RKC boarded the bus on Friday evening with a point and a hangover for the long return journey from Leeuwarden to Waalwijk. The team of coach Joseph Oosting was the better team, but two unfortunate moments ensured that in the absolute final phase of the match it was not 0-2, but 1-1 against SC Cambuur.
‘Go home man, get out of here, get out’. With a faint smile, Etienne Vaessen listens to the screaming Cambuur supporter. The RKC keeper is ready for the interviews, along the field, if he still gets some curses. He is not impressed. Logical too, a few minutes earlier he had a lot more on his mind. “It is not normal that you have eight lighters thrown at you.”
Vaessen admits that he is still full of frustration. In his view, referee Joey Kooij should have stopped the match and left the field with all the players. “The safety of me and the players should come first. If you go in for a while, the supporters become a bit calmer. You go in at every other club, you see it everywhere, but Mr. Kooij lets us continue playing football. not with my cap.”
“If you get eight lighters against you and they score, I don’t care about a good save.”
No cooling-off moment, but immediately the corner that was still standing after Vaessen managed to prevent the 1-1 with a fabulous save on a bet by striker Roberts Uldrikis. “I took it well. That was a good feeling. But if you then get eight lighters against you and then they score a goal, I no longer care about that rescue. We should have just taken three points, a party back on the bus “We have to celebrate and then with supporters at RKC. It’s very sour.”
The frustration with Vaessen also lies in the fact that in his eyes Cambuur could never have come back to 1-1. Shortly before the end of the game, Hans Mulder headed the ball against the ropes. The game was then stopped for many minutes, because the VAR needed a very long time to see whether Michiel Kramer was offside or not.
“We always have the VAR against us. If you look at big clubs like Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV, they always have it with them. They don’t see it, why do you reject it now? It makes no sense, it just saves us two points. If you are 2-0 up, you just win that game. I don’t get it.”
Trainer Joseph Oosting was also very disappointed. “I’m sick to death of this, we should have just won here. It would have been right. But then you come back with that VAR. But I want to look at the good things, stick to football. Then we can only be proud.”
“It’s just because we’re RKC, or a smaller club, I swear.”
Vaessen knows that too, but he still goes on about that disallowed goal. “It is purely because we are RKC. Or a smaller club. I swear. I often watch football, am a fan. But sometimes I see things that don’t happen at big clubs. If they don’t see it at Ajax or PSV and it’s about the championship, they don’t disapprove of him. That’s frustrating.”
The frustration will be gone on Saturday, then Vaessen hopes that RKC will take another step towards enforcement without doing anything itself. All clubs that are under the Waalwijkers come into action in the evening. “I will see what the competitors are doing. Of course, we are so close now. Nice on the couch, with my son and wife there. If the bottom three clubs lose, we are just there. We play safe anyway, I have I have every confidence.”