Scoring is dope for Koevermans…

He is not the world’s best football player, but he can score goals. Will Danny Koevermans do it again against Olympique Marseille?

“I’ve always dreamed of scoring a historic goal. Like Van Basten’s bycicle kick against Den Bosch. A goal that still broadcast 30 years later, you know? A goal the whole world will see: let’s go to the Dutch competition for something special…”

“The goal I scored against Willem 2 last Saturday was a special one for me. On tv they compared to goals Cruyff and Bergkamp had scored. That’s just so cool. But is it really a historic goal? It depends on my career, I guess. On the goals I score and prizes I will win.”

“Scoring is the best thing. It’s like dope to me, it makes me feel euphoric. And you want another one in the next minute. But it’s never that easy…”

“I’ve always been a striker. But I never realized how easy it came to me. When I started to become a topscorer in every youth team I played in, it dawned on me. When I was 15 or 16 years old.”

“My goals are mostly the result of my positioning. You have to sense where the ball will come. The right moment, the right place, you know? I don’t think it’s a talent you’re born with. It’s something you can learn and train. Frank Rijkaard at Sparta worked with me a lot: go to the near post, he’d say. Like Kieft at Ajax. It’s a wrestle match with your opponent and timing is everything.”

“You also have to know what your mates will do. Mendez delivers the ball quickly, Amrabat and Dzsudszak normally take a bit more time… We train a lot on those situations and I always train shooting at goal from 18 meters or so…”

“We’ve had many strikers in Holland who could create goals themselves. Van Basten, Romario, Van Nistelrooy… They could decide games when their teams didn’t play well. I don’t have that. I depend on my mates. The services. I need to be in the right place, get the assist and have a good touch. That is a typical Koev-goal.”

“Some people love distance strikes from 30 meters. I love the goals where the feet do exactly what the brain wanted. I once scored a goal from a clumsy situation. I had a split-second, I saw where the goalie was and knew I could squeeze it right in the corner. It wasn’t a beauty, but it happened exactly how I saw it and therefore, to me, it was a beauty.”

“I went from the amateurs to Sparta. Then to AZ and then PSV. I never thought scoring would be easy at the next level. Van Gaal said: you can score in the first division, so you can also score in the Eredivisie.”

“I’ve had games where I knew I would score beforehand. And it would happen. I call that the flow. And sometimes you feel you’ll never score, and than still you get this one chance and bam! I’ve missed many chances against Volendam and didn’t score, and then against Liverpool you get half a chance and it’s a goal. How does that work?”

“I hadn’t scored for PSV for two months in the competition. I won’t really doubt myself, but you do think about it. Why is this? I always felt that playing for PSV, you’ll get seven chances per match. But you don’t. I’m happy if I get three. And when you don’t score for a couple of games, people start to question you about it. It sort of works it’s way into your mind.”

“I celebrate my goals pretty composed. I normally walk to the guy who gave the assist. I sometimes clench my fist or kiss my fist. The last explosion, against Olympique, is not really me. When I saw those images later, I felt embarrassed. But it was an eruption of years of frustration.

“Since I came to PSV, I was criticized. I normally can handle it, but this particular guy and his remarks, it just got to me. Every week you’re analyzed, dissected. There’s always something to do about the quality of the strikers here. It’s ridiculous. Last season we won the title.”

“They said about me that I’ll never score in the Champions League. I have played two games and was brought in in a third and I scored three goals. I know I’m not Zlatan or Berbatov, but I do my job. I showed the criticasters: if the right service is there, I’ll score. Wherever.”