Right, tactically, I read the NOS report on Monday morning, my team-sheet folder open on the kitchen table. Fortuna Sittard beat Excelsior 1-0. Rodrigo Guth scored with a header in stoppage time, from a Mo Ihattaren corner. The NOS finds the match dull, “kleurloos”, with few highlights. Few highlights? I call that a block following instructions.
What stopped me was the end of the first half. Danny Buijs asked the fourth official how many minutes of stoppage time would be played. According to the NOS, he then said: “None? That’s the best you can do, because it’s really the lame against the blind.” An honest colleague. I respect that.
At our place there is no fourth official. There is the club delegate, the volunteer who runs our matchdays. I ask him for the stoppage time, he looks at his watch, then at his folder, then at the bar. My dressing room doesn’t need VAR, it has the club delegate.
And I know Buijs’s problem. Descotte and Zeefuik weren’t available, and Ihattaren started on the bench. Of Fortuna’s sixteen goals before this match, eleven came from those three. When I’m missing my three scorers on a Sunday, I play with the left-back up front and the chairman’s son in support. He brought on Ole Romeny for Sven Simons. And in the end, a corner decided everything.
Because there you go, the corner is the only plan that works everywhere. In the Eredivisie as on our pitch 2. Even on a slope, mind you: on a corner, the slope helps the ball come back down towards the head.
At the other end, Excelsior had their chances. Mattijs Brandenhorst stopped an Aymen Sliti shot with his hand, and Irakli Yegoian, alone against him after a long clearance from Stijn van Gassel, put the ball wide. Justin Hubner, for his part, posed a certain threat with his headers.
A headed goal from a corner. I have nothing to add. It’s rare.
The result: fifth win of the season, fifth place for now, two points behind PSV. With a dull match. I’ll show it to the lads on Tuesday, well, the ones who turn up.
It’s true, we checked: NOS.
