ACV rumbles on. Rijnsburg boys are also dying

Niels Grevink’s cross was perfect, tight and tailored. Bentum’s finish was that of a striker lurking for an opportunity. In a full sprint, the later match winner appeared at the first post and struck hard. There was no stopping Wesley Zonneveld in the Rijnsburgse Boys goal.

With his first goal in the ACV shirt, Bentum scored the decisive 2-1 in a match in which there was no spectacle, the home club was the happiest and in which the heavens were wide open for the full ninety minutes.

But no matter how bad the weather conditions were, the sun shone for Arnaud Bentum on Saturday afternoon. Shortly after he agreed to ACV a year and a half ago, he tore the cruciate ligament in his right knee during a match for his previous club Harkemase Boys. The rehabilitation took a year.

A lot of space

In the away match against Scheveningen last week, Bentum played his first thirty minutes for the Asser club, on Saturday afternoon coach Ruud Jalving sent him to the front immediately after the break. “I thought it was a match for Arnaud. There was a lot of space behind their defense.”

With a little more luck, Bentum could have scored immediately after his entrance, but after a back pass that was too short, he met Zonneveld, who quickly stormed out of his cage. “I was already a little too close to the goalkeeper when I shot. Then you have to have some luck.”

Bentum beamed. The goal with which he gave his team three points also felt like a victory over himself ‘after a year of hard work to recover from that injury’, he said. He also had doubts whether he would be completely his old self again. “The first training after that injury it looked like I had two left legs.”

The damaged right knee no longer hinders him in any way, said the former Be Quick 1887 player. He is not afraid of going into matches. “I recently had five studs from Luka Prljic’s shoe in my knee after training. I can put things aside quite easily.”

Good start

“This is of course great for Arnaud,” said Jalving, who had a lucky substitution, because another substitute, Niels Grevink, also had a major share in the winning goal. He has a wide group from which to choose, said Jalving, who could not call on the basic players Giovanni Zwikstra, Gijs Jasper (both injured) and Ibrahim Sillah (international commitments with Sierra Leone).

ACV started the showdown with Rijnsburgse Boys poorly. The match had only just kicked off and the Drenthe team were already trailing 1-0. The build-up from behind went completely wrong and Nino Klaver gratefully benefited from it.

This was the signal for Rijnsburgse Boys to withdraw to their own half and speculate on a quick counter via the greyhounds Delano Asante and Furhgill Zeldenrust. That style of play did not lead to significant opportunities.

With wide-ranging combinations, ACV looked for the equalizer, which came after half an hour and on which the ‘lucky’ sticker could be placed. The goalscorer, Luka Prljic, had no idea he had scored. He received the ball from a corner kick from Freddy Quispel via Lars Dijk against his heel, after which the ball caromed into the goal.

ACV, with Bas Aalderink making his debut, played a bit better in the second half than in the first, but the best chances were for Rijnsburgse Boys. Zeldenrust (rescued by Ramon Nijland) and Dennis van der Plas (shot over from close range) had the ball to shoot in, but did not do so.

And then about ten minutes before the end there was suddenly that flashy attack via Grevink and Bentum and ACV had three more points.