Antibarbari’s women’s A team scored a convincing victory in the first round of the VoetbalRijnmond Cup tournament last Tuesday night. In pouring rain, the student team completely outclassed its opponent, Zestienhoven, for the entire game. Antibarbari’s superiority was obvious even before half-time: 4-0. ‘The Conjos’, as the team are known, added two more goals in the second half, ending up with a resounding 6-0 victory.
Coach Roderik van Zevenbergen’s players had had several weeks’ worth of winter break. In other words, they’d had sufficient time to prepare for the opening round of the regional VoetbalRijnmond Cup tournament. On a drenched pitch at the Toepad complex, the home team took on its visitors from Overschie.
Dominance
If Antibarbari had got out of practice following the winter break, it wasn’t noticeable, with the home team kicking off the game in a convincing manner. After about a dozen minutes, striker Anne Lavooij – nicknamed ‘The Wrecking Ball’ – used a beautiful free kick to score the opening goal. Soon afterwards, Zestienhoven’s clumsy defence allowed Lavooij to score again. A hard shot into the top corner of the goal gave her team a 2-0 lead. Antibarbari remained the dominant force on the pitch, never allowing its visitors to get into the game. An own goal by Zestienhoven helped Antibarbari to a 3-0 lead. Just before half-time, the Rotterdam team stitched up the game, with Lavooij’s long-distance kick completing her perfect hat-trick.
Antibarbari slackened the reins somewhat in the second half, but still managed to create a few dangerous opportunities, even without really trying. A long-distance shot only barely missed the goal, with Lavooij proving that she is capable of missing opportunities. Zestienhoven looked like they were on their last legs, and the home team made the most of this fact by scoring a fifth goal. All the visitors could do in return was a decent free kick. Antibarbari added some pressure in the final minutes of the game, which resulted in a nice kick into the close corner and a 6-0 final score.
‘We were extra highly motivated today’
After the game, team captain Alexandra van den Heerik – a former EUR sociology student – was very happy to note that Antibarbari had been able to express its superiority (Antibarbari is a first-league team, whereas Zestienhoven is a fourth-league team) in its score. After all, not even a year ago, the Conjos were defeated by a similar fourth-league team. ‘When you’re playing three leagues higher than your opponent, you should win by five goals, at least. We were trying to make up for the defeat we suffered last year, so we were extra highly motivated today.’
