John van den Brom shouts and points his players forward. It is the 75th minute and FC Twente is having a particularly difficult time with a 1-1 score against NEC. Tjaronn Chery has just shot the crossbar on behalf of the Nijmegen team, it seems only a matter of time before NEC takes the lead. Dissatisfaction can be seen on Van den Brom’s face after Twente players were easily put off the ball.
More than fifteen minutes later, the FC Twente trainer can breathe a sigh of relief; the fiercer and apparently fitter NEC no longer scores. Neither does FC Twente. Thus, the ‘topper’, between two teams that surprisingly can still qualify for the Champions League after 31 games, ends in 1-1. FC Twente therefore still has a small chance of actually qualifying. Van den Brom is optimistic. “Nothing has been decided yet, that’s what I would have said if we had won.”
How different the world looked for the experienced trainer more than six months ago. A “shitty summer”he had after ‘his’ Vitesse fired him at the end of last season. Van den Brom had taken on the difficult task of training the almost bankrupt Arnhemmers, did so very nicely, but was rejected by the new owners. he said“pushed aside like trash.” He sat at home “grumpy” for months.
A new chapter in the career of Van den Brom (59), champion with Anderlecht and successful with AZ, suddenly no longer seemed obvious. Until Jan Streuer, then still technical director in Enschede, called at the beginning of September. Whether he wanted to succeed the dismissed FC Twente coach Joseph Oosting.
FC Twente was eleventh at the time, played colorless football and barely scored. Under Van den Brom, the fun had to return to the people of Enschede. That worked. Before the winter break, his more attacking play was accompanied by many draws, but in the calendar year 2026 the Enschede team will be in second place. Also due to poor performances by Ajax and Feyenoord, Champions League football in the Grolsch Veste suddenly became real – it would be the second time in club history.
Tactical move
In the first half against NEC, FC Twente shows that it is fully committed to this. Aided by a deafening fireworks show behind the goal at section-P, the hard core, Twente wins almost every game in the first half hour and plays well-trained positional games. Van den Brom has strengthened his defense with Ramiz Zerrouki – a tactical move, similar to what AZ did in the cup final against the Nijmegen team. NEC, which does not yet seem to have recovered from that 5-1 defeat, is not involved.
FC Twente’s 1-0 in the tenth minute is illustrative. After a hard but fair tackle by right winger Daan Rots on Noé Lebreton, FC Twente launched a counterattack. The ball ends up with attacker Sondre Orjasaeter, who cleverly puts away NEC defender Eli Dasa and shoots in with the outside of the shoe.
Dan Rots in a duel with Deveron Fonville.
Photo Vincent Jannink/ANP
The first half hour went exactly as Van den Brom wanted to see it, right back Bart van Rooij said afterwards. With a lot of energy, players who play their man and smooth combinations on the wings. Van Rooij, a standout player this season, plays an important role in this, just like left back Mats Rots. Van Rooij: “We were also good at applying pressure and found the balance between playing deep quickly and keeping possession of the ball. That’s what the coach has wanted from us all season.”
Yet the match turns when NEC comes out of nowhere to score 1-1 in minute 37 through Bryan Linssen. In the second half, NEC is the fitter team, FC Twente has to commit fouls to stop Cherry and Lebreton. Sami Ouaissa, among others, gets a huge opportunity. A whistle sounds after misunderstandings and slips by Twente players.
‘Don’t panic easily’
Although Van den Brom has sometimes wanted to get out of his depth at such moments in the past, he remains calm against NEC. “As you get older, you become calmer. You don’t panic so easily,” he said recently in a talk show Rondo. He was also cool about the contract extension of only one year that technical director Erik Ten Hag gave him. “He actually gave a whole presentation about me, beautifully substantiated. Some relationships need to grow.”
Although calm, Van den Brom is critical after the FC Twente-NEC match. “I hear that everyone thought it was a beautiful, intense, exciting match, but I didn’t enjoy it,” he says. “I didn’t think we were good enough for that in the second half.”
