ANPSteven Bergwijn
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 07:07
Four teams will appear in full uniform tonight for a total of no more than fifteen minutes of Premier League football.
In Alkmaar, AZ-NEC (score 1-2) is only about the last minute and what extra time is added. That match was stopped in the 90th minute on October 29, because NEC striker Bas Dost suddenly went to the ground. The cause turned out to be an inflamed heart muscle.
Almost everything that needs to be arranged for a normal ninety-minute match is also set up for such a short catch-up game. “We took it seriously,” says expert Bart Vriends from Sparta Rotterdam, who played a 374-second match against Vitesse last year. But more about that later.
What is at stake?
First tonight’s games. Ajax, who were bottom five weeks ago, must hold out for six minutes plus injury time to win 3-2 and thus rise to sixth place in the rankings.
With a win, AZ can leapfrog Feyenoord and come into second place. But NEC leads 2-1 and the Nijmegen team can also use the three points: if they win, the Nijmegen team will climb from sixteenth to twelfth place.
NOSThe standings in the Premier League after the match on Sunday, December 3
In principle, the four teams start with the football players who were on the field at the time of the strike, whereby the players who are currently injured may be replaced and do not count as a substitution.
Naturally, NEC will field another attacker for the recovering Dost. In addition, NEC coach Rogier Meijer may change two more players. AZ has already been exchanged, just like RKC.
At Ajax, John van ‘t Schip, who was not yet a coach during the match on September 30, still has four substitutions left. Only Steven Bergwijn was replaced in the 78th minute by then coach Maurice Steijn by youth player Amourricho from Axel Dongen.
Van ‘t Schip: ‘Crazy match’
“It is of course a crazy match. Normally you are tired in the 84th minute and now you actually start completely fresh. That applies to us, but also to RKC. They have nothing to lose and we have everything,” reports the Ajax coach. John van ‘t Schip on the club website. “They will start taking risks and we must have an answer to that.”
The usual protocols apply for a catch-up game, no matter how short. For example, television teams often travel with all the necessary equipment, there is security in and around the stadium and the VAR is ready in Zeist. Madness?
“I almost laughed when the referee blew the whistle for the final whistle,” says Bart Vriends. The Sparta captain traveled to Arnhem with his club in April last year to play out the remainder of a match with Vitesse. That match had been stopped more than a month earlier for safety reasons after a series of incidents with Vitesse fans in the stands.
Two hours of travel
The players played without an audience for six minutes and fourteen seconds of extra time. The travel time for Sparta? About two hours there and back again. almost forty times longer than the catch-up game would take.
“It was a laughable match. It was so short that there was little meaningful to say about it. I think I hit one ball and a corner was the highlight of those six minutes.”
Vriends remembers how Sparta’s match day was little different from any other. Just a sports meal three hours in advance, a match review and a normal warm-up.
Trick
“But we had trained to maintain a lead,” says the 32-year-old defender. Sparta led 1-0 and desperately needed the three points in the fight against relegation. “We started with a goal kick and came up with a trick to make it take as long as possible,” Vriends explains.
“I arrived in the mixed zone after the match to speak to the media and I thought: what the hell is there to say about this match? It was mostly comical.”
Listen to Vriends’ reaction after last year’s short catch-up game with Vitesse:
Friends in April 2022: ‘One ball hit, but no less joy’
On the players’ bus back to Rotterdam, the Sparta players talked about “the insanity of the whole scene,” says Vriends.
Vriends realizes that, no matter how clumsy, there is little choice but to play out the last minutes of a catch-up game. “It’s terribly annoying to pack your things and travel to the other side of the country,” he says. “But if the outcome is not yet certain, what alternative do you have?”
‘Football is not basketball’
NOS football commentator Arno Vermeulen does not expect a spectacle in either stadium tonight. “Football is a sport that does not lend itself to something crazy happening in such a short time, especially with two well-equipped teams.”
“Normally, something can still happen in the final phase, if everyone is pretty much through it. We are not going to see that now. Football is not basketball, where you have to go with a well-thought-out play can still force something.”
Just like Bart Vriends, Vermeulen sees no other solution. “You could wait until the end of the competition and then see whether it is still important to finish the match.”
“But then NEC and Ajax would always be three potential points behind. The KNVB is not in favor of that. It wants these matches to be played out as quickly as possible.”
“All things considered, it is also a unique situation,” Vermeulen puts things into perspective. “Two matches that were stopped in the final phase because a player became unwell. That has never happened before.”
2023-12-06 06:07:28
#minutes #football #RKCAjax #AZNEC #tackled
