On the slippers

RBC D2 - PSV D2
February 12, 2011
0-9

At half past ten everyone was present in the cozy players' home of RBC in Roosendaal. By now the boys had started their match preparation, and then the traditional pre-game talks begin for the parents as well. In previous weeks I heard slight complaints that the discipline among the parents was becoming less. There was no longer a central table for the parents of the D2, but you saw here and there in the clubhouse some parents talking in small circles. Were the parents also taking it a little easy by now?

This Saturday, fortunately, it was well taken care of again. At the Stammtisch sat most of the parents of the D2. At least all the mothers then with another men's table next to it for the fathers who want to go over the state of football at least once a week, as men among themselves. In short, it was another convivial affair.

On such a morning, a lot has to be discussed in a short time. Of course the football in the premier league, in Europe, of the boys but also the school, the siblings, the political developments in the Netherlands but also those abroad. It really is an hour of mental training for the football playing parent.

This time the conversation was dominated by the subject of shoes. This week the new shoes for the boys arrived and that generated quite a bit of interesting conversation. Never knew there were so many sides to a shoe to discuss. One parent was talking about shoes that were too big for his or her son, and the other conversely about shoes that were too small. It was explored whether there could not be an exchange but that became unsuccessful anyway. The conversation turned to the philosophy of PSV, which advocates a "quiet" shoe for its players, but that Nike has developed a very striking shoe with the new safari shoe. Several players of the D2 are now the more or less happy owners of such a safari shoe.

At the last moment we were able to tear ourselves away from these interesting reflections, and sat expectantly in the RBC grandstand. The boys got to play football for the second time in RBC's beautiful little stadium. I must say, the stadium was not packed and that creates a special atmosphere for such a game. It's like a European Cup match without an audience, you watch the game from a distance.

Just like the previous matches, the lads are missing a bit of sharpness in the beginning. The ball is moving around nicely, we are better, chances are created, but there is no real will to impose the will of the opponent. RBC was able to keep up in the early stages and even had a good chance to make it 1-0. But then there is Pepijn who does not get much to do, but the times he has to be there, he is sublime. In the 1 on 1, Pepijn was again the winner.

On the other hand, in the D2 there are always guys who have a particularly good day. Today it was especially Ruud who dominated on the left side from the very first minute. Time after time he turned left and right past his opponent, and delivered ready-made crosses (with the left!), or shot himself. Amar on the right is also always a plague to his opponent, and the 0-1 falls when Luc with another brilliant pass sends Amar away who manages to find Cody. And Cody never misses chances like that. The 0-2 by a successful action of Ruud on Amar, and the 0-3 does Ruud himself. Halftime is reached at 0-3. Apart from the one chance, RBC is struggling. RBC is a good team, but they have to acknowledge their superiority to our D2.

In the second half, James, Baggio, Hus and Roland joined the team. Pep can stay on because Arne is with the D1 after his trip to Switzerland. The team was reinvigorated. After about five minutes, Justin was sidelined after an unfortunate arm on his chest and the team played with 10 men for a while. And as crazy as it sounds, this does the team good. With one man down, there is more fighting and battling to be done, and the tempo goes up. When Lars comes in for Justin, the tempo stays high and then RBC is seen.

The D2 is just playing football. Hus is on excellent form with beautiful solos and passes, Roland plays particularly cleverly on the right forward position and, together with James as a glorified right forward, splits open the RBC defense. It then runs quickly from 0-3 to 0-9 (with for the statistics I think Hus, Baggio, Amar 2x and Cody 2x).

Thus the boys string together one victory after another. And surely that can be called an outstanding achievement. Keeping concentration and sharpness, is currently the biggest opponent.

Hans Bosma