retired_hern1001

\o/

A Dutch story :cool:

Good start so far, will certainly be following

retired_jgirl87

Thanks OMDave, PM7 and WLKRAS.

I'm hoping that this will be an in-depth manager story that goes on for quite a while. Once the football side of the story settles in I've got a few sub-plots in mind to try and keep things interesting.

retired_jgirl87

Tuesday 24th July 2001:

From a personal point of view I had no previous match form to go on, so I stuck with what I had seen of the players with my own two eyes. Of course, most of the previous manager’s first team regulars were fairly obvious. There were also the new signings that had been made prior to my appointment and several of these had already impressed me.

With the Livingston match being my only friendly I had to really go with my first choice eleven so that I could see them play at least 45 minutes together. It was my intention to play a 4-3-1-2 formation with an advanced midfielder pushing up to support the strikers. Sander Boschker was the obvious starting goalkeeper, just as he had been for the past 7 seasons. Karim Touzani and Daniel Majstorovic were clearly the best and most experienced centre-half pairing whilst Resit Schuurman and Jeroen Heubach had the inside running on the full-back positions. Midfield wasn’t quite as clear to me yet, but Bas Sibum looked to the man to play the anchor role in the centre of the park. On the left of midfield Dmitri Shoukov had the first chance to impress, although Goncalves, Elbekay Bouchiba and Raymond Fafiani were all in contention. Peter Niemeyer was similarly getting the first chance on the right side of the midfield, although Simon Cziommer and Karim El Ahmadi both had designs on that position. Jason Culina looked tailor-made for the attacking midfielder’s role whilst Blaise N’Kufo and Guilherme Afonso were the obvious strikers until any possible signings were made.

So I had selected my first starting line-up as FC Twente manager, now I would see how they could perform after just five days of training under my control.

Friendly:
Livingston (Scotland) (A)

Boschker, Schuurman, Touzani, Majstorovic, Heubach, Niemeyer, Sibum, Shoukov, Culina, N’Kufo, Afonso.

Subs: 65-Christensen, 65-Cziommer, 65-Goncalves, 65-Rahim, 79-Bouchiba, 79-Fafiani, 79-Wellenberg, 79-Zomer.

I had barely settled into my seat on the bench before the boys had scored the first goal of my short reign. In the 3rd minute Shoukov’s cross from the left was headed clear by Easton, but only as far as Sibum. He chipped a pass out to the right for the overlapping Schuurman and his cross was perfectly placed for Afonso to head home from six yards out. Afonso was causing Livingston plenty of trouble and he turned provider in the 18th minute when he set up Niemeyer for a volley which Meldrum tipped over for a corner. Meldrum did even better in the 23rd minute when he pulled off a fine double save, first blocking Afonso’s 15 yard effort and then reacting quick enough to parry Culina’s follow-up shot away for a corner. That only lessened our pressure for a moment though and when Shoukov curled in the resulting corner Afonso leapt high above Stanic to head us 2-0 in front. We had been controlling the game for the first half hour, but we let Livingston back into the contest in the 33rd minute when left-winger Dair wormed his way past Schuurman and sent over a near post cross which Lovell just reached just ahead of Touzani to nod it past Boschker. A couple of chances followed to both sides, but we held our 2-1 lead until the break.

The second half was a lot quieter than the first. Neither side fashioned any worthwhile chances and both myself and the Livingston manager took the chance to make a swathe of substitutions around the hour mark. Christensen was one of the players who came on and it may have been his newness to the game that prompted a glaring miss in the 63rd minute. He was probably surprised when Afonso’s left wing cross actually made its way right across the Livingston penalty area and his last moment lunge at the ball saw it crash into the side netting when the goalmouth was gaping. We paid for that miss in the 70th minute when O’Brien picked up a loose ball on our left flank and drove a low ball across our penalty area. Keen had got himself free of Majstorovic and he crashed the ball past Boschker from 10 yards out to make it 2-2. Livingston drew themselves back at this point, happy to settle for a draw against a higher ranked opponent. With the FC Twente players starting to tire I made further changes, but by this time the game was petering out and in the end we settled for a 2-2 draw.

Livingston 2 Lovell 33, Keen 70
FC Twente 2 Afonso 3, 24

retired_jgirl87

Wednesday 25th July 2001:

I was at the stadium early after our return from Scotland last night. Spot on 9.00am as agreed Jeffrey Kooistra arrived at my office. It was good to see my friend again. It had been over six months since we had last caught up with each other, back in January during the winter break last season. We sat in a couple of armchairs that were in front of the window that overlooked the exterior of the stadium. We spent ten minutes going through the pleasantries of discussing family and friends and old times, then we got down to business. We had both worked together in this manager / assistant manager relationship, so there was no need to go through any great details on what I expected Jeffrey to do. I told him that we could offer him a £2,500 a week contract over the next four years and this would run in conjunction with my contract at FC Twente. If I went out the door, then Jeffrey would almost certainly follow me straight afterwards. He held out his hand and said, The money isn’t a problem, I’d work with you for peanuts if we could just make this team a success. I called in Freek van Beusekom and he put the contract that had been prepared earlier in front of Jeffrey. He didn’t even bother to read it and signed it at the places that Freek indicated. We shook hands over the deal and Freek laughed out loud. I’m in charge of a football nursery here – I’ve just signed a 35 year old assistant to work with our 32 year old manager. The pair of you will be Holland’s youngest managerial team.

Jeffrey and I headed down to the training ground to do an introduction to all the players. We arrived just in time to see Daniel Majstorovic being helped to the treatment room after injuring his toe. I’d have to check on his situation in a moment, but in the meantime I gathered the squad around and introduced Jeffrey to the team and the other coaching staff. Jeffrey had a few words to say himself, indicating that would ease himself into the assistant manager’s position over the next few days, but that he would just be observing the next couple of sessions.

We nipped into the treatment room and found Harry Drost, the senior physio, had just finished working on Daniel Majstorovic. He informed us that there’d been a dislocation of the big toe. It was a very painful injury, but not nearly as painful as when Harry had corrected it through manipulation. Apparently Majstorovic had nearly passed out, mainly due to a misunderstanding over what Harry was going to do as the pair tried to negotiate the Swedish / Dutch / English language barrier. Majstorovic was likely to be out for two to three weeks with the injury.

The other reason for the visit to the training ground was for the appraisal of the two new players that I was considering. The Australian Greg Sharland showed up just a couple of minutes ahead of Marc Geerts. Harry Drost had finished with his work on Majstorovic and along with coach Johan Inia he put Sharland and Geerts through a series of exercises and tests. Both of them were then given a solid physical workout for around an hour and then retested. Harry seemed happy with the results, but he needed to review some of the data. I thanked Greg and Marc for attending and told them I would see them in the office at the Arke Stadion at 11.00am tomorrow to advise them of our final decision.

Thursday 26th July 2001:

The medicals performed on Greg Sharland and Marc Geerts were both passed with flying colours. Sharland, the 21 year old Australian who played on the left of midfield, was the first to sign as he joined FC Twente on a 4 year contract. Geerts, a versatile central defender / defensive midfielder, was also 21 years of age and he too signed on a 4 year contract. Neither of them were on high wages and both had been informed that they would have to work hard to gain a starting place in the first team.

The same couldn’t be said of Johnnier Montano, the 21 year old Colombian forward who arrived at the training ground for his medical at 2.00pm. I had high hopes that Montano would be a key figure for FC Twente this season and I had promised him a guaranteed first team spot and a basic wage of £13,000 per year if he passed his test and agreed to sign for us. That would make him the third highest wage-earner at the club. Harry Drost and Johan Inia put Montano through the same tests as Sharland and Geerts had done yesterday. I watched his face and body language as he did what was asked of him and I was pleased to note that he appeared to be giving each exercise his utmost effort.

As Jeffrey Kooistra and I looked on Montano’s Italian agent Lorenzo Ciprianni informed us that America de Cali back in Montano’s home country of Colombia were also keen to lure the youngster back home to make him part of a challenge that they were preparing for the upcoming Copa Libertadores competition. Negotiations were also ongoing with that club and his client was seriously considering returning home, so our offer may need to be upgraded if we were to secure Montano’s signature. I thanked Ciprianni for being so open, then called Jeffrey aside. We discussed what we’d just been told and decided that it was just a ploy to try and get a bigger deal. Montano wouldn’t go back to Colombia if he was trying to make a name for himself here in Europe, I told Jeffrey. He agreed with me. As Montano’s medical came to an end I told Ciprianni that our offer stood as it was. If his client passed the medical, he would be offered a contract as discussed. If he wished to sign that contract, then he could present himself at the Arke Stadion office at 11.00am tomorrow and the formalities would be completed. I didn’t shake Ciprianni’s hand as we left, but I did go over to Montano to shake his hand and thank him, hoping he’d get it clear that we really wanted him at FC Twente for the next four years.

Friday 27th July 2001:

As I’d expected Johnnier Montano’s agent Lorenzo Ciprianni had been bluffing when he suggested that there were other serious irons in the fire. Come 11.00am the next day and Montano was sitting in the boardroom signing on as a FC Twente player for the next four years. I’d been confident that Montano would sign and I’d had Freek organise a media photo-call to announce our new signing. I also used it as an opportunity to formally announce that Jeffrey Kooistra was the new assistant manager at the club. We all went down to the pitch of the Arke Stadion and posed for a series of photographs. Johnnier was presented with the prestigious number 10 shirt for the upcoming season and he looked genuinely happy to be here in Enschede and playing for us. Of course he knew that one good season with FC Twente was all it would take for the Italian and Spanish clubs to come calling again and his career could relaunch back into the big time where it had previously seemed destined to heading.

retired_jgirl87

Monday 30th July 2001:

The other position that I had been considering along with the FC Twente job was that of manager at de Graafschap. It was never really my first choice, but I’d kept them hanging on as long as possible until it was clear that I was going to get the job here in Enschede instead. Today they announced that Rob Witschge had moved from amateurs ADO’20 to be their new manager. It made for a good contest on the opening day of the season as the two rookie managers in the Premier Division would be leading their teams against each other.

Tuesday 31st July 2001:

Daniel Majstorovic was given the okay to resume light training today and he should be available for selection in around ten days time. He was the only player currently on the injured list, so that left me with 24 players from which to select a squad of 18 for the opening Amstel Cup match against Achilles 94.

Wednesday 1st August 2001:

My first official match with FC Twente was to be an Amstel Cup tie. We had been drawn with amateur sides Achilles 94 and UNA as well as First Division club Emmen in Group 19 of the qualifying rounds. Jeffrey Kooistra and I were both advocates of attacking football and we preferred an attacking 4-4-2 or 4-3-1-2 style of play. The only change to the starting eleven from the team that began the friendly against Livingston was the inclusion of Ramon Zomer at centre-half in place of the injured Daniel Majstorovic. I decided not to rush Johnnier Montano into the starting line-up and named him as one of the seven substitutes that I was allowed. I had named Resit Schuurman as captain with Sander Boschker and Karim Touzani as his deputies.

To be honest I didn’t know a lot about our opponents Achilles 94, but I decided that they were the ones who needed to worry about us more than we needed to worry about them. If we couldn’t get a win in the opening match, then we deserved to be on the back foot in this three game qualifying group. There would be chances to rectify our position, but I really didn’t believe that there was a possibility of a defeat against Achilles 94.

Amstel Cup Group 19:
Achilles 94 (A)

Boschker, Schuurman, Touzani, Zomer, Heubach, Niemeyer, Sibum, Shoukov, Culina, N’Kufo, Afonso.

Subs: 62-Montano.

The team wasted no time getting onto the front foot and pinning the Achilles defenders back in their own half. Shoukov looked to have a good call for a penalty in only the 3rd minute as he was bundled to the floor by Beers, but the referee hardly gave it a second glance. N’Kufo fired in a rising effort which went about three feet too high, but too many of our final passes were failing to find their intended target. Sibum picked up the season’s first yellow card when he came through the back of van der Linden in the 19th minute. Achilles had strung five defenders across the backline and had parked their four midfielders just in front of that, so they weren’t planning to make it easy for us. They also strung together a decent attack in the 31st minute and Cremers hit a shot against the outside of the post when Boschker was unsighted by Touzani and Schuurman. We responded to that with some intense pressure on the Achilles goal. Headers by N’Kufo and Culina were well saved by keeper Migchelsen who then also had to deny Sibum and Shoukov when their shots were goal-bound.

Having denied us for the first 45 minutes we caught Achilles cold straight from the kick-off. Niemeyer released Shoukov on the left and he intelligently rolled the ball back for Sibum 25 yards from goal. Sibum took a touch to get past van Raalte and moved into the box before driving a low shot wide of Migchelsen from 14 yards out. We looked good after that and weren’t too troubled. After 62 minutes I decided to send Montano on for his debut in place of N’Kufo. At first he looked a little bit ragged but he slowly got into the pace of the game. The evidence of Montano’s potential came in the 80th minute when pulled down Heubach’s long clearance, nutmegged Roelofsen with a deft flick and then hit a 25 yard curler which clipped the join of the cross bar and post before going over. The Achilles keeper Migchelsen never moved and could only pray that the shot didn’t dip in. Despite the final 1-0 score-line against amateur opposition I felt comfortable with our performance in my first official match.

Achilles 94 0
FC Twente 1 Sibum 46

In the other match in our group First Division Emmen had drawn 1-1 at home to the amateurs UNA in a result that they were probably not too happy about.

retired_jgirl87

Monday 6th August 2001:

Thankfully we have not been getting too many injuries at the start of the season, but what injuries we had received all appeared to be happening to our defenders. Karim Touzani was the latest to suffer a setback in training when he put himself out for three weeks with a shoulder injury. Thankfully young Ramon Zomer had proved quite capable when he had been deputising for the injured Daniel Majstorovic. But with Touzani now also injured, it meant that reserves centre-half Jordy Koster would have to step up and partner Zomer on Wednesday evening’s Amstel Cup match against Emmen.

Wednesday 8th August 2001:

Tonight’s game against Emmen would be our biggest test of the season so far. Emmen had drawn their opening match in Group 19 of the Amstel Cup with a 1-1 home draw against UNA. Their side had given me two difficult matches in the First Division last season when I had been with FC Eindhoven, so I had a fair idea of what to expect from them. They would probably play a defensive 5-3-2 and I would need to have someone keep an eye on promising youngster Franck Karreman and former Sparta player Yurtcan Kayis in their midfield.

There were three changes to last week’s winning team against Achilles 94. Jordy Koster came into the centre of defence in place of the injured Karim Touzani and he would join Ramon Zomer who was still deputising for the previously injured Daniel Majstorovic. Rahim would start at left-back in place of Jeroen Heubach who was suffering from a cold. Blaise N’Kufo dropped down to the bench to allow Johnnier Montano to start his first FC Twente match. Fellow new signings Greg Sharland and Marc Geerts would appear on the bench for the first time this season.

Amstel Cup Group 19:
Emmen (H)

Boschker, Schuurman, Koster, Zomer, Rahim, Niemeyer, Sibum, Shoukov, Montano, Culina, Afonso.

Subs: 4-Geerts, 78-Sharland, 78-N’Kufo.

It was another good start for us as Niemeyer surged through the static Emmen defence in the 2nd minute before laying the ball off to Afonso. His firm left-footed shot was well parried by Peek, but Sibum was on hand to tap the ball in for a simple goal against his former club. But my selection plans came unstuck as early as the 4th minute when Rahim took a blow to his thigh and had to go off. With no recognised left-sided defender on the bench I was forced into a reshuffle. Schuurman moved to the left and young Geerts came on for his debut at right-back even though he was normally a central defender-cum-midfielder. Thankfully Koster and Zomer were both having very good starts and they covered a couple of nervous moments that the youngster had. Mind you, it needed the post to save us in the 24th minute when Feijer curled a free-kick around our wall and Boschker was left diving at thin air. Binken then blasted the rebound wide. Our keeper was on the job in the 37th minute though as he made a fine double save, firstly parrying van der Padt’s vicious snap-shot, then secondly rising to palm away Dijkhuizen’s volley from the rebound. The were two good chances that Emmen wasted and we made them pay when we broke away following the corner and Niemeyer hammered a shot from 18 yards which Peek could only push away. Montano raced in to crash home the rebound to make it 2-0 and then wheeled away in delight as he celebrated his first goal with de Tukkers. There was still time for the Colombian to sting Peek’s fingertips with a scorching shot seconds before the break.

The second half provided a little less goalmouth action, but I was pleased with the way that we took the game up to Emmen and generally kept them on the back foot. I was trying to instigate a pressing style of play when we didn’t have possession of the ball and the players took it upon themselves to work hard at it. I wanted intelligent pressing though, not just playing haring around and running at their opponents in a vain attempt to put them off their pass or header. I felt that we achieved around 60% efficiency on what we did today. A perfect example of what I wanted occurred in the 64th minute when Culina worked the Emmen central defenders hard whilst Afonso and Montano kept an eye on the full-backs. A shoddy pass was the result and Sibum picked it off, surged forward and then laid it off for Culina who was extremely unlucky when his shot from 14 yards hit the underside of the cross bar and bounced back into play. Koster then picked up an unneeded yellow card for arguing with the referee after he clearly fouled van der Padt, but then he had his header from Shoukov’s corner cleared off the line a few minutes later as we stayed in control. In the 78th minute I decided to freshen up the attack as N’Kufo replaced Culina whilst Sharland came on for his debut as he substituted for Shoukov. With the clock showing 86 minutes young Geerts was finally undone on the right, allowing Ossey to get past him rather too easily. The Emmen substitute took his time and picked out a precise cross which van der Padt headed past Boschker with little difficulty. It left us with a nasty final five minutes to negotiate, but we managed it without further difficulties and took the match 2-1.

FC Twente 2 Sibum 2, Montano 38
Emmen 1 van der Padt 86

Later on I got the news that UNA had defeated Achilles 94 by 2-0 and had therefore given themselves a good chance of qualifying from Group 19 into the main First Round draw.

There was also the news that Holland’s representation in Europe had started off well tonight as Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Mark van Bommel and DaMarcus Beasley all scored in PSV’s 3-0 home win over Cypriots APOEL Nicosia in the Champions Cup 3rd Qualifying Round.

retired_jgirl87

Thursday 9th August 2001:

I saw Harry Drost, the senior physio, first thing this morning. He had some good news and some bad news for me. Firstly it was the good news that Daniel Majstorovic had been given the all-clear to resume full training after his toe injury. That means he should be okay to start in the opening league match on Sunday in place of the injured Karim Touzani. However I would still have to decide whether Ramon Zomer or Jordy Koster stayed in the team, but at least the return of Majstorovic gave the defence a more solid look. Secondly the bad news was that Rahim had suffered a deep seated bruise to his thigh or a “corked leg” as it was commonly known. He would be unavailable for five to seven days as he underwent treatment. At least Rahim’s injury would not upset the team’s balance as much as Touzani’s absence.

Having got through today’s training session I was actually hoping to head off early to do a bit of reading and research. But as I walked down the corridor I was approached by the Managing Director Freek van Beusekom. He called me into his office and advised me that he’d had a call from Feyenoord requesting that we release our scout Issy ten Donkelaar to them. ten Donkelaar was a close friend of the previous manager Rini Coolen. He’d probably rang Feyenoord himself offering his services as he wasn’t keen to stay at the Arke Stadion under my management. Freek and I discussed the matter and we decided to let ten Donkelaar go as his heart was no longer in the job. Play hard-ball with Feyenoord though, I advised him. I don’t want people thinking we’re an easy touch. Get some sort of compensation from them, I instructed Freek. I left it with him, knowing that he’d work some sort of deal that we would get something from the Rotterdammers.

Friday 10th August 2001:

Jeffrey Kooistra and I spent the evening watching the reserves play their opening match of the season. The team drew 0-0 at home with de Graafschap and I was hoping to see some promising form from the new signings Greg Sharland and Marc Geerts. However it was a very poor match littered with poor passing and a general lack of teamwork on both sides. Sharland showed a couple of good touches, but he was obviously still settling into his new surroundings and his uncertainty showed. Geerts was largely anonymous, but he did the defensive part of his duties quite well. A little bit more confidence and he might be more of an offensive force in the midfield. Still, it was early days for both players and they would need time to adjust. On a side note I was please to see that our third-string keeper Remko Pasveer looked like he was a very capable young man and he performed decently in goal for the reserves.

Saturday 11th August 2001:

The Premier Division kicked off today with a shock result as champions Ajax went down 2-1 to RBC. Danish striker Jesper Hakansson, on loan from Heerenveen, did the damage with two goals after Ajax’s new Argentinean winger Mauro Rosales had open the scoring. Favourites PSV had to work hard to beat Heerenveen 2-1 in the Philips Stadion after the Finnish midfielder Mika Vayrynen had given the visitors the lead. Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink equalised and new United States signing DaMarcus Beasley hit the winner.

retired_jgirl87

Sunday 12th August 2001:

We could have had a lot more difficult opponents than de Graafschap away on the opening day of the Premier Division, but I wasn’t going to complain. I didn’t know a lot about what sort of tactics their new manager Rob Witschge would employ, but a couple of quick phone calls to his old club ADO’20 confirmed that he’d played a basic 4-4-2 style in his time there. de Graafschap had revamped their line-up during the off-season and there were a couple of new signings that warranted close attention. The Dutch Under-21 striker Jhon van Beukering had been persuaded to move from Vitesse after his career went off the rails there and he had already opened his goalscoring account in the Amstel Cup. Former NEC striker Patrick Ax was likely to partner van Beukering up front and he was hoping to resurrect his career in Doetinchem as well. On the left wing the dangerous Belgian Garry De Graef had joined from RKC and Resit Schuurman would need to keep a close eye on him.

However, of more interest to me was my own team, of course. Daniel Majstorovic was back in the centre of defence after injury and Ramon Zomer would keep his place at centre-half as well. Jordy Koster would drop down to be the substitute central defender on the bench. Jeroen Heubach returned at left-back after recovering from his cold and we needed him there as Rahim was out with his dead leg that he suffered against Emmen. I decided that Johnnier Montano was up to starting a league match after his goalscoring performance against Emmen in the Amstel Cup. This wouldn’t please Blaise N’Kufo at all, but I hoped it would make the Swiss striker hungry enough that he would fight his way back into contention. I had the option of dropping Montano into the attacking midfielder’s spot and playing N‘Kufo, but they would mean dropping the Australian Jason Culina and that was something that his current form did not warrant. Culina had been playing excellently so far and he was proving a vital link between the midfield and the attack.

Premier Division:
de Graafschap (A)

Boschker, Schuurman, Majstorovic, Zomer, Heubach, Niemeyer, Sibum, Shoukov, Montano, Culina, Afonso.

Subs: 16-Goncalves, 69-Cziommer, 69-N’Kufo.

We jumped out of the blocks at top pace today, catching de Graafschap unprepared and we could have been two up inside the first 5 minutes. Firstly in the 3rd minute Sibum feed Culina who fired in a low shot which deflected off Karnebeek’s shin and into our opponent’s net. We were all celebrating when the referee ruled it out, saying that Montano was offside and interfering with play. It must say that in all honesty it was a very harsh decision, although perhaps strictly within the letter of the law. Just two minutes later Culina whipped in a deft free-kick from the left and Montano arrived at the far post to crash a volley against the cross bar with the keeper well beaten. After 16 minutes Shoukov signalled that he had hurt his calf muscle, so I sent on Goncalves to replace him on the left of midfield. The German almost immediately announced his presence with a fine pass inside the right-back for Afonso to run into the box and thrash a shot which van Dijk beat away. The ball dropped back at his feet though and Afonso prodded it home to put us 1-0 in front with his first ever goal for the club. It was the start that we deserved, but de Graafschap pulled level in the 31st min when Karnebeek overlapped and sent over a low cross which van Leerdam met at the near post just ahead of Zomer. He stuck out his right boot and diverted the ball inside the near post despite the best efforts of Boschker. Culina and Goncalves had chances to restore our lead before we conceded a goal at just the wrong moment in first half injury-time. Koojiman and Ax did the set-up work for Reynders to drive a low ball across the penalty area and van Beukering darted in to sidefoot it first time past Boschker from 10 yards out to put us 2-1 down.

There was nothing of note in the first fifteen minutes of the second half except for Culina and Reynders exchanging wild shots which flew high into the crowd. Then we stepped it up a notch again as Heubach raided down the left wind and sent a cross to the edge of the box where Sibum caught it sweetly on the volley. In fact it was such a perfect connection that it flew directly at van Dijk. Montano then set up Afonso for a shot, but our Swiss forward was left holding his head in his hands as the shot smacked against the post from 15 yards out. Despite our chances it was de Graafschap who netted the next goal in the 67th minute. Heubach fouled Valeev and the Bosnian defender Kalezic stepped up to curl a fabulous free-kick around the wall and into the corner of Boschker’s net to make it 3-1. I needed to try something new, so N’Kufo was bought on for the tiring Culina and Cziommer replaced Niemeyer with a brief to play further forward in the midfield. de Graafschap were happy to defend their two goal lead and it took until the 85th minute for us to work a decent chance. The substitutes played their part as N’Kufo found Cziommer in the box and he cleverly flicked the ball back for Afonso to knock it home from 8 yards out. de Graafschap had already conceded the initiative to us earlier, so they could do nothing but try to ride out the pressure whilst we vainly looked for an equaliser. Cziommer and Montano both fired in efforts which just flew wide of the post, but in the end we couldn’t get the equaliser that our 60% match possession warranted.

de Graafschap 3 van Leerdam 31, van Beukering 45, Kalezic 67
FC Twente 2 Afonso 19, 85

Afterwards I caught up with the rest of the results from the opening round. Den Bosch had beaten Roda 3-0 with goals from Jorge Beekmans, Mounir Biyadat and Jorge Bajana after Wout van Steenveldt had been sent off in the 15th minute for kicking out at Thijs van der Meulen. It was a nasty piece of work and I expect that van Steenveldt will get himself a hefty fine and a lengthy suspension. RKC beat NAC 3-2 with new free transfer signing Jordi Cruyff opening the scoring. Rick Hoogendorp added two more with Yuri Cornelisse and Mark Schenning replying for NAC. Den Haag surprised Utrecht with a 3-1 away win with former Celtic forward Jamie Smith scoring on his debut. Tom van der Leegte and Roy Stroeve added to Smith’s goal and Sander Keller got a consolation goal for the home team. A powerful second half display saw Feyenoord win 3-0 at Vitesse with Dirk Kujit, Danko Lazovic and Patrick Paauwe all finding the net. The comeback of the round belonged to NEC who came from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 at Willem II. Erik de Kruyk opened the scoring and a double from Raymond Victoria had the Tilburg side 3-0 in front at the half-time break. However NEC rallied and Bjorn van der Doelen pulled one back before two goals in the final 10 minutes from substitute Frank Demouge tied things up. Finally the most amazing game was in Groningen where the home side lead 3-2 early in the second half against the visitors AZ, but ended up losing 5-3. Glenn Salmon, Kurt Elshot and Kasim Bizimana had scored for Groningen, cancelling out goals to Barry van Galen and Stein Huysegems, but AZ then turned on the style and Ali Elkhattabi, Denny Landzaat and a second for Huysegems took them to victory.

retired_jgirl87

Monday 13th August 2001:

There was now a calf strain to add to the list of injuries as Dmitri Shoukov was ruled out for three weeks with the injury that he suffered yesterday against de Graafschap. At least we had a reasonable amount of cover for the left side of midfield and Goncalves had certainly made a favourable impression with his performance when he had replaced Shoukov. With the Amstel Cup coming up in midweek Goncalves would get the chance to start and we would see if he could make the left-sided midfielder’s position his own.

Tuesday 14th August 2001:

Rahim joined in full training with the first team squad today. His thigh injury gave him no trouble in the series of exercises and sprints that Harry Drost put him though and Jeffrey Kooistra gave him the final okay to play.

As I caught up on some paperwork later in the day Freek van Beusekom stuck his head in though my office door and informed me that he’d let our scout Issy ten Donkelaar break his FC Twente contract and sign for Feyenoord in return for a £70K compensation package. It had been some good work by our Managing Director and it sent the right message out to anyone who wanted to deal with us.

Wednesday 15th August 2001:

With two wins from two games we were in reality already through to the next round of the Amstel Cup, but I didn’t want the players to let up at all. UNA would be keen to avert a heavy defeat as they had done well to get themselves into second place behind us on the Group 19 table. A defeat today, combined with an Emmen win over Achilles 94, would be enough to knock tonight’s opponents out of the competition. I expected that UNA would employ the same 5-3-2 or 5-4-1 defensive tactic that both Emmen and Achilles 94 had used against us.

I was going to make a couple of changes for this match – one enforced and one by choice. With Dmitri Shoukov out with a calf strain Goncalves would start on the left of midfield. I also rested Peter Niemeyer from the right of midfield and gave Simon Cziommer a start after his excellent cameo performance as a substitute against de Graafschap. I called wingers Karim El Ahmadi and Elbekay Bouchiba onto the bench with the intention of giving them a run-out in the second half if things were going well. I was tempted to give Blaise N’Kufo a start, but there seemed to be the sign of a partnership between Guilherme Afonso and Johnnier Montano starting up and I wanted to encourage it.

Amstel Cup Group 19:
UNA (H)

Boschker, Schuurman, Majstorovic, Zomer, Heubach, Cziommer, Sibum, Goncalves, Culina, Afonso, Montano.

Subs: 83-Rahim.

UNA were another amateur team who flooded their defence and midfield with the sole intention of denying us any playing room. Our lead up play was showing that we had a better temperament today. The players passed the ball around well and didn’t try to go for the killer ball with every second pass. We could have had the opening goal as early as the 9th minute if Majstorovic’s lay off from Culina’s free-kick had fallen to a striker instead of the rookie centre-half Zomer who blasted it high over the cross bar. Schuurman got himself in a shoving match with Schilder and picked up a yellow card in the 13th minute. The pair of them then had a running battle for the next twenty minutes. While that was happening we took the lead in the 17th minute as Goncalves fed Montano who in turn ripped in a blistering shot from 16 yards. UNA keeper Coolen managed to block it with his legs, but Culina was hovering and he rammed home the loose ball for his first FC Twente goal. Schuurman and Schilder’s little war reached a climax in the 36th minute when our right-back produced a two-footed lunge at the UNA striker. There was an immediate melee and when the referee managed to calm things down, he pulled out the red card and sent Schuurman off. I gave our skipper a withering look as he went past me on the way to the rooms and then set about trying to patch up the damage. I pushed the versatile Sibum into the right-back slot and pulled Montano back into the centre of midfield. Afonso would have to operate up front on his own with limited support from Culina and Montano. That took the sting out of the game and left us leading 1-0 at the half-time interval.

UNA looked a little more ambitious as the second half started. They’d obviously had a talk about their chance now that we had gone down to ten men and they’d decided they might have the chance of creating an upset. In retrospect it was a good chance for my team to work hard at their defensive duties, as well as the zonal marking and pressing style that I was trying to instil in them. Afonso was still looking dangerous up front, even though he was operating with limited support. Culina and Goncalves set Afonso up for a great chance in the 65th minute, but Coolen managed to block it with his legs. We limited UNA to a couple of long range efforts throughout the second half and then sprung a classic three-on-two breakaway in the 83rd minute. Sibum was suddenly advanced on the right wing with Afonso and Goncalves in support. We did everything perfectly as Sibum committed the left-back Adema to a challenge which gave him room to lay off a pass to Afonso. He advanced and drew the central defender Lourens before sipping it square to Goncalves. With the keeper still to the right of his net and the goalmouth gaping Goncalves choose to hit it first time instead of taking a controlling touch and he managed to screw it wide. The groans from the crowd could have been heard in Amsterdam. Credit to Goncalves though, he shook off that glaring miss and produced a lovely bit of skill a minute later as he ghosted past Adema and pulled back a low ball for Cziommer whose finishing was of a higher degree as he lashed it home from 12 yards. That made it safe at 2-0 and it was the German’s first goal for the club. There was still time for UNA to create their best chance of the match in the 89th minute when de Wit met van de Rijt’s free-kick with a diving header, but Boschker was still alert and he palmed it away with an acrobatic dive which confirmed our 2-0 victory.

FC Twente 2 Culina 17, Cziommer 84
UNA 0

As we prepared to leave the rooms after the match Jeffrey advised me that he just heard the result of the other match in our group. Achilles 94 had beaten Emmen 2-1 and knocked the First Division side out of the competition. Despite their 2-0 loss to us tonight the amateurs UNA would go through with us into the First Round draw.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">********************************************* ************************************************** * Dutch Cup - Wednesday 15th August 2001********************************************** ************************************************** ================================================== ============================================== 2001/2 Tables============================================ ================================================== ==Group 19Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Q Twente 3 2 0 0 4 1 1 0 0 1 0 9 2nd Q UNA 3 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 1 1 3 4 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3rd Achilles 94 3 1 0 1 2 2 0 0 1 0 2 3 4th Emmen 3 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 2 2 4 1 </pre>

retired_jgirl87

Thursday 16th August 2001:

Resit Schuurman’s sending off yesterday would have the immediate effect of a one match suspension. As first team captain I was very annoyed with the stupid way that he got himself involved in the feud with Schilder and I reprimanded him in private. If the first piece of public disciplinary action that I had to take was take was against the skipper it may have caused a few ripples within the squad. Instead I made a general reference to discipline at training today and made sure that everyone noticed that I was looking at Schuurman when I said it. I told Rahim that he would be starting at right-back against Vitesse on Sunday and he looked very keen to show me that he could hold onto the position, even after Schuurman’s suspension had completed.

Just as training was finishing Jeffrey Kooistra came over and informed the lads that we’d just been drawn at home against the amateurs Scheveningen in the Amstel Cup First Round to be played in five weeks time. That would push our league match versus AZ that had been scheduled on that particular Saturday out to a midweek fixture sometime in late October.

Friday 17th August 2001:

Jeffrey Kooistra called me just as I was about to leave the office. He’d taken the reserves to Arnhem to play Vitesse and he informed me that they picked up a 1-0 win thanks to a goal by the youth team forward Richard Noorlander. I asked him about the performances of Marc Geerts, Jordy Koster and Greg Sharland in particular. He said that Sharland was very good and was a clear man of the match. His range of his passing had been the feature of an otherwise rather drab game. Geerts had settled well into the central midfield holding role, but Koster had made had few basic errors and was not on form at all today. We also lost forward Tim Velten who’d picked up a broken toe and would be out for two weeks.

Later at home I watched the highlights of tonight’s Premier Division match and saw Gerald Sibon score the only goal of the game for PSV in their 1-0 win away at Roda. It wasn’t a vintage PSV performance, but it gave them two wins from their opening two matches and things would only most likely improve. Skipper Mark van Bommel was in superb form for PSV on the night.

There was also a follow-up story on the disciplinary hearing for Roda’s Wout van Steenveldt who had been sent off for kicking Den Bosch’s Thijs van der Meulen in last weekend’s opening round. The viciousness of van Steenveldt’s action was matched by the severity of his suspension and he was banned for ten Dutch matches on top of his automatic one match suspension for a red card offence.

Saturday 18th August 2001:

I dropped into my office before today’s early training session and went through my in-tray to see what items of information my secretary had left for me. The national squads had been selected for the upcoming round of internationals and four of the squad had received call-ups. Guilherme Afonso and Blaise N’Kufo had been called up to the Swiss team for their match against Hungary. I made a note to see if I could ascertain from the Swiss management what the chances were of either of the players getting a game that weekend. N’Kufo in particular could use a run-out as he had already started to slip behind Montano and Afonso in the pecking order here at FC Twente.

I was pleased to see that Ramon Zomer had received a call-up to Dutch Under-21 squad. That would do the youngster’s confidence no end of good. I ran my eye over remainder of the Under-21 squad – there were some new faces in there from what I recalled had been the previous squad last April. The usual swag of Ajax youngsters – five this time – had been selected along with a good mix of players from various Premier Division clubs. Indeed, only Arsenal’s Robin van Persie, Hertha Berlin’s Nando Rafael and Zwolle’s Hermen Hogenkamp were from clubs outside of Holland’s top flight.

Finally there was a call-up for Peter Niemeyer to the German Under-21 team and that was a good reward for the hard-working midfielder.

I felt like I had been working for years since I had taken over the FC Twente managerial position, but it was actually just one month. I celebrated at home on my own tonight with half a dozen Heinekens and my feet up in front of the television. Of course, being a manager is a full time job and it wasn’t long before I had the TV on the football round-up to catch up on today’s Premier Division results. Den Haag had posted their second win with a 2-1 win over RKC. Roy Stroeve and Cedric van der Gun had cancelled out Rick Hoogendorp’s opener for the visitors. RBC had followed up their first round win over Ajax with a 3-0 victory over our conquerors de Graafschap. It was a Danish feast for RBC as Sammy Youssouf (2) and Jesper Hakansson scored the goals for the team from Roosendaal.