A lot goes wrong in Zwolle, also in the IJsselderby against Go Ahead

‘Coins arrive quite hard,’ says Andries Noppert. The wispy goalkeeper of Go Ahead Eagles has just triumphantly entered the press room in Zwolle. “But I think I have collected ten euros together. About forty lighters too. And I’ve seen earplugs pass by.”

Noppert laughs at everything thrown at him. The stadium speaker of PEC Zwolle could not do that ten minutes earlier. In the middle of stoppage time he should have asked the audience for the umpteenth time not to throw anything on the field. “We still have five minutes to cheer for PEC Zwolle,” he added.

But as much as he would have liked happiness to drown out the bang of nitrate bombs, there was no cheering this Sunday afternoon in Zwolle. Not in stoppage time, nor in the ninety minutes before. When goalkeeper Noppert tells his story laconically, the hard core of PEC expresses his frustration towards the Mobile Unit outside the stadium. A final scene that was foreseen if the Zwolle gatekeeper would not win for the umpteenth time this season.

Zwolle officials

Just under four hours earlier, nobody has their hood on in Zwolle yet. While the pews in the city have yet to empty, the first beers pass from hand to hand at 11 o’clock. “And whoever doesn’t jump is for Eagles, and whoever doesn’t jump is for Eagles,” it sounds at the outside bar of the supporters home.

The derby is approaching. PEC vs Go Ahead. The battle on the IJssel. The people’s club from Deventer visiting the officials, as they say. There where the ChristenUnie is the largest party, against a traditional PvdA stronghold. “Zwolle is the well-to-do citizenry,” says club historian Herman Starink of Go Ahead. “Deventer is from work.”

So much for the battle on the IJssel in a nutshell. Though struggle? In the last century, decades passed without both clubs crowing at each other. Until the late 1970s, Go Ahead always played higher than PEC. Go Ahead did have a rival, but that was FC Twente. Later, that regional kift would fade because Go Ahead dropped to the Eerste Divisie for a long time and FC Twente was a stable club in the Eredivisie. For example, the focus shifted in Deventer to Zwolle, 40 kilometers to the north.

Starink: „I first came across the term IJsselderby in the national press in 1983. But when our cult striker Kees van Kooten went from Go Ahead to PEC that year, nobody was surprised about that transfer. At most people thought it was a shame.”

Today, switching is more sensitive. When trainer John Stegeman exchanged his job in Deventer in 2019 for the head coach in Zwolle, one day after missing out on promotion with Go Ahead, there was hardly any understanding. Starink: “I’m not a big fan of excesses, but I also thought: you can’t do this.”

During matches, supporters like to look for the edges. The Wilhelmina Bridge in Deventer was once painted blue and white by Zwolle supporters and Eagles fans once stole a championship bowl from PEC. When PEC played a European game in Prague in 2014, a ticket was sent to Go Ahead. “Hi neighbor, it’s very nice here, good weather and lots of beer (…) We’ll wave. Are you watching?” Also a classic: the ‘Farmer seeks finger’ banner from Go Ahead fans. A tease to former PEC goalkeeper Diederik Boer who only has nine fingers.

The Sunday afternoon edition has less craze. ‘Time to show your teeth’, is written on a large banner that reveals the Zwolle supporters before kick-off. Rapper Eminem sounds from the speakers: Loose Yourself†

Things are not going well in Zwolle. PEC, which has been playing in the Eredivisie since 2012, experienced a revival at the beginning of this year, but has been in last place for months. The team plays against Eagles with heart and soul, but that cannot disguise why the club is in such bad shape. A lot goes wrong.

Attacking sticks

Midfielder Sai van Wermeskerken checks the ball beautifully on his chest, then delivers a cross that is so easily intercepted that you can hardly speak of a cross. Striker Oussama Darfalou, brought in from Vitesse where he was a bench seat, is offside at crucial moments. So clear that the linesman doesn’t even give him the benefit of the doubt, while that’s customary these days. And so sticks more attacks.

Sometimes the home crowd can also laugh about it, like halfway through the first half. Two PEC players take a corner kick. One puts him aside, but his fellow player hesitates and taps the ball back to his teammate who is still on the back line: offside. A sketch of a corner kick.

Go Ahead can do a little more when it’s on the ball, but doesn’t do much better than PEC. “It was all a bit cautious”, admits trainer Kees van Wonderen afterwards. He had told his players that these are the duels “you want to play”, but uninhibited football was not one of them. He also had when he had to play against Ajax when he still played for Feyenoord. “You play less freely.”

For a long time the game is heading for 0-0, so that the home team in particular can continue to hope for three points, which it needs so much in the fight against relegation. When the fourth man passes on the extra playing time after ninety minutes, the speaker sounds delighted: “Seven more minutes Zwolle”, he shouts into his microphone. Would it still happen?

But then, while PEC has one last offensive in mind, disaster strikes. The ball flies in beautifully, right in front of the few hundred Eagles fans who traveled along: 0-1. The scorer is the Belgian Philippe Rommens.

It is as if they have witnessed a major accident, so quietly and subdued the Zwolle supporters shuffle through the stairwells a few minutes later. When the fire alarm goes off, someone wearing a blue and white scarf says, “That too.”

The match is then over, the unrest is not yet. Outside, supporters will keep the police voicing their frustration for a long time to come. No points again. Another defeat closer to relegation.