Flat faces, dull eyes and pensive looks. For example, after the blow from Almere City, where FC Emmen lost the first final match of the play-offs 2-0, the FC Emmen selection scrambled past the news. ,,We didn’t do well, but luckily we still have a chance on Sunday”, coach Dick Lukkien summarized the feeling of his selection.
,,It was not good from the start”, said captain Jeroen Veldmate. “We weren’t calm enough on the ball to play under their pressure. We knew that Almere has a good team, but we didn’t give home ourselves. We weren’t ourselves. We didn’t reach our level. Too bad, because now we have made it unnecessarily difficult for ourselves.”
Mike te Wierik was also very disappointed. ,,We couldn’t get away from our goal, because we didn’t bring enough to the ball. That’s what he was into, I think. We couldn’t make a fist offensively.”
The opportunistic football of Almere City in particular hurt his team, Lukkien thought. “Our performance was not good. The difference with our level against NAC was too big. But that is probably also the reason why we are playing this play-off. We are not consistent enough. We were now far too often unable to find our free man.”
Lukkien thought his team had received a ‘big slap on the chin’ in the cozy Yanmar stadium. “But we don’t have time to lament that for long and we shouldn’t. We are of course very disappointed, we are disappointed, but we have to focus on Sunday. We have a home game, which also helps.”