NEC wants to see Ronaldinho up close and personal

Well, you’ve all seen or read about the Dutch pride in the UEFA Cup till now, I assume?

Feyenoord set a new record! No points whatsoever in the group stages. The once mighty Stadium club from Rotterdam humiliated.

Ajax hoped to secure a win to come out on top in the group, but failed to do so. It took a dive from Suarez to secure a point against Slavia Prague.

Heerenveen also ended their run in style, with a big loss.

NEC, Ajax and Twente are the ones to root for. But NEC isn’t through yet. Coach Mario Been didn’t need a lot of words in his final tactical talk: “It’s simple lads. Either you want to see Ronaldinho up close and personal in the next round, or you keep collecting football stickers of him for your scrap book. It’s in your hands.”

That’s how it can go in football. Today, Been presided the busiest press conference ever in the history of NEC. Last year, his NEC was situated on the second last spot in the Eredivisie and the only goal then was not to get relegated.

Tonight, NEC has the chance to “bridge the winter in Europe” as we say in Holland. NEC never ever achieved this. To make it through, NEC needs to do better against Udinese than Spartak against Tottenham at White Heart Lane.

NEC can re-write the history books. And the players know it.

Skipper Wisgerhof: “Reaching the UEFA Cup was tremendous already, but this…this is a high in the history of the club. Wonderful for Nijmegen.”

“This won’t happen often. Everyone in the city talks about it. Everyone wears the red, green and black of the club. Normally, we get a shock if there’s one camera at our training. Today, we saw four!”

NEC is hot, as the club management realized. It’s the results combined with the fresh, attacking football style that does it. Lasse Schone, one of the more remarkable players: “I wasn’t surprised about our performance in Europe. We’re a strong side and we highly enjoy our game here.”

“Outsiders may be surprised, but I knew we have a quality side. Tottenham was better than we were, but against Dinama Bukarest and Zagreb we were actually the better team.”

Udinese doesn’t have anything to lose. The Italians are certain of their next round and will be thinking about their next Serie A game. Sunday, it’s AC Milan at San Siro for them. It seems their coach will rest a couple of their regular starters. This only makes a stunt by NEC more likely.

“They need one point to become the leader in the group. I don’t know if they take us serious or not, but I do think they will go for at least that point. It makes sense to try to win the group. We want to win. We will play our own game, but the turn around will be crucial. When we lose possession, they are gone in a jiffy. We will need to be cautious and not storm forward with 8 players,” analyzed Mario Been.

This game could well be the highpoint in Mario Been’s coaching career. But he won’t be distracted by it. “We won’t be doing foolish things suddenly. I asked the lads if they felt they needed trainings camps before a European match. They declined. So we’ll do what we’ll always do before a game.”

Remarkably, this match won’t be broadcast live on Dutch tv. “A missed opportunity,” says Been. “Maybe it has to do with Ajax’ game which attracts more viewers, no idea. But if the humble NEC would be broadcast, we feel we could win more fans across the nation and that would be very good for the club. If we play a good game, that could put something in motion, but alas…”

Presumed line up NEC: Babos; Dani, Wisgerhof, Zomer, El-Akchaoui; Sibum, Schöne, Davids; Saidi, Van Beukering, Bouaouzan.