Defeat
The excitement for tomorrow was building in the streets. Throngs of people were milling around the streets as if it was already matchday, many bursting into raucous singing that seemed a little too spontaneous. Well I was sitting in plain sight at my Braave, my favourite little restaurant in the city, with Merab Jordania. Due to our midweek 4-2 victory over Wigan, he had thought it better to deliver his monthly report to me after the big game. Sipping on a delicate red wine, he spied me eying the long legged blonde girl that had stooped over our table just a little too low to suggest that she only wanted an autograph. Chuckling he asked "Lyle, when was the last time you went on a date?" He went on slyly 'You work too hard my good man. You should take some time out and enjoy the city!". The look on my face was apparently very hilarious to him, as he roared with laughter, though I received a very devious grin from the girl. Suddenly Emma had written her number on a napkin and tucked it into my shirt pocket. With muttered promises of calling her soon, I looked over at Merab who had gone as red as his wine from laughter. "Very funny Merab, nut may we please get onto business? ****** ****, she can't be over 21!". Still chuckling and muttering to himself, he produced a letter that held the boardroom discussion. Finally he said "The board are pleased that we are undefeated in the 8 matches since the Lech match, the were excited that we had managed to teams with the reputation of Sevilla and Wigan 3-1 and 4-2 respectively, but they are most thrilled with the 4-1 hammering of those bastards at NEC. Honda is a great acquisition, Havenaar is performing out of his skill etc. Damnit Lyle, you have done a brilliant job so far. Can we put business to the side and enjoy this late afternoon sun? Ajax should be done with their training at the Gelredome by now." After a few more minor work related topics, we had indulged in the bottle of red. When the second was done, I told Merab that I would see him tomorrow before our match against Ajax.
The sun poked through the open curtains all to early for my liking on Sunday morning. Those bottles of wine surely snuck up on me when I got home. After a shower and a quick perusal of yesterday's results I was on my way. FC Utrecht had lost and now sat 4 points behind us. the 3 mile walk to the Gelredome through the drizzle definitely helped clear up the headache that was sneaking in. I wondered if Emma would be at the match, but hastily dismissed her from my thoughts. I asked the team to be at the stadium early today so we could work on some last minute defensive tactics. Sitting in change room after the warm up, with the noise of the gathering crowd faintly echoing in around us, I studied the faces in front of me. "Boys, today is the day we prove that we aren't overachievers. A mid-table team boosted by an run of form destined to fail. Those guys across the hall think that the Eredivisie title is theirs
because they're Ajax. We're here to show them otherwise. Go out out there, and prove a point! Show them why we are on top of the log! Make me proud! Make yourselves proud! Make Emma and the rest of the crowd proud!" I had not realised I mentioned Emma until Theo Jansen dutifully pointed it out to me and the rest of the player to a chorus of laughter. This was our match!
Rather surprisingly, we started off on the front foot. Rushing forward, Reis came close in nearly the first minute. Keeping the majority of the possession and the crowd urging us on, we had three successive shots parried by the Ajax goalkeeper Vermeer. It took Ajax 10 mins to get over the shock that we weren't going to bend over and let them have their way with us. Hutchinson, the strong lad on loan from Chelsea, tackled Victor Fischer and conceded a corner which was easily dealt with by Velthuizen. Then we went on the offensive again, retaining possession until the attempted to mount a counterattack. This is how it went through the entire first half. This is the totaalvoetbal I had been drilling into the players the past few weeks. Then the 62nd minute came, Fischer played a defence splitting one-two with Serero and got free in the box. Silence. With Velthuizen rushing out, Fischer played a delicate chip, watched the ball bounce over the flailing goalkeeper and into the net. Pandemonium erupted in the away stand. But I saw the players were not discouraged. Immediately after the restart, they attacked with a fury not seen in Champions League finals. Attack after attack was blocked, successive corners cleared and counterattacks by Ajax were extinguished at the halfway line. Vermeer and his defense would not let anything through.
The final whistled sounded and several players just collapsed from the exhaustion where they stood. There would not be any scathing post-match meeting from me. They played their hearts out tonight but were just unlucky. Even the crowd had not moved an inch, still chanting loudly as if we had triumphed. We would get them next time though. Our first league defeat let us 1 point clear of FC Utrecht and 2 ahead of Ajax. We would persevere. One thing about arnhem men, you can't keep us down for too long. As we walked down the tunnel with our heads held high, I caught the eye of someone familiar in the crowd. someone that had just blown a kiss at me. Someone whose number was written on a napkin that was still in my shirt pocket.
