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Where are they now: Pieter Huistra

February 15th, 2009 | By: Jan | 25 Comments »

FC Groningen produced many a great player. Arjen Robben is probably example number 1, nowadays, but the Koeman brothers were developed in the North as was Pieter Huistra. Like Robben, he was a lefftwinger with feet on fire and a face like the ideal-son-in-law. He played eight international games for Oranje and played for FC Twente, Lierse SK and Glasgow Rangers after he’d left Groningen. The 42 year old looks back at the past, assesses his present and looks forward to…you guessed it…the future.

THEN
“The biggest game in my career was the classic Nederland – West Germany, in De Kuip in Rotterdam. I have played many great games in my career, in European Cup and Champions League, but this was the most tense one. Media, fans, the players… We needed to qualify for the 1990 WC in Italy. The last official game was the win over Germany in the EC1988 with the Ronald Koeman jersey incident. There was quite some humbug. We needed a draw to qualify.”

We were sharp as a knife. There was hardly any space on the pitch and they scored first, 0-1. We kept on pressing for the equalizer and Van Basten scored late in the game, 1-1. De Kuip exploded! I couldn’t make it to the WC, that was the worst moment of my career. I got a groin injury. I did everything to get back into shape, and I did. I was part of the pre-selection of 25 men, but I didn’t make it into the last 22. I think I was the victim of the Libregts – Beenhakker switch. Beenhakker picked only players from Ajax and Feyenoord… No spot for Huistra from Groningen…”

“Still, I’m proud of my career. I played for Oranje eight times and everytime was a joy. The Dutch team is the highest for a Dutch player. My debut was against Italy. It was a friendly on paper, but games against Italy, Germany…they’re never friendly. I played ok. I had some good actions, dribbles and crosses. But we lost, 1-0. It was special because Oranje just had won the 1988 EC. I was a supporter in 1988, I followed the team and months later I was part of it. Arnold Muhren retired and I was his replacement.”

NOW
“They always say I played for RBC last, but I didn’t. Lierse SK was my last club, but I got injured again. And I trained at RBC to get fit, but I was never contracted. I was asked to join the Under 17s of Oranje for the EC2000 in Israel with Arno Pijpers. I went through all the KNVB coaching sessions and apparently they thought I’d make a good assistant. I was a tremendous experience.”

“I also worked as assistant team manager for Hong Kong and I managed the under 17s of Hong Kong. We played a couple of WC qualification games for the WC, but the level wasn’t there. I returned after one year and became youth coach at FC Groningen. I also did my Coach Pro Football studies in those days. I was in the same class as Marco van Basten, with whom I played in Oranje before. He’s a good guy. Serious, eager to learn and well organized. I could see he’d make a good coach…”

“Currently, I don’t have a club. I was assistant coach at Vitesse in the last three seasons. I’m still working for De Telegraaf as their special reporter and I play football with the Ex-internationals. Sometimes I play with Old Glasgow Rangers in Scotland. That’s always fun. But I want to work as a coach again. I’m ambitious, I’d like to be the head coach or the assistant at a Eredivisie club. My time will come, I’m sure…”

FUTURE

“Most of the players who play in Oranje now were in my Under 17s team. I knew that some would make it big. Raf van der Vaart was the big man. What a player! Robin van Persie was a sub in our team. He was tremendously talented but hard to coach. And he wasn’t fully grown in those days. Klaas Jan Huntelaar was a sub too, he was the second striker behind Jhon van Beukering (now at NEC). When I signed on, they told me this particular generation wasn’t so good. Goes to show how hard it is to make predictions about 16 year old players…”

“We never won that EC, by the way. We came third. We lost against the Czech Republic, but we shouldn’t have… I think our current Oranje is extremely strong. Van Basten did well with the players and Van Marwijk builds on Marco’s work. That’s good. Van Marwijk is particularly good in keeping the peace in and around the team. That’s essential. It’s hard to predict what they’ll do in South Africa. It will depend on form of the day, injuries… But Holland is a strong outsider. When you have players like Vaart, Robben, Sneijder and Van Persie you should be confident and go for the title. But, quality and talent is not enough… We’ve seen that in the past.”

Tags: Ajax, Beenhakker, Glasgow Rangers, Groningen, Group C, Huistra, Robben, Sneijder, van Persie

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Comments

By sonneveld | February 15th, 2009 at 11:43 am

klaas jan huntelaar started upfront and has already scored!

By Michel-Olivier | February 15th, 2009 at 11:52 am

hunter is back

Posted from United States

By sonneveld | February 15th, 2009 at 1:35 pm

apparently had a second goal ruled offside

By Miguel Rosado | February 15th, 2009 at 1:51 pm

yes, it was a great header but he was offside. Juande Ramos will start giving Huntelaar more minutes after this game and also because the UCL starts again. What happened to Robben is he badly injured or it’s a minor injury?.

By Miguel Rosado | February 15th, 2009 at 1:59 pm

I watched PSV-AZ yesterday, it was a great game. Stijn Schaars is a great player and I he should be in our starting 11.

By Bart | February 15th, 2009 at 2:20 pm

Did Ramos decide one dutchman was good enough for lowly Sporting Gijon or something :p Neither Sneijder, Robben, van der Vaart or Drenthe were even on the bench.

Posted from Canada

By Mario | February 15th, 2009 at 3:36 pm

Bart:

Robben and Sneijder are injured and van der Vaart was suspended…Drenthe is on his way out because Ramos doesn´t trust him.

By Mario | February 15th, 2009 at 4:35 pm

I think people and fans of Real Madrid sometimes expect unrealistic things. I remember when Ruud was hired everybody said he was old but they wanted him to be his goalscorer and now that he has proven how valuable he is everybody misses him because of his injury…Now with Huntelaar they expect him to be the new Ruud but they are very wrong to demand inmediate results from him because he was hired injured and he just recently recovered from his injury and he needs match fitness. If Juan de Ramos doesn´t understand that the only way for KJH to regain confidence and start providing goals is to play him as many minutes as he can they it is obvius that Huntelaar will peek. Raúl and Higuaín are not even close right in terms of goalscoring abilities and although Raúl is doing ok at the moment if Huntelaar starts playing more minutes like today he will show everyone why in Holland he was nicknamed as the Hunter. He needs playing time because he has not regained his best form and he will not recover that in training or in the bench because the only way to regain confidence is on official games and that is what Huntelaar needs. He scored one today and my prediction is that he will show Madrid fans the great skills he has specially when it comes to solve games with his goalscoring talent.

By Bart | February 15th, 2009 at 5:00 pm

Are you serious? What is wrong with Robben and Sneijder?

Posted from Canada

By Carlos | February 15th, 2009 at 5:29 pm

Watched both AZ-PSV and the Ajax Feyenoord game. Really Schaars is another Pitbull and such a leader of his men. Also Ajax could have scored 6 goals and 4-0 or 5-0 would not have been an exaggerated score line. However I cant believe the throwing of objects (mainly rolled up paper cups) at the Arena against Feyenoord players. These idiots should be filmed and banned from the stadium. Timmer dsplayed exactly what he is both poor in the 6 yard box as well as a good shot stopper.

Posted from Singapore

By Alex | February 15th, 2009 at 5:40 pm

Robben isn’t really injured, he just has a sore hip from all the bashing by the tunesians. But they like to be safe with it at Real so he didn’t play. Sneijder apparently had a bit of trouble with his knee. Drenthe not in selection, the fans hate him or something. He should go to a different club, at least on loan. V.d.Vaart didn’t play cause i guess he didn’t need to or something. Ramos is a rather peculiar coach, so.
Timmer is good with low shots and slow headers and such. due to his reflexes, but otherwise i find him crap, he should be keeping for Heracles or something.
But to get to the point. Typical Huntelaar goal. Very focussed and finished very confident. Too bad for the second to be disallowed. Though I think he may have done something about his reputation with his display. I would hope he can maintain this kind of performance in other games against better opponents.

Posted from Netherlands

By Alex | February 15th, 2009 at 5:41 pm

ow didn’t know V.d.Vaart was suspended. oops didn’t read that well i guess

Posted from Netherlands

By Mario | February 15th, 2009 at 6:27 pm

Yes Alex, suspended and he´d better improve his performances there or next year he´ll be at Hamburg again or a team in that category.

By Carlos | February 15th, 2009 at 8:14 pm

Dont forget that Robben is being handled with care – Liverpool game coming up!
Alex/Goose – How would the current AZ team go in the UEFA cup if they had shown this form and just won their last match ? They really look like a coll machine ?

Posted from Singapore

By sonneveld | February 15th, 2009 at 8:41 pm

How is Emanuelson doing? He was a Van Basten favourite and it seems like he has really droped off in form. I heard he scored today so I was wondering how he is doing.

I watched the milan derby today and I thought seedorf looked great. the guy is a proven winner and I thought we should still have him in our team.
I was also think of a 442 for oranje.

Huntelaar van Persie as strikers robben and sneijder(proves himself in this position) on the wings and two of van bommel seedorf schaars and de jong. for a more attacking lineup move sneijder in the middle and add kuyt or affelay to the other wing.

I also watched Man United vs Derby and Barazite impressed me thier. He looked to have everything. I looked him up on wikipedia though and found out he hasn’t scored for derby in 17 games(6 assists). What is up with that? Even if he has played on the wings that is still disapointing goal return.

By sonneveld | February 15th, 2009 at 8:42 pm

afellay

By Michel-Olivier | February 15th, 2009 at 9:19 pm

barazite is going to play for Morocco like aissati(traitor). also the dutch already have elia, beerens, amrabat, rodney sneijder and wijnaldum.

Posted from United States

By Carlos | February 15th, 2009 at 10:01 pm

Emanuelson plays more like a No 10 now, well he certainly did yesterdays game. Some good running, he has the energy to play well but I dont think he has found his niche yet, left back left wing and now No 10. But he’s a capable fellow. The goal was a gift set up from Suarez who was outstanding again, but dont like him for his dives and cry baby attitude. Urby scored as Suarez came in un challenged on the left and Timmer came towards him. He squared the ball and Urby scored into an open undefended goal.
here it is……
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BzA-4GOLl0&feature=related

Posted from Singapore

By Miguel Rosado | February 16th, 2009 at 12:44 am

Emanuelson doing well, Maduro is playing more. Maduro is another chance as holding midfielder or as center back, actually I think Bert should try him as center back.
Schaars is a real leader.

By Andrew | February 16th, 2009 at 1:07 am

Following up on what Miguel wrote, I caught the second half of the Valencia match this weekend, and it sure looked like Maduro was playing a central defensive position. Am I wrong? Re: Emanuelson. Agree that he hasn’t found his niche. Always felt that his best spot would be as a holding midfielder. He’s fast, energetic, will stick his nose in there when has to, can get forward when he has to…He’d be behind Van Bommel, De Jong, Schaars at this point, but nothing wrong with building depth at those important spots.

Posted from United States

By Jan | February 16th, 2009 at 3:37 am

Cool guys… I always saw Maduro as a central defender. Which coach would have the guts to play:

——Stekel (or Sar)———–
Kuyt–Heitinga–Maduro–Braafheid
—-Schaars—De Jong———–
Robben—–Sneijder—-Vaart
———–Van Persie———

YEAH!

By ferenc | February 16th, 2009 at 3:58 am

i’m not sure about maduro. he made too many mistakes at valencia at this position (as a hoollding midfielder as well). i see emmanuelson more secure and much more talented.

Posted from Singapore

By Alex | February 16th, 2009 at 8:22 am

@ jan i’m not sure any sane coach would dare to do that.
completely off-topic now, but I do feel that even though oranje fans and dutch fans feel like we have an enormous pool of talent and very good players. Everyone else always seems to forget the dutch players except V.Nistelrooij or something.
Only real highly rated young talent is with
PL clubs guys like Barazite, Bruma, or only known with scouts like Blind and Wijnaldum.
BTW, i never heard anything about Barazite choosing for morocco and Aissati denied he had chosen for morocco as well.
I noticed Maduro playing centre back before. Maybe he’ll grow into it. You wouldný hear any of us complain if he manages to play solid games there for Valencia. Besides Maduro maybe making a position change.
I feel out of Braafheid, Heitinga, Bouma, Mathijsen, Marcellis, Boulahrouz, and other possibilities V.d.Wiel, Zuiverloon, Donk, Luijckx, Pieters, Vlaar, Luirink, Loovens+ maybe guys like Blind and Bruma making an early impact. We will have more than enough defending potential to form a good if not excellent defence in 2010-2014

Posted from Netherlands

By Alex | February 16th, 2009 at 8:25 am

Just read Drenthe was left out of the squad at Real the last three games at his own request. Ramos said Drenthe caved under the pressure from the booing fans, was frightened and thought it best to be excluded.

Posted from Netherlands

By Caleb | February 17th, 2009 at 1:16 pm

Real played very well this weekend, could have scored more. Huntelaar also did very well, scoring one with the nicely timed run and breakaway and another with a header that was ruled offside – the channel I was watching never showed a good replay, but to me it didn’t look offside…
Real actually seemed to play well together, more like a team and less like a bunch of talented players. Ramos might just be gelling them just in time for the CL to start again.

Posted from Canada

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