29th November 2015
FC Utrecht 4 Heracles
Almelo 2 (Eredivisie)
Ten years ago, when the Football Weekend was
starting to get into full swing, I told Theo that one of the places I would
really like to go was Utrecht, this was alongside Feyenoord, Den Haag and Ajax.
Why those particular clubs? Well during the
rise of media attention of football hooliganism, and also at a time where those
inclined started to make names for themselves by producing books on the
subject, often based on personal accounts, Holland came into focus.
Not only that, the delightful Danny Dyer
decided to do a bit of a World tour looking at Football Hooliganism across
other continents, and as you can imagine, he focused on the Dutch.
And which clubs were the most prevalent in
these tomes and features? Ajax were up there with their rivalry with Feyenoord,
and having gone to Ajax very early on, and had the experience of a game at De
Kuip in Rotterdam last year, I can testify that they are both very ‘passionate’
bunches, whereas what I was picking up on Den Haag was quite simply that they
were the biggest bunch of bastards the World has ever seen.
Utrecht on the other hand was quite an
interesting one, the fans very kindly assisted the local authorities many years
ago by dismantling their own stadium after the last game of the season, in
readiness for the new one being built, and guess what, they didn’t charge a
penny! But also, they had gained some infamy due to a hooligan group known as
the Bunnik Side.
When Danny Dyer went to Utrecht he was taken
into the supporters own bar in the stand behind the goal, which is also known
as the Bunnik Side, and as you have probably worked out, the hooligan
supporters are named after the stand in which they position themselves for the
games.
They were an evil bunch, but not a young bunch,
blokes in their forties and fifties, and believe me, you would not have messed.
I went on to You Tube to see them in action, and yes, they can play alright!
Funnily enough as well, only around three years ago we had been watching a
local game near Doetinchem on the Sunday on one of our trips, and the Utrecht v
Twente game was live on TV, well it wasn’t, because the Utrecht fans were on
the pitch trying to attack the Twente fans, the game ended up being abandoned!
It’s fair to say Theo and my Dad were less than keen on a visit.
So Utrecht and the Bunnik Side stayed with me,
and every year as we got the train from Amsterdam to Arnhem, we passed through
Utrecht, and just before train went through Bunnik Station you could see the
tall stands of the Galgenwaard Stadium on the left hand side.
However, the games just never fell right, we
ideally needed a Friday night or a Sunday game, and finally, this year, it fell
in our favour, the Sunday afternoon against relatively low profile opposition
in the shape of Heracles Almelo. What this also meant was that tickets wouldn’t
be a problem.
We had a challenge for Theo though, half
jokingly we told him when he was over in October that we would like a bit of
corporate hospitality at the game with it being the last one of our tour, did
he deliver?
The plan was relatively simple, drive to
Utrecht and head for car park P4, then we had to meet Harry. What could
possibly go wrong? Two things to be fair, car park P4 was not signposted, we
circumnavigated the ground twice, and then reversed down a motorway slip road.
Finally, we were sent to a small car park at the training ground, a ten minute
walk away, only it appears P4 is one of those secretive little places that no
one really knows about!
What about Harry? Theo told us he was an
elderly chap, with grey hair and he would be at the main entrance wearing an FC
Utrecht coat. That begged a couple of questions, who was he, and how did he
know him, the short answers were “no idea” and “I don’t”!
Strictly speaking, Harry was the Father of an
old colleague of Theo’s, he’d never met him, and didn’t know what he looked
like, so welcome to the old game of find a needle in a haystack! But find Harry
we did, and it turned out he was a super chap, and a great host.
Very simply, Harry worked for FC Utrecht in a
capacity that meant he helped foreign players integrate into the Club, the City
and indeed the Country. The good news was, he pretty much had access all areas,
and as a result we were ushered through the main entrance, fitted with a wrist
band and taken upstairs to a large lounge. It was fantastic, lager flowed, food
was served although we didn’t partake, and Harry told us his story and some of
the history of the club. While we were chatting, Harry then introduced us to a
chap, who I kind of recognised but wasn’t sure of his name. Turned out it was
Jan Wouters, the former Dutch International midfielder, famed for his elbow on
Paul Gascoigne in 1988! He was manager at Utrecht a couple of seasons ago, but
was now the assistant at Feyenoord. Today, he was doing some scouting.
We chatted briefly to Jan, he was quite a
softly spoken and shy man, quite a contrast to the player he was, where he was
famed for his aggressive midfield play, bearing in mind he played in the best
Dutch side after the Cruyff / Neeskens side of 1974. He also had something of a
stellar spell playing for Bayern Munich as well.
The day itself had been designated a memorial
day for former Utrecht player David Di Tommaso who had died in his sleep ten
years ago to the day. Before the game we laid flowers at a memorial outside the
ground, and then in the build up to kick off an evocative montage was shown on
the screens in the stadium. His widow gave an emotional speech on the pitch
just before the game started and then his son, Noah, kicked the game off. The
crowd at varying intervals throughout the game chanted his name in tribute, all
very powerful stuff.
The Galgenwaard has been through many changes
since their hooligans demolished it all those years ago. The newly built
version after a few years was deemed to be too small so a much bigger attempt
shot up in its place. It wasn’t dissimilar to the DW Stadium at Wigan, probably
a touch bigger, but design wise it did remind me of it. The ground had around
18,000 in for the game, which was well under capacity.
Heracles, who were flying high, went in at half
time with a one goal lead, and it was looking a bit grim for Utrecht as they
were down to ten men. But the second half saw a completely unexpected
turnaround of event. Former Ram Nacer Barazite, who I once saw miss a last
minute penalty against Forest, scored twice in quick succession, before
Heracles got it back to 2-2. However, two late goals from Sebastien Haller gave
Utrecht a victory that seemed most unlikely at half time, it was to be a
fitting tribute to David Di Tommaso.
A quick beer, and a farewell to Harry before
the walk back to our car and the journey to Duiven, which strangely enough
thanks to a diversion, took us through the small town of Bunnik, and it did
make me wonder just how the locals feel about being associated with one of the
biggest football hooligan gangs in Europe?
But that was the football weekend over for
another year, all went to plan, we had a fantastic time, but now back to
reality, and looking at the weather forecast, probably the list of plastic
pitches was going to have to be dusted down once again.
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