After the 8-0 defeat at PSV, Wessel Boer, defender of the Royal HFC, did not give up. In fact, he appeared at the closing press conference in great spirits.
Boer was the center defender for the second division team and was assigned the task of stopping the goal-hungry Ricardo Pepi. That didn’t exactly work.
According to the score sheet, the eager American officially scored two goals, but also played a decisive role in two own goals for HFC. After the final whistle, Boer only had one shirt in mind.
Asked about this at the press talk afterwards, the man-decker suddenly starts singing. “Ri-car-do Pe-pi”, he hums cheerfully after the PSV fans. It leads to a lot of laughter in the press room.
“That’s still in my head!” he explains, laughing. “We fought some nice duels, so I had to have that. A nice souvenir.” As a defender, he must have secretly hoped to keep Pepi from scoring.
The attacker scored two, although Boer had lost count. “Two goals? I thought he scored four!” Laughter follows again in the press room. “Oh, no, two goals indeed, and twice I didn’t get it right. I blame myself for that.”
The Boer, who is struggling with fitness, put everything aside to reach the match in the Philips Stadium. “I’m just not 100 percent fit yet; otherwise Pepi wouldn’t have made one and I would have gotten another shirt,” he jokes once again.
With a 4-0 deficit, the defender had a header to score the goal of honor. “I’ll probably have some nightmares about that,” he sighs. Then another joke. “Maybe that goal would have been the reason to make it 4-4, but it was not to be.”
In the second act, the amateurs certainly had opportunities to treat the away fans. “If it had been 4-4 in the second half, it would have been deserved,” Boer said jokingly again.
“We were lord and master for the first five minutes,” he continues with a cocktail of humor and swagger. “There’s laughter, but it’s true. I’m going to watch the match again and think I’ll replay the first five minutes a few more times, because we were in a good place.”
