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Where are they now? Pierre van Hooijdonk

September 24th, 2009 | By: Jan | 33 Comments »

Pierre van Hooijdonk (39) played 46 games for Oranje. The former NAC, Feyenoord, Celtic and Fenerbahce striker scored 14 goals for the Dutch, but only started in the team five times. The supersub of yore tells us about his past, present and future: “This Oranje oozes creativity.”

PAST

“My international career was not one from the book. It was never evident that I would reach that level. I played six young Oranje games, and that’s all. When I was selected for the first time at 25 years old at NAC, that was an enormous surprise. The season before that I had a super season and scored a lot. My name was mentioned a lot but I didn’t make the cut for the WC America in 1994.
I made my debut in December 1994 against Luxembourg. I was Aron Winter’s replacement. The days before the game were like a dream. I was so overwhelmed on the pitch that I basically purely enjoyed that game. I actually should have done more, haha… Clarence Seedorf also made his debut. He was 18 years old and we shared a room and talked about our careers. In his eyes, I was an old man already.”

“When I was at Oranje we consistently reached the semi finals. That goes to show how good we were. The way we trained, I’ve never seen that anywhere else. I needed two days to catch on to the level. My high point was the WC1998. We were in this top hotel in Monaco, the weather was tremendous. Not quite a prison camp (referring to the WC1990 circumstances in Italy). And we delivered. I even scored against South Korea, which was an apotheosis in what already was an apotheosis. Another high point was the WC qualification game against Wales in 1996. We were 1-0 down and with 19 minutes to go, I came on. Within three minutes we’re 2-1 up, with two goals by yours truly. And my last selection, the Czech Republic game in 2004. I scored both Dutch goals.

PRESENT

“I played my last game for Feyenoord in 2007 and started the coaching course immediately after. I don’t think I’ll be a coach or anything, but I wanted some distance to football but still operate within it. I loved it. But I decided not to pursue the next level. I’m too busy, I coach my son – the E1 juniors – and I play my games with the Ex Internationals. The plans to become a coach are currently on ice.”

“As off end of September I’ll fly to Turkey on a weekly basis for this football reality show. Six teams, made out of former players of the Big Three clubs. We play some sort of tournament and everytime one player is voted out. One will win. Seems fun to do. I fly to Turkey on a regular basis. They like me there, since I played two seasons for Fenerbahce. They regard me as one of them, although I hardly speak any Turkish. But the whole football vibe is awesome and the fans will never forget you.”

FUTURE

“I am huge fan of Wesley Sneijder. His two-leggedness… He’s the main man in this Oranje. What I think about Ruud van Nistelrooy’s possible return? I guess we’ll have to wait and see how he’s able to return, you know? If he reaches his old form, he deserves a spot in Oranje. Age doesn’t tell me shit, I’m more about form and quality. So Ruud is 33 years old… Not relevant. We sometimes forget in Holland that this is not the Under 25 World Cup. It’s not necessary to go and play with a team of 20 year olds. We have so much great players that I think we actually need to reach the last four at the WC. We sometimes look up to other nations, but we’re no slouches ourselves. Trust me, the big nations fear us. This Oranje oozes quality and creativity. If the machine rolls, it’s awesome to watch. I think our boys have a great chance to get really far. We can beat any opponent, we have all the ammunition for it. But, I have to say…you gotta seize the moment.”

“If the game turns your way, you have to strike. And if the flow is against you, you go home. It’s as simple as that. Think about Wim Kieft’s goal at the EC1988 against Ireland. We weren’t doing well at all and that one moment changed it all for us. Or the WC in France, with Bergkamp’s goal. It’s determined in split seconds. Top players, and I mean really world class players, deliver at those moments. In the semi finals against Brazil, two minutes before the end of the extra time I was impeded in the box. Some refs would give a penalty. This one didn’t. Having a party or taking the next flight home…there’s a fine line… And that’s the wonder of football, sometimes the best team doesn’t win it, hahaha….”

Tags: Bergkamp, Group C, Kieft, Oranje, Sneijder, Van Hooijdonk, Van Marwijk, Winter

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 33 comments.

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By Sol | September 24th, 2009 at 12:37 pm

Excellent analysis by v. Hooijdonk those last few comments. It’s exactly what I’ve been saying on this blog for over a year. Football ultimately comes down to the key moments, you can have a fantastic team and everyone can be playing fantastic and beautiful football and you can be totally dominant in a match, but in the end, it all still comes down to 2 things, scoring from chances and stopping their (certain) goals.

Will Kuyt miss that huge chance or will v Persie have 3 seconds of pure brilliance resulting in a winning goal from something that wasn’t really a chance in the first place (could be 1-0 like against Ireland in ‘88)?

Will Stekelenburg fail in stopping that Ronaldo freekick (yes, still think Portugal will be there) or will vd Sar stop it just in time?

Will that referee give the penalty or not?

These situations are only seconds in a 90 minute match but how they are handled will ultimately determine whether we progress or go home.

Posted from Netherlands

By finnster01 | September 24th, 2009 at 2:28 pm

Off topic: This is pretty wild. Now Real Madrid wants to kick off their matches earlier so they can be shown live in “Prime Time” in China!

I guess they have to finance their spending somehow, but if this is not taking the piss out of their own league and disrespecting it, I don’t know what is.

http://in.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idINIndia-42684720090924

By Michel-Olivier | September 24th, 2009 at 4:18 pm

ruud v germany euro 2004
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAV530H9jQc

Posted from United States

By sonneveld | September 24th, 2009 at 4:46 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTtsacVwloc

hah ron vlaars goal

he is left footed right? cause he took this shot with his right

By Jan | September 24th, 2009 at 5:22 pm

True Sol, that’s exactly right. And I remember most key moments of our big demises in the past. It’s also like JC said: a game is 90 minutes but you only have the ball 1,5 minute max!

By Jan | September 24th, 2009 at 5:24 pm

What.A.Goal!

I can see him do this in the WC finals, last minute. Against which goalie do we wanna see him do this?

By Sol | September 24th, 2009 at 5:44 pm

At first I thought that 1,5 minute thing was an exaggeration but come to think of it, it probably shouldn’t be that surprising. Only one player can really HAVE the ball at one time (so not during a duel) and most of the time the ball is travelling between players. If you take 90 minutes divided over 22 players on average that’s already down to 4 minutes per player not even counting travel time. Strikers mostly get a lot less ball possession making it even more important what they can do in those key moments.

Posted from Netherlands

By Sol | September 24th, 2009 at 5:52 pm

So, who wants to time for next game how many seconds every dutch player has ball possession and post the numbers here on this blog? LOL

I don’t think I meant that as a serious question, allthough it might be nice information (perhaps even more interesting than the passes count they always show, which always show that defenders can pass really well back and forth between eachother, gee, very interesting to know).

Posted from Netherlands

By Jeroen | September 24th, 2009 at 6:14 pm

Some channels show in their match statistics “actual possession time” or “zuiver balbezit”. This comes down to how long that team actually had the ball in their feet during the game. It usually comes down to about 25 minutes or so per team. So about 1 minute per player.

Posted from Netherlands

By Jeroen | September 24th, 2009 at 6:15 pm

Correction. 25 minutes for both teams haha. not each. although ive seen it be like 35 minutes as well. and yes, then its 1 minute per player.

Posted from Netherlands

By sonneveld | September 24th, 2009 at 7:36 pm

bayern munich vs hamburg should be an interesting game. we will have to see how elia does against lahm.lets hope robben does well and braafheid plays

By sonneveld | September 24th, 2009 at 7:39 pm

almost forgot about mathijsen and castelen

By Carlos | September 24th, 2009 at 9:11 pm

Vlaar is right footed – but like Wesley and Marc Overmars (and Pienaar) they honed their left foot as well. Come to think of it so did I when I was 12 – for 3 years I would do everything, pass-kick-corner kicks whatever I made it my leading foot. Most peole thought I was a “linkspoot” (left footed). But when it really comes to the crunch – the right was the favourite. Marc Overmars was one of the few players I saw taking corners for Holland from both sides with either foot to create “inswingers”

Posted from Singapore

By Caleb | September 24th, 2009 at 10:13 pm

“So Ruud is 33 years old… Not relevant. We sometimes forget in Holland that this is not the Under 25 World Cup. It’s not necessary to go and play with a team of 20 year olds.”

That is so exactly right! And I think there are a few people on this blog who need to remember this advice as well

By Van Basten | September 24th, 2009 at 11:44 pm

Yahoo Sports & Forbes.com article have created their “World Cup Qualifying’s Top Players”. Only our defenders were included in their starting lineup:
Joris Mathijsen and Andre Ooijer. The article praised our much “maligned”
defense for “allowing only two goals while winning all its Group Stage matches” The reasons, according to them are “Mathijsen and his big left foot” and “Ooijer, 35,still chugging along as an anchor for the defense”.
I think they have overlooked the competition and the fact that this is only the Qualifying rounds. Maybe they should read this blog often to get more insight about the Oranje.
Anyway, just surprised that our defenders were selected. At least we’re represented.

Posted from United States

By Jan | September 25th, 2009 at 1:07 am

And having Van Bommel and De Jong battling it out right before them does help too. Not to mention the fact that most opponents play defensively against a team with Robben, Van Persie, Sneijder and/or Van der Vaart…

Yahoo Sports doesn’t get soccer…eh…I mean football, I guess.

Before you know it, they declare Stekelenburg as one of the world’s finest because he only conceded two goals…

By Tiju | September 25th, 2009 at 2:53 am

Dear My friends…
Everybody(Except we the orange fans) say,we are lucky to get an easy qualifying group.But in fact we made the group easy.that is the truth.Scotland beat france twice beforeEU2008,and they almost beat italy.Noraway is dangeorous than many other teams in other groups.Macidonia held England in to draw in last year.so what else we need to say that they are strong…
I still remmeber the three horse race for one spot and play off spot in WC2002 qualifying campagin….portugal,ireland,netherlands all won against other 3 teams..Ireland aimed for draw against Neds and protugal.if Portugal/Cypress would have beaten ireland,it would have been a differend story alltogethter.
This time the teams like macidonia and iceland made it easy for us,by beating/Draw norway and scotland.Unfortunatly in WC2002 it didnt happend.
Anyways the Scots,The norwigean’s,The macidonians doesnt have the CR7,Ribery,Robinho,Messi,Roban,Vanpersie,Kaka,henry,Ronaldihno,Aron Lenon etc kind of trickery players..that made the job easy for ooiger and mathjenson..We all know that how vulnerable they are against trikery players especially(Ooiger,Gio,Heitinga)

Posted from India

By Carlos | September 25th, 2009 at 3:36 am

Tiju – One day you’re Einstein, another day you are Socrates (or Mahatma) and sometimes Hiddink with an occasional Goofy thrown in her and there – I love your blogs Buddy !!!!
You are so right about Scotland/Macedonia and Norway – Many teams had problems with them before INCLUDING us…..but We made the group EASY ! Good Words !

Posted from Singapore

By Leon | September 25th, 2009 at 3:50 am

I’ve heard Oranje have an open training session Wed Oct 7th at North Sydney oval. Know anything about this Jan?

By Tiju | September 25th, 2009 at 4:37 am

@Carlos….Thanks buddy…i think this is may be due to my passion about orange and football….Nothing else….

Posted from India

By Jan | September 25th, 2009 at 5:05 am

Actually yes Leon, you beat me to it. I’ll post it soon (gotta go now)

By Lerkot | September 25th, 2009 at 6:08 am

Pierre.. the king. To bad with the coaching career, I think he would’ve made one hell of a coach.

By bobotoh | September 25th, 2009 at 6:32 am

Now, I am worried about Huntelaar. I really really hope he will score soon for Milan. What’s the latest news about VdV? He is not selected for Oranje this time.

Posted from Australia

By Miguel Rosado | September 25th, 2009 at 9:18 am

VdV played 15′ with Real he looked very good I hope he gets more chances because with 15′ you can’t show much.

By Jeff | September 25th, 2009 at 9:23 pm

@Tiju, I totally agree with you about our WC qualifying group. I have said that many times before. 8-0 is an excellent record regardless of the teams you face. These teams may not be of Spain’s caliber but they are all decent, hard to beat especially at home and on any day could create an upset. The most important aspect of this group from our prospective is the fact that unlike other years we really focused on the task at hand and finished the job.

Posted from United States

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