SC Cambuur – FC Dordrecht (14-01-2011)

I meet up with my brother T. halfway between Amsterdam and Leeuwarden. The weather is terrible; it has been raining for days, but according to the website the game is still on. More than an hour before kick-off we arrive at the Cambuurstadion (Cambuur Stadium) and park our car directly in front of it. While the stadium was built in 1936, it has been renovated several times; the capacity remained roughly the same, however, and is currently set at 13.500. Recently it has become almost integrated into a shopping center, which is a pretty bizarre view.

We kill the time by eating something in a fish restaurant at the square in front of the stadium. By the time we walked over to the stadium, the square was filling up with Cambuur fans. We went to the ticket office and bought tickets for the seating area behind the goal for 14 euro each.

Tonight’s game was the first game of the second round of the Jupiler League (Second Division), between SC Cambuur-Leeuwarden and FC Dordrecht, both in the center of the table. Officially 5.850 people had found their way to the cozy Cambuurstadion; a small, all covered stadium that was so typical until the 1980s, but can hardly be found in the Netherlands anymore. The weather was terrible.

From the outset Dordrecht was the better team, even if they created only a couple of half chances. In the 15th minute a deflected header of the visitors went wide, while a couple minutes later a great Dordrecht pass led to a free header that went wide. Although we truly enjoyed the atmosphere, the game didn't bring much and was, thus, 0-0 at half time.

After getting some snacks from the (very busy) snack car next to the stand, we got back to our seats for the second half. The pace was already much lower and the quality of play wasn’t particularly high either. In fact, it took until the 58^th minute for the first really noteworthy situation: a shot by the visitors was cleared from the goal line. Three minutes later the first good shot at goal of the hosts was a goal: 1-0.

Dordrecht seemed dazed by the goal. Having dominated the game up till that point, the Cambuur goal was truly unexpected and the lead undeserved. Five minutes later the hosts scored again: 2-0, which again led to much song and dance.

[ Here should have been a video, but the shitty blogger page doesn't upload it ]

After Cambuur’s second goal the visitors no longer believed in an away win. The fans, who had been critical for most of the game, were now chattering happily. The game slowly but steadily rolled toward the end. At the end of the game Cambuur brought in Mark De Vries, a prolific striker who used to play at Hearts in Edinburgh (among various other teams). Within minutes he scored his goal: a smart through ball was professionally finished by De Vries. 3-0 was also the final score.

SC Cambuur is one of the last teams in the Netherlands were you can still experience football as it was in the 1970s: cozy… local… authentic. I am happy that the club is no longer under threat of bankruptcy, although saddened that they want to love to a new stadium in the future.