Old boy's club
Sparta Rotterdam 2 - SV Excelsior 3 April 7 2017
Sparta is old.
Really, really old. The oldest club in the Netherlands. Sinds 1888.
It smells of brylcreem and your Nan's front room which doesn't get aired off enough these days.
Oh okay, that bit's an exaggeration.
But I've never come across a team which celebrates its heritage quite as much, almost to the exception of everything else, or caters for a clientele which is getting on a bit. The club shop even stocks a newspaper called De Oud Rotterdammer, (the Old Rotterdammer) 'De gratis krant (newspaper) voor de 50-plusser'. No kidding.
They do it well, like in their defiantly retro kit, not to mention their Roy of the Rovers badge and old-school marching songs. but it's all a bit, well, overwhelming. And the supporters are old too. This might be far-sighted, after all, the world is ageing and soon there will be more over 55s than any other age group. Most of them watching football here.
Alex Pastoor, the young-looking coach of Sparta (he's actually 50 which is still a baby at Het Kasteel), seems to have embraced this with a bit of an old school playing style. Paceless, they lumped it up across from the wings, or in the final desperate 3 minutes of stoppage time, up the middle.
It wasn't enough to secure them any points in an entertaining, if slightly short of real quality, Rotterdam derby.
It did bring an early dividend when Excelsior forgot to defend at a corner and Loris Brogno headed home un-opposed from Jerson Cabral's corner for 1-0 and a burst of 1920s marching music.
Excelsior thought that two could play at that game and responded with an easy header from a corner of their own, winger Stanley Elbers doing the business for 1-1.
Tails up, Excelsior decided that pacey football on the break was the way ahead and put Sparta to the sword. Well, Nigel Hasselbaink did. He shrugged off a challenge to finish under keeper Roy Korsmit for 1-2, then in the second half, ran onto the final ball of a lovely one-touch passing movement which switched from right to left, steadied and finished diagonally under the advancing Korsmit for 1-3. Great goal. He looks a player and won't be at Excelsior for much longer.
Sparta continued to lump it up and in, but it was meat and drink for Excelsior's centre halves. Kabral, who showed some touches of class, was predictably subbed off. A fit-again Mathius Pogba came on, unconvincingly leapt at high balls and amply demonstrated why Partick Thistle let him go.
Austrian Martin Pusic has been among the goals lately and his 89th minute consolation for Sparta was at least reward for honest endeavour, but to be frank that's not going to be enough to keep them out of trouble or possibly even up. Out of these two, it's Excelsior who look the most likely survivors.
Watching on in a frankly terrible leather jacket (Studs on the back? Really?) was the German coach of NEC Nijmegen, Peter Hyballa. His team are tanking and are at home to Excelsior on 22 April. On this showing he'd have been wishing they were playing Sparta.
Happier, I suspect, and in the same stand was former Excelsior coach Marinus Dijkhausen, currently on sabbatical after being mistifyingly sacked by NAC Breda at Christmas (Breda have done little better without him).
Sparta have dropped to third-bottom with five games left. Marinus might be back in Dutch football sooner rather than later.
