In a nearly packed Woudestein Sport Centre, Rotterdamse Studenten (RS) indoor footballers gave away a victory last Friday. Having allowed GZV Watergras from Gouda to equalise in the dying seconds of the game, which resulted in a 4-4 final score, the men’s team is yet to score its first victory of the season.
RS put up a very creditable defence against Watergras, which had scored a whopping fifteen points more in the first seven games of the season. The Rotterdammers were not rattled by an early goal by their opponents and found the net twice before halftime: 2-1.
Dive
In the spectacular opening minutes of the second half, the referee granted Watergras a penalty following a “tackle” which looked suspiciously like a dive. The penalty was successfully taken. RS goalkeeper Alvaro Cassarotti was shown a yellow card in the process, which resulted in the Rotterdam team having to replace its goalkeeper with a field player for a few minutes. It was at this stage of the game that Watergras scored its third goal: 2-3. Afterwards, Jur van der Beek seemed to be on his way to giving RS the victory through a goal from a messy situation in front of the goal and a fabulous counter, but an impressive long-distance shot by Watergras threw a spanner in the works: 4-4.
“Screwed”
RS coach Charl Sait said the draw was “undeserved”. “We should have won this game. We pressed our opponents so hard we really made things tough for them. Unfortunately, yet another game was decided on small details. We made some bad decisions towards the end, or perhaps we should have communicated better. And I’m sure we got screwed with that penalty.”
Business administration student Jur van der Beek, 21, not often scores goals. “So it’s great that I scored two today. But we gave away yet another victory at the end.”
Due to the draw, RS continues to be the lowest-ranking team in the Topklasse B league. Even so, the Rotterdam-based team does not believe it will be relegated at the end of the season. “Since we have a new group of players, we were counting on scoring few points until December,” said Van der Beek. “We are playing better and better. Now fortune just needs to favour us for a change.”
