DZOH through in the cup after a big win over Valthermond

There was a lot going on at Valthermond prior to the new football season. In the previous competition, the flagship again missed the championship by a hair (WKE’16 took the title) and stranded in the semi-finals of the play-off. In the new football year, coach Kenny Koning’s selection will have to play football on the secondary field for the time being, because the cozy main field has only just been reseeded.

Shame

“An absolute shame,” Koning grumbled beforehand. “A mistake by the municipality and the company that had to sow the new turf, they simply closed for four weeks during the summer holidays.” So it will be January that Valthermond will have access to the main field again. Add to that the fact that some permanent staff were missing on Saturday evening, Rick Slimback had returned cold from holiday and Jesper de Graaf had to withdraw slightly injured, so that the home club started behind in the cup match against the Emmer first division.

At DZOH the flag hung and hangs very differently. With the new, ambitious trainer Karlo Meppelink (arrived from third divisionist Staphorst) there is a fresh, positive wind blowing. Meppelink also has a wide, strong selection.

“It is a driven team. I was surprised at how fit they were straight away. This means that you can immediately move on to step 2 in your preparation,” Meppelink reported in advance. Simon IJzerman returned after two years of injury, Tom Bosman rejoined the selection and Max Alders from Drenthina was welcomed. “I wanted to move up a bit and have some friends playing football here, so I told Drenthina that I was leaving,” Alders explained the remarkable switch. “Pa Willem Jan (former chairman of Drenthina, ed.) was not happy with my switch, but he understood it.”

Enjoy playing football

Alders played a good game with strongman Aron Timmerman next to him. “It’s nice to play football with Aron next to you,” Alders said afterwards, laughing. “He takes away so much.” In addition to Alders and Timmerman, the rest of DZOH started off with great concentration and fierceness. Within eleven minutes Valthermond was actually on his knees after two excellent goals.

First, Joël Zweerink neatly scored after a tailor-made pass from IJzerman. Moments later, Max Heijne shot the ball straight into the far top corner out of reach of goalkeeper Harm Jipping. Heijne had previously played out defender Lars Eding with a tour de force. For a moment Valthermond seemed to be recovering well, but three chances were wasted by Jorn and Milan Draaijer and captain Alwin Braakman.

Back a notch

Then it was the guests’ turn again in the entertaining first half. Navid Poyan saw his shot disappear into the Valthermond goal via Mike Wilts: 0-3. At the end of the first act, Poyan released Zweerink in the middle with a beautiful through ball to score his second and DZOH’s fourth goal.

After the break, the taste of the cup match quickly disappeared, partly due to the many changes on both sides. DZOH also switched back a notch and Valthermond had good intentions, but lacked the purity to score an (honorary) goal. Jorn Draaijer aimed the best chance from close range just after the break. Dion van der Laan even hit the crossbar after half an hour of play in the second round. So no success for Valthermond. Well for Zweerink and DZOH who scored his third goal in the final minute: 0-5.