The Amsterdam women’s room football team, called ‘De Slaydies’, is preparing for the European Championship in Zagreb. Against all the expectations, they became Dutch champions last year: “” I think none of us had expected we would win the Dutch Championships, leaves to the European Championship. “
The team started as a friend team on the field six years ago, and after a while they also decided to start indoor football. “We played in the men’s competition, where we were occasionally picked up a lot,” says one of the players. The question whether they wanted to represent Amsterdam at the Dutch Championship came unexpectedly, but they decided to go for it.
Other rules
So they won the Dutch championship, although it didn’t go from a slate roof. “We got a penalty in the first minute,” says the captain. “Then we were told by the referee that we had to adhere to some more rules than we were used to in our men’s competition.”
“For example, we had no back numbers,” laughs the captain. Because this was an official requirement for the championship, the team decided to stick the back numbers with duct tape on the uniforms. “For the European Championship we keep the same back numbers, but luckily now without a duct tape.”
High level
The team is training hard before they leave for Croatia in a few weeks. “We all started to tackle it a bit more professional,” says the captain. In this way a lot of staff goes to the championship, such as a technical coach and a nutritionist.
Because the level is high during the championship, the ladies are realistic about their chances. “In some teams there are even professional players,” says a team member. “Of course we don’t have that, we mainly go for the sportiness prize.” “Most players mainly see it as an adventure and aim for the second-to-last place:” My goal is to win the last place, “says one of the players. “Then it feels like I’m champion.”