On a mild spring evening, the time for dreaming in Velsen-Zuid is over. The small Telstar, the surprising newcomer in the Eredivisie, competed for prizes in the KNVB cup tournament for a long time this season. Even this Wednesday, a place in the final seemed within reach until deep into injury time. But when visiting AZ, five minutes of weakness immediately after the break turned out to be disastrous: 2-1.
At the side of the field, Lee-Roy Echteld, AZ’s interim coach since January, hugs his assistants afterwards. They hug each other deeply and for a long time. A little further away is Telstar trainer Anthony Correia, his hands deep in the pockets of his black jacket. “We are going to De Kuip,” the stadium speaker blares several times. The stands respond with an unrecognizable cry.
It’s the most likely outcome of this encounter. Last Sunday, Echteld said in front of the ESPN cameras that he was counting on a place in the final, “because we are better.” Moreover, his selection had to make some adjustments after last year, when AZ also reached the final, but lost to Go Ahead Eagles. Now it has to happen against Dick Schreuder’s refreshing NEC, which defeated PSV in the first semi-final on Tuesday.
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Fireworks and white flags
About two hours before, the fireworks are ready and the players gather in the tunnel when the away section fills with white flags. The traveling Telstar fans are constantly audible, drowning out the much larger group of home fans. Just before the players arrive, a banner is unfolded, showing the club logo and the KNVB cup. Surrounded by the text: “Yet I continue to dream wonderfully.”
It is a meeting between a team that has to win in order to give the season something meaningful, and a team for which everything this season is already a win. After all, who would have expected that Telstar, one of the Dutch professional clubs with the smallest budgets, would be promoted to the highest level via the play-offs last year after finishing seventh in the first division? After such a stunt, maintaining it in the Eredivisie would be an achievement in itself.
That knowledge gives a lot of freedom, according to Correia. “We’re just going for it. Telstar in the cup final, wouldn’t that be super funny?” he said this week. against VI. “I regularly tell the boys that they have to play every match as if it were their very last. Isn’t that how it is? We get to do something very beautiful. We can move freely and creatively with the ball, purely enjoying what we do.”
Things are different for AZ, a club that sets itself the goal of structurally finishing among the best four in the Netherlands. Who, with midfielder Kees Smit, has one of the most talked about talents of the season on board, just like promises such as defender Wouter Goes and strikers Mexx Meerdink and Troy Parrott. So much wealth and creativity that the ambition for this season was increased to top three, captain Sven Mijnans revealed in September.
As we enter the last few weeks, that target is now far from sight. AZ had a difficult autumn, after which the management first dismissed two assistants and the head coach. Echteld has led the group since then, although performance remains mixed. The club from Alkmaar is now sixth in the competition, making the cup tournament the only way to prevent a lost season.
Nervousness
It brings a lot of nervousness, as becomes apparent in the opening phase. AZ looks intimidated by Telstar’s fierce pressing, which chases the home team all over the field. When in possession of the ball, the Correia team is at least as fearless: they regularly play through AZ’s lines with short taps, feints and fierce deep runs. The only thing that doesn’t work is scoring: Telstar is sloppy in the crosses, too wild in the finishing.
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The eagerness with which the Velsen residents start the game is nowhere more visible than with winger Gerald Alders, who sprints almost continuously for fifteen minutes. It seems impossible to keep going, and it is: after 20 minutes Alders has to leave the field injured. From then on it becomes clear that Telstar as a whole also has to slow down, and AZ is increasingly succeeding in getting out of the pressure.
Yet it takes a long time before the home team does something about it: AZ is also sloppy. But just after half time it suddenly works. Smit is given space to dribble and pass, Telstar defender Danny Bakker tries to intercept that cross, but shoots the ball hard into his own goal. Moments later, defender Neville Ogidi Nwankwo clumsily clears a corner: high into the air, towards his own goal. Goalkeeper Ronald Koeman still gets the ball, but is hindered by AZ striker Parrott. Nevertheless, the goal still stands.
A new stunt then quickly disappears from view. Telstar looks tired and is making more and more mistakes in the build-up. The positional play makes way for opportunism, long balls from the back. And then, fifteen minutes before the end, such a desperate attempt suddenly succeeds: through the ball at the feet of substitute Kay Tejan, who shoots the ball high into the roof.
Would it still be possible? Goalkeeper Koeman throws in another long ball, and another. But what AZ failed to do in the cup final last year – defend a lead – the team has now succeeded in doing. Balls are rowed forward, several long-term injury treatments follow. When an AZ player falls to the ground for the fourth time, Telstar coach Correia shrugs his shoulders dejectedly. The realization sinks in: this is not going to work out anymore.
