Everything and everyone at FC Emmen longs for a victory. Young PSV, the team against which the last three-pointer was scored at the end of November, must become a victim on Friday evening.
The eagerness and fun usually radiate during FC Emmen’s training sessions. Not infrequently, the group of loyal supporters on the sidelines are entertained with beautiful combination football, beautiful goals and miraculous saves. But winning real matches, let alone the way they train, turns out to be a completely different story. After seven matches in a row without a win, the Drenthe team is in twelfth place in the rankings.
Defender Mike te Wierik, one of the experienced players in the FC Emmen selection, knows all about it. “If we don’t do things the way we should do them, we are vulnerable,” he says in the run-up to the match with Jong PSV. “We are where we are for a reason. That is a painful conclusion. If you just look at the matches, parts of it are quite fine, but at crucial moments we often leave it out. We have to change that if we want to reach the play-offs this season.”
A start?
Te Wierik is happy that last week’s draw against FC Eindhoven ended a series of six defeats in a row, but he felt that he and his teammates were selling themselves short. “Anyway, apart from the defeats against ADO Den Haag and Willem II, it is not the first time this season that we have been able to draw that conclusion. In any case, let’s hope that this draw, after all those defeats, is a start and that we will continue to push forward from now on.”
Starting on Friday evening against Jong PSV. The current number 16 of the first division, just like FC Emmen, has not won for quite some time. The last victory of the Eindhoven team dates back to November 10. That of FC Emmen? On November 27, against Jong PSV. A goal by Rui Mendes, who has since left for FC Groningen, turned out to be enough for the three points. It is a result that the people of Emmen would now sign up for in advance.
Looking at each other in the mirror
“If Jong PSV has a good evening and everything works out, then that team can play very good football,” said Te Wierik. “But the challenge lies with ourselves: do what we are good at and keep it up for 90 minutes. I hope everyone takes up that gauntlet. We all need to look in the mirror and at each other. It is not just about the ‘I’ but about the collective. We all want to take steps and that is a lot easier if you operate as a team. Everyone must be aware of this.”
In any case, FC Emmen travels with an almost completely fit selection to De Herdgang, the luxurious training complex of the ‘big’ PSV where Jong usually plays his home games. A luxury problem, admits coach Fred Grim, who will most likely start with the same starting eleven as against FC Eindhoven. In contrast to that match, in which the opponent retreated en masse to their own half, FC Emmen will undoubtedly have more time to play football this time.
Battle for the arm
“It is a young team,” says Grim, who once coached Jong Ajax. “And you can always apply the same approach: in the preliminary analyses, you have to be careful, because you don’t know who is playing and who will be kept out of the wind because they have to play for the first team later. On the other hand, Jong PSV has few secrets from a tactical point of view. Anyway, it is another game in which we simply have to go all out for the three points.”
Mentally speaking, things are going well for the people of Emmen, the experienced coach reveals. The fact that the losing streak has been ended has been good for his team. Moreover, although FC Emmen is currently not in a position that at the end of the day entitles them to participate in the play-offs for promotion, the difference with the competition is not that big at all. Win a few times and the team could easily have a top five ranking again. It can change.