Özgür Aktas won 1-2 with Telstar tonight at Roda JC. The defender had an important task in addition to wearing the captain’s armband. Namely eliminating top scorer Dylan Vente. That went well for 85 minutes.
Together with Mitch Apau and Thomas Oude Kotte in the heart of the defense, Aktas’s top scorer Vente (17 goals) hardly budged. Unfortunately, Aktas had to watch passively as Roda JC’s much-scoring striker tapped in a cross from Lennerd Daneels in the 86th minute. “You want every match that the striker does not score. So it was actually just like any other match. I start every match with the same attitude,” said Aktas after the game.
“Wait for the opponent to make a mistake and then switch quickly”
Because Glynor Plet was on the bench, Aktas wore the captain’s armband against Roda JC. The 26-year-old defender had to deliver an important message to David Min and Christos Giousis as captain at the penalty kick. Aktas himself did not want to reveal too much about the incident, but trainer Mike Snoei did hint at what the message was.
Snoei saw a much better Telstar against Roda JC than a week earlier against FC Eindhoven (red. 0-1 defeat). “Today we didn’t have to make the game and we were able to react a bit more. And that’s exactly what we’re good at. Waiting for the opponent to make a mistake and then switch quickly. That went very well today,” said Snoei.