, real class will show itself. And this Oranje team has a lot of pure class….”