UEFA CUP FINAL / FEYENOORD 3 BOROUSSIA DORTMUND 2: Pierre Van Hooijdonk may not be the most popular man with Nottingham Forest supporters but his already high standing at Feyenoord increased a notch last night. The 32-year-old Dutch international striker scored twice in a compelling UEFA Cup final to help his team overcome a spirited Borussia Dortmund.
Van Hooijdonk put Feyenoord 2-0 ahead from a penalty and free-kick after Dortmund's Jurgen Kohler had been sent off. But the German club battled impressively with 10 men, scoring either side of a goal by the former Newcastle forward Jon Dahl Tomasson that proved decisive.
The game was preceded by a minute of silence in in memory of Pim Fortuyn, the right-wing politician who was assassinated on Monday. Fortuyn's murder had raised questions about whether this fixture should be postponed, but UEFA had pressed for it to go ahead as planned and the Feyenoord supporters hardly seemed in sombre mood.
They had greeted their team with dozens of red flares and a barrel-load of tickertape and saw Feyenoord make a bright start. Van Hooijdonk was being used as a target to build round up front while Robin van Persie, their exciting young winger, showed flashes of his talent.
Dortmund had already suffered anxious moments when Van Hooijdonk demonstrated his well-known threat from free-kicks and was denied only by a post from 25 yards with the goalkeeper Jens Lehmann comfortably beaten.
Not that Dortmund were under a constant welter of pressure. In Jan Koller they had a dangerous forward of their own and the Czech Tomas Rosicky was causing problems. The German club also have Brazilian flair to complement their Europeans and Evanilson might have scored from a cross by Ewerthon.
That miss looked highly costly when Van Hooijdonk scored twice inside 10 minutes before half-time. His first came from the penalty spot after Kohler, playing the final game of a long and distinguished career, was sent off for a trip inside the area on Tomasson.
Any hopes the Bundesliga champions had of a comeback seemed to evaporate when Van Hooijdonk whipped a free-kick over the wall and into the bottom corner from an almost identical position to his earlier effort.
Yet Dortmund pulled a goal back less than two minutes into the second half from a penalty of their own. Marcio Amoroso was hauled down by Patrick Paauwe and the Brazilian got up to score from the spot.
Almost immediately Tomasson restored Feyenoord's two-goal advantage, beating the offside trap and scoring from near the edge of the box. But Dortmund showed they do not give up easily when Koller took advantage of a poor header to score spectacularly from 25 yards.
Guardian Service
FEYENOORD (4-4-1-1): Zoetebier; Gyan, Van Wonderen, Paauwe, Rzasa; Kalou (Elmander, 76), Bosvelt, Ono (De Haan, 85), Van Persie (Leonardo, 63); Tomasson; Van Hooijdonk.
BORUSSIA DORTMUND (4-2-1-3): Lehmann; Evanilson, Worns, Kohler, Dede; Ricken (Heinrich, 70), Reuter; Rosicky; Ewerthon (Addo, 61), Koller, Amoroso.
Referee: V Melo Pereira (Portugal).
