Saturday, August 17, 2024 at 11:01 PM
FC Groningen also won the second match of the season. The Pride of the North won the always difficult away match at RKC Waalwijk with 2-1. Jorg Schreuders scored before half-time, Thom van Bergen did the same for the Groningen team after the break. Richard van der Venne scored for the home team. RKC’er Oskar Zawada received a red card in injury time. With the victory, FC Groningen is now unbeaten for 14 matches in a row, a club record.
The unchanged starting team of head coach Dick Lukkien knew in advance that it would not be an easy task in Waalwijk. After all, the last victory for the Pride of the North dated back to 2006, almost eighteen years ago. However, the current team of the FC started the match unperturbed.
Rui Mendes had already taken the lead within 2 minutes after the Portuguese was excellently freed by Luciano Valente. Mendes shot low into the hands of goalkeeper Jeroen Houwen. Fellow striker Thom van Bergen continued well within 10 minutes of play, but was not selfish enough and passed to Jorg Schreuders. As a result, neither of them was able to get a shot.
Schreuders did shoot on goal a minute later and did so effectively. Johan Hove had won the ball in midfield and Schreuders got the final assist from captain Leandro Bacuna, 0-1.
The duel in Waalwijk was a special one for goalkeeper Etienne Vaessen, because the goalkeeper entered the field in the Mandemakers Stadium for the first time in his career as a player of the opponent of RKC. Vaessen saved a long-range shot by Richard van der Venne very stylishly after almost half an hour of play.
In the last fifteen minutes of the first half, FC was very threatening, but the low crosses in the penalty area just did not find the feet of the FC attackers. Van Bergen had two more good chances in the final phase. The striker headed a cross from the right side of Marvin Peersman well into the corner, but Houwen was there just in time. With a few minutes left on the clock, Van Bergen shot a free shooting chance past the wrong side of the post. In this way, the Pride of the North had the better chances to score in the first half.
FC Groningen also had opportunities to score after the break. Bacuna shot hard against the crossbar in the 50th minute. But with only one goal difference, it remained exciting in Waalwijk. Just like before the break, Vaessen kept his team on their feet. After an hour of play, the goalkeeper was an obstacle for his former teammates three times. Vaessen saved with his feet, his body and his fists and kept the goal clean at that moment.
In the counterattack, FC Groningen came out with four men against one Waalwijk defender. Mendes laid off to Schreuders, who brought the ball in front of the goal, but Van Bergen pushed the ball wide. A little later it was Valente who shot wide via a teammate.
After three quarters of the game, with the score still miraculously 0-1, the home team started to believe more in a result. They started to play more opportunistically, which meant that FC had to back down quite a bit now and then. The Pride of the North remained dangerous, however. For example, substitute Thijs Oosting shot hard against the post with fifteen minutes to go. Immediately afterwards, Bacuna was fantastically freed on the right, after a very nice combination. The captain turned on the turbo, dribbled into the penalty area and gave the assist to Van Bergen. The striker scored the goal he had deserved for so long, also his first in the Eredivisie, 0-2.
RKC Waalwijk made the match exciting again in the final phase. Van der Venne rammed a loose ball hard into the goal. So hard that even Vaessen could do nothing about it, 1-2. In the six minutes of injury time RKC striker Oskar Zawada was shown a red card, but it was still a nail-biter for FC. The Groningers held on and pulled the three points over the line. Supporters can vote for the King of the Match until Monday morning 09:00 via: https://fcgroningen.nl/koning.
The win in Waalwijk not only meant that FC Groningen is still flawless with 6 points from 2 matches. It is also the fourteenth consecutive match in which Dick Lukkien’s team remained unbeaten, a club record. In matchday 3 of the Eredivisie, AZ will visit Euroborg. Tickets for that match on Sunday 25 August at 12:15 are available via
