Tuesday, July 29, 2025
The White One, Part 2
Even by the standards of the Netherlands, the Limburg region is a geographical oddity. A Dutch wedge of land shoved awkwardly in between Belgium and Germany, it is a multilingual area with a number of place names reflecting the erstwhile Gallic influence. One of these French names is Chevremont ("goat-mountain"), a village bordering the town of Kerkrade, where Willy Brokamp was born on 25 February, 1946.
A football prodigy, at the age of only 14 he was representing the village team, which competed in the top amateur competition in the country at the time. By the time he was 18 and his talent had become more widely recognised, scouts from both Ajax and PSV Eindhoven were keen to secure the youngster's signature. But despite the lure of the big western cities (and their entertainment districts), he stayed close to home, signing for the most prominent club in the Limburg region - MVV Maastricht.
The Sterrendragers, as they are known in Holland, were at the time a fixture in the Dutch first division, and the arrival of Brokamp propelled them to greater heights. He played either as a left-winger or a striker, but wherever he was on the pitch, he was a good bet to score. In his two stints at MVV he compiled a total of 140 goals. His unmistakable shock of blond hair gave him the nickname De Witte, "The White One".
Even in his early days, it became well-known that any attempt to "coach" Willy Brokamp, much less rein in his determination to enjoy life to the fullest, was doomed to failure. Yet he became a cult figure in Maastricht, and the love was mutual. His sociability was legendary; an MVV fan recalls a time when he, as a very young boy, simply knocked on the club star's front door and asked, "Mr. Brokamp, we're having a kickaround, would you like to join us?". De Witte smilingly joined the anklebiters as they whacked the leather along the laneways.
Another tale, told by a Dutch journalist, sheds more light on both Brokamp's effusive personality and the lengths to which the locals would go for him. Assigned to cover the following day's MVV home fixture, the journalist was invited by Brokamp to crash at his place and then travel with the striker to the game by train. Brokamp, typically, stayed out until the small hours. And the train left at 7:30 a.m. Stumbling out of bed at roughly that hour and assuring the nervous journo that there was no problem, Brokamp strolled into the station to find the train still there. "Jeez, Willy," said the conductor with a grin, "it's OK if I leave four or five minutes late, but ten...?".
Despite these idiosyncrasies, Brokamp's scoring prowess eventually earned him a place in the national team. In his first match for the Oranje, a friendly against Israel in 1970, he scored the only goal.
Yet for the next couple of years, he was ignored. The new coach of the Oranje, Frantisek Fadrhonc, was conservative by disposition, and considered the wild-haired glamour boy of the south-east a risky option. In fairness, too, this was the era when Feyenoord and Ajax were winning European Cups, and it is perhaps not surprising that a star from a provincial club found it hard to get a look-in.
By the time of the 1974 World Cup qualifying series, even Fadrhonc was convinced that it was time to give Brokamp another go, so impressive had his record been at MVV. In 1973, he jointly topped the Eredivisie scoring charts and was named Dutch Footballer of the Year. So it was off on the road to Germany...with the sturdy Belgians, led by the canny coach Raymond Goethals, in their way.
In the first encounter between Holland and Belgium in Antwerp, the Dutch were glad to come away with a 0-0 draw; Belgian defender Jean Thissen's shot against a post, and a lofted Paul van Himst free kick clawed away by Jan van Beveren, were as close as the Belgians came to scoring. The Oranje then began storming through the "lesser" matches in their qualifying group, amassing 22 goals in three games against Norway and Iceland, Brokamp scoring five of them. The Belgians, however, had also maintained a perfect record against Norway and Iceland, and thus the second encounter between the local rivals became crucial.
But the Dutch almost stumbled even before that. Their return encounter with Norway began cheerfully enough, when a beautifully-weighted cross from Brokamp on the left was headed in expertly by Johan Cruyff on seven minutes. Another goal avalanche seemed imminent, but the Dutch now found the Norwegians a tough nut to crack. Frustration began to creep in: Wim van Hanegem, never a shrinking violet, was lucky to receive only a yellow card for a dreadful, petulant foul on the Norwegian substitute Tor Egil Johansen, and Cruyff - typically - was subsequently yellow-carded for protesting. On 77 minutes, the unthinkable happened when van Beveren, slow off his line, was beaten to a loose ball by the Norwegian forward Harry Hestad (a former Eredivisie player), who made it 1-1.
Perhaps inevitably, it was Cruyff who saved the Dutch bacon. Three minutes from the end, receiving the ball on the right-hand side of the Norwegian box, he slipped a sublime back-heel into the path of the onrushing Barrie Hulshoff, who fired home. Fadrhonc and his men breathed a sigh of relief.
So it was all down to the return match between Holland and Belgium, to be held in Amsterdam's Olympic Stadium. The match would be a pivotal one in Dutch football history - and despite Brokamp's excellent lead-up form, he found himself benched for the first time in the series for the key encounter. To be continued in Part 3.
