She is 27 years old, made her international debut two years ago in the Pro League, scored 15 goals in 23 international matches, but did not play a really big tournament. So far. Fay van der Elst will finally make her European championship debut in Mönchengladbach. And that as the deep striker of Orange.
Two years ago she was just in the stands at the European Championship in Germany. At that time she was on a team weekend with Amsterdam and was not yet involved in the Orange. She encouraged the Dutch team with her teammates. Now she is on the field herself. A week and a half ago she received the changing message from the national coach Raoul Ehren in the Orange Group app. “I immediately scrolled to the list. Fortunately my last name starts with an e, so I saw myself fairly quickly, “says Fay van der Elst. She had a good feeling about it, but it still felt like a relief. ‘If it is really true, then that is just a lot of fun. I’m really looking forward to it. ‘
Van der Elst has been with the Big Dutch Team for two years now. In the Pro League she played 23 games and scored fifteen goals. This European championship is her first final tournament. She knows exactly what her role is. ‘I am of course a specific player in the team. Really a striker. With the role and position I have, I can concentrate on finishing. But I also work on my game around it. Play in the combination but also in the right place at the right time. ‘
Cunning, sharp and alert
At first glance, Fay van der Elst is a calm presence. Sober, calm, modest. But that is only the outside, she emphasizes herself. ‘I think I will come across as very relaxed, maybe a bit modest. But in the field, on the other hand, I constantly scans. Where is the space? When should I strike? I am sharp, alert. And always looking for that one moment.
Pien Sanders, Fay van der Elst and Felice Albers. Photo: Willem Vernes
It typifies her as a striker. Not the kind that fights and drags the entire game. But someone who can make a difference. Preferably with only one touch. ‘Tipping is timing and ball feeling. I always played football and tennis and that certainly helped me. But it’s just a lot of practice. I practiced it for years in my parents’ garden. Together with my three sisters. I am the second youngest and my older sisters really did not hold back. They were all in field hockey too. They touched these super hard balls in my way and I had to hit them. You couldn’t really make me happier with that.
‘If you miss, mow over the ball’
She laughs when she thinks back of those days. At that time, the target hair functioned enormously. She turned it into her profession. ‘My best goal in the Dutch national team? I scored it in the Wagener stage against Spain. A flat high in the long corner. But it was certainly not the most difficult. Those are the balls that come across the back line, “she grins. “One that has such a bouncing in it. It seems so simple, but it takes so much timing to hit the ball well. And if you miss them, mow right over the ball. That doesn’t look that way, “she laughs.
Most strikers know exactly how many goals they have scored. They keep careful records. But not Van der Elst. She knows about – but no more than that. She does not measure herself according to the number of goals. “Sometimes I endured a game and shot everything in it. Whether I play well but don’t finish. You are not dependent on much. Because of the Dominance of Orange in recent years, many opponents will bury,” she expects. ” Then you have to be happy if you get a chance in a game and you have to make it.
Fay van The Est. Photo: Bart Scheduleman
But it’s not just positional play and timing. She also depends on her teammates. Everyone has their own preference in how they cross. ‘Felice Albers always arrives on the right. She is quickly on the ball, so I have a different timing with that than with Renée van Laarhoven, for example. She prefers to make it flattened before the front. ‘She prefers to throw a hard cross in the ropes. And then with my backhand. A bit like in the garden. They also always look nice. ‘
Noah Ohio and Kim Lammers
She likes to talk about goals. Especially about her trademark. But when asked which striker she seems the most, she stays quiet for a while. ‘I recently watched an interview with Noah Ohio during the Dutch Junior European Football Championship. He was not at ease and was replaced, “she says. She does not look like FC Utrecht’s striker, she says, but recognizes the dilemmas. “He was quite open. Told about how sometimes things can’t fall your way. Found it fascinating to hear how he dealt with that. How he was about that then. ‘
Photo: WorldSportpics
If she had to mention someone, it would be former international Kim Lammers (203 Caps, 123 goals). Who have learned a lot in the past as an assistant at Amsterdam. “She could help me in detail with things. How exactly you can run. How you jump for your defender at the last minute. For example, I often went past them to the right, she said: Do it on the left, so that I could use the right side again and the defender no longer knew, “she shares the tips.
The European Championship for Orange starts on Saturday. She is not in the stands, she is on the field. Suddenly she has to dive again for a defender. She will not venture for spelling, but hopes to retain her average. “If I can cancel my average, I will be really satisfied. Unlawful, because so far she has scored every two games. And almost exclusively with tip-ins.
#Netherlands #Fay #van #der #Elst #moment