Historic city derby between GVAV Rapiditas and Oranje Nassau turns out to be little memorable

There was loud cheering in and around the GVAV dug-out after the final whistle and that was somewhat surprising given the 1-1 final score. Especially because the home team had the better chances after half-time. However, trainer Dennis van den Driessche could explain the jubilant mood. “We have had a somewhat difficult preparation and then getting a point against a title candidate is an excellent result. Then you get a bit of relief.”

The disappointed ON coach Erwin Heerlijn looked somewhat surprised. “We played very poorly in the second half and GVAV could have easily won this match, so I don’t really understand their joy.”

Menacing

The orange shirts indeed played a terrible second half, but in the first part of the previous half the game was much better. Not everything went well, but little was given away defensively and it was also threatening at times offensively. For example, Thomas Careman, last season’s top scorer, saw a bet go wide of the goal via a defender and moments later the striker mistimed it and headed the ball over the goal from close range.

Teammate Rick Wiersma also had two nice opportunities, but his sights were not yet clear either. Fortunately for the guests, GVAV goalkeeper Carsten Meijwaard came to the rescue, although that help was of course not voluntary. A harmless cross from Quinten Anakotta slipped through the gloves of the unfortunate goalie and ended up in the goal in a hilarious way: 0-1.

Grumbling

The lead was not undeserved at that moment, although the visitors’ play had been declining for some time. This not only resulted in a lot of grumbling among themselves, but also the equalizer five minutes later. GVAV striker Patrick Venema was sent into the depth with a nice through ball by Arco Bartelsman and left ON keeper Erwin Heidekamp without a chance with a placed shot: 1-1.

Even after the break, ON was no longer a shadow of the team in the first twenty-five minutes. GVAV came close to taking the lead several times, but each time the bet was broken at the ‘moment supreme’ by an ON leg or foot.

False start

In the final phase, the rooms became larger due to increasing fatigue and some mutual possibilities arose. The biggest chances were for Careman (a subtle flick was saved by Meijwaard) and on the other hand for Jonathan van Dorssen who failed to head in a measured cross. And had the home team executed some promising counters a little better, there would almost certainly have been more than a point.

“We tried to pick up the good game after the restart, but the performance was just very poor,” said Heerlijn. “We were not alert enough in the transition. After our good cup results, I expected more today. This is surely a false start. But hey, very realistically you could have just lost.”