RKC Waalwijk has suffered its fifth defeat in seven competition games. The team of coach Henk Fraser was beaten 1-0 by Almere City FC on Saturday evening and remains on six points.
Jeroen Houwen was under the bar at RKC. He replaced goalkeeper Etienne Vaessen, who lost consciousness in the match against Ajax last Saturday after a collision with Brian Brobbey. The match in Waalwijk was therefore stopped.
The RKC players had visited the unfortunate goalkeeper on Friday. In Almere they showed that their thoughts are also with him: they entered the field in special shirts. The Waalwijk supporters supported the recovering goalkeeper with a banner saying ‘Vaessen our hero’.
A victory would also have been good for Vaessen, but RKC did not enforce enough for that. Almere City FC only needed a goal from Thomas Robinet. The Frenchman was still able to score in the 32nd minute after Houwen had saved from a smart tap-in from Yann Kitala. The ball then ended up at Robinet via a cross from Sherel Floranus.
Coach Henk Fraser’s formation looked for the equalizer in the final phase, but created few chances. Chris Lokesa shot over from close range. For Almere City FC, which played in the Kitchen Champion Division last season, the 1-0 meant the second competition win in the Eredivisie.
‘Mental thing’
RKC captain Michiel Kramer regretted the loss. “I don’t want to use it as an excuse,” he responded to ESPN, “but I think it was a mental thing. We lost this match on experience and inspiration. And that shouldn’t have happened after what happened last week. We would have liked things to be different for Etienne. Shame.”
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