The Netherlands
Eerste Divisie
Friday 2nd March 2018
Kick Off 20.00 Actual 20.02
F.C. Volendam 3 F.C. Eindhoven 2, attendance 2,910
31’ 1-0
33’ 1-1
45’ 1-2 (pen)
65’ 2-2
89’ 3-2
@ Kras Stadion
Sportlaan 10
1131 BK
Volendam
€12.50 Admission
Team Sheet, free.
A long weekend in Amsterdam was booked before the weather problems with ‘The Beast from the East’ began to set in. The flight from Gatwick Airport left 45 minutes late, not helped by having to loop round the taxi area of the runway again, when the plane in front of ours suffered a bird strike on take off.
Once we arrived into Schipol Airport, it was a train into Amsterdam Centraal Station, followed by a 100 yard walk to the Bus Station. A choice of busses, either the 312 or 316, made the 29 minute journey north to Volendam, for the price of €7.50 single, which passes the Kras Stadion on the left hand side when coming into the town.
With the temperature being -5 degrees and having been below freezing for a number of days, all the canals were frozen over, but at least with no snow around the game would go ahead due to the 3G pitch and at least the forecast for the evening was showing that it would only be -3 degrees at kick off !
Tickets were purchased just after lunchtime, at the ticket office at the stadium, with no Club Card necessary, or even the need to show passports, so at least there would be no need to arrive at the match any earlier than ten minutes before kick off. The club were offering free drinks of hot chocolate as a way of thanking fans for venturing out into the cold, which was most welcome. With no evidence of a matchday programme, an enquiry to a steward saw him go inside the building and return with a team sheet a couple of minutes later.
The Kras Stadion has an all seated capacity of 6,984. It was opened in 1975, known then as Veronica Stadion and underwent renovation in 1992 and 2010, but it is nice to see the four huge traditional corner floodlight pylons remain. Volendam have been a yo-yo club over the years, but whilst playing in the second level of Dutch football they are unlikely to ever get near selling out matches. The crowd for tonight’s match was nowhere near what they claimed. In fact, I only counted 650 people in the seats, which included about a dozen away fans hemmed into a corner of the ground, fully enclosed with perspex screens, but not sure if it is to keep them in, or the home fans out, but as the 25-30 home ‘ultras’ were behind the goal at the opposite end of the ground, it must be the former. There were certainly a fair few in the warm of the V.I.P. and hospitality areas, but nowhere near the amount to take the attendance up to just short of 3,000.
This was a really good open game, pitting 14th against 15th in the league table and very enjoyable to watch as a neutral. The winning goal was good enough to win any match, being hit from the corner of the 18 yard box into the far top corner of the net, giving the ‘keeper no chance of making a save.
