The amateur football players of Avanti ’31 7 from Schijndel experienced a match to quickly forget on Sunday. They had only seven field players on the field, who also had a hangover, and had no goalkeeper. They conceded no fewer than 61 goals against Bossche DBN ’22 7. The game ended in a bizarre 2-61. “We were not completely on our toes,” says player Bas Looman.
The worst team in the Netherlands, as they call themselves. That title was underlined once again on Sunday. “After ten minutes, I think 15 to 20 goals had already been scored. I couldn’t keep track anymore,” says Bas, known within the team as Backie Bas. The team had no goalkeeper and could not arrange a substitute. “The goalkeeper gloves were broken, so it took some time, haha.”
According to Bas, it is clear why the rest of the team was missing. “We went out the night before and got really drunk.”
The match started at half past ten in the morning. “That was impossible.” With seven players, Avanti ’31 had exactly the minimum number of players for the match to continue.
Omroep Brabant reported on a team match in March:
After the break
During halftime, the team tried to encourage each other, but that didn’t help much. “You hear: ‘Come on, let’s go again’, and before I knew it it was 2-61,” he says. Still, Avanti ’31 7 managed to score twice, one of which came from Bas himself. “You try to shoot the ball in. I just did whatever.”
There was some cheering after that goal, but according to Bas that doesn’t mean much. “If I had put a beach chair next to the field, they would have cheered for that too, haha.”
Despite the painful defeat, the mood remained good. “The third half was worth it. We drank about five hundred euros worth of cocktails. It was really fun.” The team even had its own logic for this: “61 goals conceded, so 61 cocktails.”
Conviviality over results
The Avanti ’31 7 friends team previously attracted attention with a call for new players. The team, which mainly plays for fun and loses everything, was looking for reinforcements to get through the tough season better. Despite the defeats, the atmosphere remained good: every lost match was celebrated as if it were a championship.
Woensel 3 also knows what it’s like to (almost) always lose:
