FC Groningen’s own youth must shoot to the Premier League in a decisive match against Roda

Pro ShotsThom van Bergen (right) celebrates in Velsen

NOS Voetbal•vandaag, 06:03

Martin Drent has seen and analyzed all FC Groningen matches in the first division this season. The former striker and cult hero closely follows his old club for the podcast The Coffee Corner of the regional broadcaster RTV Noord.

He has to miss “the FC” tonight of all nights. It is the last match of the competition, in which Groningen and Roda JC will decide among themselves who will play Premier League football next season.

The 54-year-old Drent is also a trainer himself and has to give training to his own team, the second division club VV Dalen from Drenthe, that evening. “I don’t get tense that easily. But for Friday, boy… I just have to keep track of it on my phone via teletext.”

Bohemian himself

FC Groningen was ingloriously relegated from the Premier League last year. The club hoped for a lightning-quick return, with the help of a few expensive players, including striker Kevin van Veen. But that plan seemed to be thrown out quite early in the season. Under the leadership of new trainer Dick Lukkien, Groningen ended up in the right row.

Drent: “Then Lukkien said: we are going to do it completely differently. The expensive players out, and our own youth players in. Pats boom. That worked out great.”

ANPT trainer Dick Lukkien talking to Thom van Bergen during the semi-cup final against Feyenoord

Since November, the club has only lost once and climbed to third place in the rankings. The Groningen team also reached the semi-finals of the KNVB cup tournament, where they lost to the later winner Feyenoord.

In the Kitchen Champion Division, Groningen will play in a duel with Roda JC tonight at 8 p.m. for a place in the Premier League. With a victory at home against the Limburgers, promotion is a fact.

NOS

This season, Lukkien has already fielded twelve players who received their training in Groningen. Striker Van Veen has been replaced by Thom van Bergen from Haren. Joining him in the striker position is Romano Postema, born in the city, as well as Luciano Valente, the left winger, and Thijmen Blokzijl, the central defender.

And Jorg Schreuders may have been born in Singapore, but his football talent also blossomed at the Corpus den Hoorn sports park in Groningen.

Groningen DNA

Last Friday, Groningen almost lost to Telstar, which made the Groningen people think they could prepare for the play-offs. But then suddenly there was striker Van Bergen who scored the equalizer out of nowhere in the 95th minute: 1-1.

Drent: “I was certainly disappointed with the poor game, but you cannot blame those boys. They have gone very deep and at least they are boys with the FC Groningen DNA.”

Denouement of the first division at the NOS

The showdown in the first division, with FC Groningen-Roda JC and Willem II-Telstar, can be followed tonight with a live blog on NOS.nl and the NOS app and via Langs de Lijn En Omstreek on NPO Radio 1.

Short summaries can be seen in the NOS Journaal at 11:20 PM on NPO 1.

The club has finally got its face back, says Drent. “Last year was the worst season ever. No effort. No experience. The DNA of FC Groningen was completely missing. There has been such mismanagement in recent years. So many expensive and bad players have been signed. It is almost insane. Groningen was Quite a rich club, but that is really not the case anymore.”

Back to 1999

The story is very similar to the last time the club was promoted to the Premier League, in the 1999-2000 season. “We also had a good youth team,” says Jan van Dijk, the trainer at the time. “Those boys were lucky that we had to make cuts, the expensive players had to go. We had to draft those young boys.”

He effortlessly names them: Sander van Gessel, Paul Matthijs, Kurt Elshot and his sons Gregoor and Dominique. Combined with the experience of Martin Drent and Hans Visser. “And not to forget: Arjen Robben was coming, he was still very young, 16 years old.”

Experience is also relative, says Van Dijk, who played more than five hundred matches for Groningen. “You just have to let the youth play football, they gain experience by playing minutes and giving them confidence. The atmosphere around it is great, because the audience is crazy about them. And the players have known each other for so long, that friendship is extremely close .”

Drent: “You can always easily see how good the atmosphere is with a team. How is a goal celebrated? Well, with every FC Groningen goal it seems as if they score the winner in the final of the Champions League. And so That’s right. They are really proud to play for Groningen.”

ANPMartin Drent (r) in February 2001 in a duel with Feyenoord player Ulrich van Gobbel

Yet Drent and Van Dijk agree that Groningen will have a very difficult time in the Premier League with this team.

“Those boys have energy for ten,” says Van Dijk. “But if you play against an experienced team, and there are about ten of them in the Premier League, then you will have a very difficult time. The fact that talents often receive a setback is a no-brainer. You certainly need some routine, two to three players with two hundred to three hundred games in their legs.”

Weird feeling

In any case: “A club like Groningen belongs in the Premier League,” says Drent. “Everyone you speak to in the city says: we’ll do that against Roda. But I have a strange feeling. A feeling that we won’t succeed. But I think I’m the only one. So that’s good. Let’s hope that my feelings also deteriorate as I get older.”

Van Dijk is more optimistic. “The Euroborg is packed, 25,000 people. Then you are simply dragged to victory. Yes, I can totally see it happening.”

2024-05-10 04:03:29
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