The world title is not a must for hockey players

A group of children who have just finished training crowd around Thierry Brinkman. If they can have his autograph. “Did you have a good time playing hockey, boys?” he says as he signs their shirts. “It’s cold, isn’t it?”

It is December 30 and Brinkman, captain of the Dutch team, is at the Rotterdam hockey club for interviews about the upcoming World Cup. The tournament started in the Indian cities of Rourkela and Bhubaneswar on Friday. The Dutch team will play its first match against Malaysia on Saturday.

This World Cup is an important measuring moment: it is the first major tournament under national coach Jeroen Delmee. No fewer than eleven players will make their debut there. And it is Brinkman’s first World Cup as captain. He’s looking forward to it, he says. “Because I am very curious about what we can achieve with this group. What we are capable of.”

A quiet preparation – or long Christmas holiday – was not possible for the hockey players. On December 23, they returned from Argentina, where four Pro League matches were played. Delmee was not happy with it “the grueling conditions” of that busy schedule, he told NOS in advance. Things didn’t really go ideally in Argentina either, with only one victory. Brinkman: “That was sad. But it was useful to see how we react to each other and how international pots are decided.”

The Dutch hockey team comes from a turbulent period, in which things did not always go well. “We can still peak, but the valleys are getting deeper,” Delmee said in November 2021 NRC when he had just been appointed as national coach. Under his predecessor Max Caldas, three European titles were won in seven years, but major disappointments were the medal-less Olympic Games in Rio (2016) and Tokyo (2021). In Japan, the hockey players did not even reach the semi-finals for the first time since 1984.

Delmee swept through the team and expressed that he wants to boost ambition and work ethic. “They must want to be the best, that feeling must become stronger.” Brinkman: “A timetable has been mapped out up to and including the Games in 2028. We have to gain a lot of experience, get to know each other better, and of course also harvest in the meantime. And ultimately really be the best.”

The 2028 Games, you say. And Paris, in 2024?

“Yes, also harvesting, but in 2028 we will be four years further. With boys who, in principle, can all still participate.”

How would you describe this team?

“It is relatively unknown, even for people who have been following hockey for some time. There are names in there that you may not have heard of or seen played. We would like to improve, also individually. What do you need to master to compete internationally? And the intention is for new figureheads to emerge in this team.”

Has the atmosphere improved under Delmee?

“I find that difficult. We also had fun and a great time in the previous team. Unfortunately, there were also disappointments, mainly at the Games. The only thing I could say: the characters in this team are perhaps a bit easier and more focused on wanting to learn.”

What’s in it for him?

“What type of people you have in the team. Of course, some were completely new, so you tackle everything. That really started with hitting a normal good forehand, to say the least. Can everyone do that? We were not working on that before. Of course this does not apply to every player, but it does apply to some: which techniques do we need to master in order to be able to participate at all? Everyone has gotten a lot better in a year and a half.”

Was it previously thought: anyone can do this?

“Yes I think so. There is now a team with the type of players who rely on hard work for each other. And there is so much change that we could start blank. What is the quality of a player, what does he need to grow in? It’s almost to a lesser extent about tactics, that will come.”

You said that the atmosphere before was not always bad, but that is not the image that has stuck.

“Yes, the general picture is somewhat negative. That mainly had to do with Max. I also had an unhappy moment with Max at the Games. Only when I rewind the film do I think: we had many good phases, three times European champions, lost a World Cup final after shoot-outs.”

The unfortunate moment he is referring to is the riot in which Brinkman became an unsolicited protagonist. That happened when his father, former hockey international Jacques Brinkman, sat at the table of the SBS program after the loss of the quarter-finals in Tokyo. The Orange Summer read out frustrated texts from Thierry, without his son’s permission. About the mediocre game of the Dutch team and about Caldas: ‘Max shouldn’t make me angry, but I am really hot.’ It made a lot of noise, and Jacques Brinkman offered apologize for that.

How do you look back on that?

“It was annoying for me and Max, for my father. I was eventually able to discuss it with Max, but that’s all issue. My father was disappointed with the elimination and his action. I know where it comes from: wanting something good for the Dutch team and for me.”

It was often about your father, Olympic champion in 1996 and 2000, the last time gold was won at a global tournament. Will that decrease?

“It always comes back here and there, my father’s career, the successful generation of hockey in the Netherlands. That’s part of it. But you become more experienced, I am now 27. That is such a different role than an emerging talent. It is really no longer an issue.”

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