Be Quick 1887’s reserve goalie sees a heroic role pass him by. ‘I blame myself for not taking one’

Patrick Helbig was able to sink through the ground. The Be Quick substitute missed his team’s fifth penalty – he shot against the post – and that miss immediately proved fatal. Helbig pulled his shirt over his head, knelt down and pressed his head against the wet artificial grass in disappointment. Blauw Wit had hit all the penalties and that meant that the Leeuwarders advanced to the eighth finals.

It was the anticlimax of the cup meeting between Be Quick and Blauw Wit, which plays a level lower in the first division. Moreover, the elimination was unnecessary, because The Good Old with a 1-0 score in the second half, had a few very big chances to close the game. That did not happen, so the Frisians survived and scored the equalizer in the final phase through Floris Boonstra.

Not much of a spectacle

For example, the guests won a penalty series, of which they actually have no good memory. Last season they were on the threshold of the cup final, but opponent Olde Veste ’54 took better penalties and knocked Blauw Wit out of the tournament. Five ‘eleven meters’ used prevented elimination this time.

Just before half time, Be Quick, which took seven points from the last three competition games, had still taken the lead. Marshelon Pourier put Sil Kramer to work with a nice ball in the depth, who in turn found Sem Rozema. The striker scored from close to 1-0 in an otherwise boring first half in which very little happened in front of goal.

No hero role as a backup goalie

Trainer Paul Matthijs had sent ten of the same players onto the field compared to the last competition match. Only reserve goalkeeper Liam Tyler was new to the starting line-up. He defended Be Quick’s goal in the cup tournament this season. For a long time he seemed to be on his way to ‘zero’ and an extra appearance in the next round, but things turned out differently.

Tyler could have become Be Quick’s hero if he could save a Leeuwarden penalty kick. Once he came close, the ball slipped past his glove and into the goal. “I blame myself for not grabbing one,” the goalie lamented afterwards. “To win, you will have to stop a ball at some point.”

It’s a hard blow for Tyler. If no more crazy things happen this season, he will no longer appear in the goal of Be Quick’s flagship in the coming months and will have to make do with duels in the lower playing teams. “Whether the elimination is therefore doubly sad? Yes, because I wanted to show myself,” Tyler said. “And you can really stand out with penalties. That didn’t happen. Shame.”

Negativity

Trainer Paul Matthijs did not blame his team for losing the penalty series. However, he was disturbed by the attitude of some players. He also clearly let some of them know from the dugout. “We didn’t put enough energy into the game in the first half,” he said. “You can make mistakes, but if you radiate negativity, it will spread to others.”

Be Quick resumes the competition on January 20 with a home game against Buitenpost.