Sold out Gelredome is fully enjoying the first victory of the ash risen vitesse

The enthusiasm in Arnhem was enormous at the first home game since Vitesse was able to enter the Kitchen Champion Division due to a statement by the Court of Appeal. The energy of the constantly singing and jumping audience skipped on the field, where the team that is only so short together, against Helmond Sport, booked the first victory of the season: 3-1.

And so Vitesse has already brushed away four of the twelve points after three games. But nobody is working on the ranking in Arnhem. The fact that there is a football again after the end of exercise seemed to be what is central.

It was a special evening in several respects, because the match against Helmond Sport was the so-called Airborne match, the traditional Vitesse match in which the Battle of Arnhem is commemorated.

Fans of Vitesse commemorate a blow to Arnhem with a beautiful canvas of a military and a veteran

If you had been on an uninhabited island without an internet range in recent months and you would have been dropped just before eight at the Arnhemse Gelredome, then everything seemed to be exactly if it had always been at the Airborne competition,

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There was a beautiful banner on which the veterans were honored, abseilers came down from the ridge of the stadium, in the break the bagpipe players came on the field and banners were shown in the stands with the text Lest we Forget. And before the competition, the Sea eagle Duke flew his traditional laps over the stands after Ben Saunders had sung a few songs.

Everything seemed as usual, but nothing could be further from the truth, because after a summer in which Vitesse seemed to be dead more than ever before, the first home game of this season in the Kitchen Champion Division was an emotional moment for all Vitesse supporters and club people, who have so heavily abandoned this summer.

Young fans at Vitesse

For example, this applied to Maarten van Seggelen and his 7-year-old son Lennon from Arnhem, who came to Gelredome around half past seven around half past seven. ,, He is only seven and normally he is in bed at seven, but now we told Mama that Lennon really had to come this time, even if it was a late game. It’s so great that we can go to Vitesse again, “says father Maarten.

,, Lennon was very disappointed this summer that he could never go to Vitesse again. And how happy he was when the message came, that they could still play. And me too. We don’t expect anything from football considering the circumstances, but that is not important if you have experienced this roller coaster this summer. ”

It is an experience that excepts the supporters who are who who had traveled from Helmond share all those present in the stands. The no more expected legal escape through the Arnhem Court of Appeal, which has suspended the withdrawal of the professional license, running the soil procedure, so that Vitesse can still participate in the Kitchen Champion Division, caused unprecedented joy scenes at Vitesse supporters and an even greater enthusiasm for the yellow-black club. Because the bond between Vitesse and supporters was already enormously reinforced by all the troubles of recent years.

The number of spectators of 24,602 was no longer shown in Arnhem since the Conference League squatters against Tottenham Hotspur and AS Roma in the 2021/2022 season. And where a strongly performing Vitesse sold its skin dearly against a team of European top players, this time the enthusiasm was at least as great for a match against Helmond Sport with a team that has only taken shape for the past two weeks.

Vitesse has parted a new audience in part in recent years. Karlijn van Kruiten and Maggie Symonds are a good example of this. They have dressed completely in the yellow-black for their first game in Gelredome. ,, It is the first time in our lives that we are going to Vitesse. This is our hazing. But he took us. He is a real Vitesse supporter. On vacation in Italy on his phone he even followed the entire lawsuit ”, they point to Jelmer Tjadens.” I had already said a bit mentally farewell last year, because I didn’t see it anymore. I really didn’t expect that we were still standing here again. But it is great, “said Tjadens, who had the same Vitesse polo-poloetje in Piemontje. “This is my lucky shirt.”

In the corridor of Gelredome, club mascot Danny fucks the Vito, the man behind club mascot Vito, a moment. ,, I had not counted on this anymore, but I have always kept hope and always kept dreaming that it would still be fine. It was fantastic when I heard that I could be mascot again, for the first time at the Airborne competition in a full stadium and then again after a year and a half of absence due to an ankle injury. ”

Where the sporting expectations are not great in advance, because Vitesse saw twelve first-team players leave after the loss of the professional license and a new selection had to be put together in recent weeks, the home team appears surprisingly strong. The team trained by the German Rüdiger Rehm is unhappy behind a penalty, which is used by Maik Lukowicz, but the beautiful equalizer of Dillon Hoogewerf is entirely justified. The attacker had already dissolved his contract, but after the ruling of the Court of Appeal made use of his two weeks of reflection time to play for Vitesse again.

The audience is on the banks when Vitesse goes over it in the second half. A new penalty from Lukowicz is stopped by the excellent keeping Maximilian Brüll. After that, Marco Schikora, who last Tuesday with the late equalizer already provided a point against RKC, inside the 2-1 and after the beautiful 3-1 of Adam Tahaui the audience is completely on the benches. Captain Alexander Büttner will be in the final phase under a standing ovation of the field and the Vitesse audience enjoys the first win of the 2025/2026 season, many of whom had thought it would never start for the Arnhem club.