Feyenoord – Ajax: the one and only classic…

In Holland, that is…

It’s 1995. Henke Larsson had just scored the 2-0 for Feyenoord. Danny Blind and Frank de Boer looked each other in the eye. “We knew we would win that day,” Danny Blind reflects on that match. “We just felt it. De Kuip was exploding, the pitch trembled, but we had such a strong team. We wanted to win.” Before the break, Ajax scored three times and would win the match 2-4.

That defeat was symptomatic for the years to follow for Feyenoord. Even if every one in De Kuip felt that it was possible, Ajax would snatch the three points. At the last time Feyenoord did win, Ajax took revenge: in the 2005/06 season, Feyenoord won both competition matches against Ajax in De Kuip ( 3-2) and in De Arena (1-2) but in the play-offs, Ajax won both times, leaving Feyenoord hanging out to dry.

Such an obsession can take some time. In North London, Tottenham Hotspur hasn’t won in the last 18 matches against rivals Arsenal! Former Arsenal captain Patrick Viera once said: “Apart from Highbury, my fave stadium is White Hart Lane…” This remark felt as a knife through the hearts of the Spurs-fans.

“The idea of an angst-gegner is hard to grasp,” says Blind, now technical director of Sparta. “Ajax has it with PSV, in Eindhoven. Every season, the teams are different, but still there is an unsaid quality to it. Subconsciously I suppose. Feyenoord-away, that’s always good, or something like that. And that hostile atmosphere in De Kuip, believe me, that motivates. It’s a rush, to silence a hostile crowd.”

Kees van Wonderen, former Feyenoord midfielder, understands that feeling. “In De Kuip, Ajax has a sort of common enemy. The whole atmosphere is intens and hostile. That puts a team on their toes. Everyone will work towards the same goal and work 10% harder than normal. Ajax always plays good matches in Rotterdam. I don’t think Feyenoord fears Ajax. I never sensed that. You know, that winning against Ajax gives you credit for months.”

Sometimes, frustration is the only thing Feyenoord ends up with. As it was in May 1995. Ajax already won the title and Van Gaal decided to play some second-tier players like Wooter, Grim and Reuser. Ajax won, 0-5! And only three seasons ago, Dirk Kuyt scored the 2-1 for Feyenoord in the 80est minute. Still, Ajax won 2-3….

“The classic I remember most was the 1999 one, the year we won the title,” says Van Wonderen. “We were behind, 0-1, and we had to go really deep to get back in the game. The crowd (called The Legion in Rotterdam) was really behind us and I scored the equalizer. De Kuip exploded! What a feeling that was.”