‘Klaaitrappers’ sv Drieborg still have to wait for promotion

Let’s get things straight. Drieborg, a tiny village near the German border in the Beerta-Finsterwolde-Nieuweschans triangle. With the football field close to the outer dike of the Dollard. With a real sports club, a kind of omni-association even. Achieving sporting success is quite a task for the village club. ,,I was 19 years old when we were promoted to the fourth division”, Jacob Veld remembers. “Now I’m 69, so do the math.” But see, this year it’s possible again. Six points ahead of FVV and three games to play.

That lead will be halved this afternoon. Now three ahead and two more to go and also the first loss of this season. ,,The party beer that was already ready can be put in the fridge”, says a disappointed supporter of the club, who listens with some horror to the chant ‘FVV becomes champion’ from the other camp. ,,Well, then at the next match”, he adds, still hopeful.

Father and son Field

Back to Jacob Veld. He stands almost the entire match as a kind of general in front of the dug-out of Drieborg. His son Kevin is the actual trainer, but he also just plays soccer. Father and son Veld are at the basis of the sporting revival of Drieborg. ,,We have been doing this together for three years now,” says father Jacob. “And that is going well. We made some changes at the club. For example, we have placed a paid trainer with our youth. Kevin played football at Noordster at a higher level and first trained our ‘gnomes’. He is now the trainer of the first team and I am the assistant. Whether that works? Yes, Kevin is a bit more lively, I guard the peace around the team a bit more”.

And then that ‘Sankt Pauli’, where does that come from? “Well, that’s what your colleague David Stolk made of it recently. Well found, by the way. It stems from the fact that for years we were a bit of the ugly duckling in our environment between clubs such as THOS, BNC and Nieuweschans. And Sankt Pauli is the ugly duckling of the city of Hamburg. But actually, neighborhood clubs called us the ‘Klaaitrappers’. Not because we were known as mean trappers, but because our field is really on the clay soil.”

SV Drieborg is therefore an omni-club. Where you can go for different sports. Jacob Veld explains that. ,,Besides football, it is volleyball, gymnastics, gymnastics and acro-gym. As a result, we have quite a lot of active members with about two hundred, while Drieborg only has 430 inhabitants. Just say we are a family and friends club”. While father spoons all this on, son Kevin also reports. He talks about his team and the successful way of playing. ,,We play from 4-4-2 and do so with a solid defense. Our score of 43 from fifteen games and goal figures of 50-13 says something. Stability in performance, that’s what we strive for.”

Just not

But this afternoon that is not the case. At FVV they had already warned. ,,We are going to win this afternoon here in Foxhol”, says striker Sarwar Khan of the home team. And sure enough, he keeps his word. Scores the only and winning goal of the afternoon after fifteen minutes. Simply sent away, simply shot in. But Khan has to leave immediately with an injury. You would say no need for Drieborg, plenty of time for recovery. But that doesn’t work, despite some possibilities. But it’s not all that with the white shirts from East Groningen. And in the second half, the faith is no longer there at Drieborg.

So no title yet, no promotion to the fourth class either. Two opportunities are yet to come. Against Farmsum and against Green Yellow. That should be possible, is the general opinion in the white-black camp of Drieborg. But still: FVV smells blood, hopes for another misstep by Drieborg. It is possible, so they are not completely happy at Drieborg with this first defeat in the otherwise very strong season. First two catch-up weeks and in three weeks it really has to happen. Drieborg is really looking forward to a big football party after all these years.