Holland football tour 2018

During the half-term, 24 footballers from Year 10 made the short journey across the water for a four-night football tour of Holland. Surviving the overnight ferry to Amsterdam where the most entertainment was to be had in the all-you-can-eat buffet, the boys disembarked on Saturday morning and headed straight to the Amsterdam ArenA for a fantastic guided tour of the stadium and facilities. Surrounded by huge posters and mosaics celebrating the history and heroes of AFC Ajax, much debate was had about who the greatest Ajax alumni were – from Van Basten to Luis Suarez via Litmanen, Kliuvert, Bergkamp and Ibrahimovic. The stadium itself was fantastic, from pitch-side an intimidating 54000-seater bowl that had an atmosphere even when empty.

Following the stadium tour and obligatory purchase of “merch”, the boys headed on to the perfect pre-match lunch of continental McDonalds before heading to our hotel to prepare for their first match. Perhaps inspired by the presence of the eyelash artist world cup awards in the hotel lobby, the boys arrived at FC Zuidoorst full of confidence, excited by the prospect of opening NSB’s goal-scoring account in the Netherlands. With the As playing alongside the development side under the floodlights on the fantastic 4G pitches, both teams started well, with Jake S and Paddy H each giving their teams the lead with well-taken goals to set the tour off to a flier. After Jake S’ fantastic curling effort from the right wing, much of the football was played by NSB, playing with the skill and determination that they have shown throughout their season.

Clearly all of those great strikers mentioned at Ajax proved to be an inspiration to the NSB teams, as both teams went on to win convincingly against their opposition. The As ran out comfortable winners in the end, despite what must have been a rousing team-talk from the opposition manager, sending his team out fired up in the second half.  Despite some undoubtedly classy goals by the NSB team, the moment of the match came when Rory N, currently starting in net, came outfield and found himself through on goal.  A fantastic finish saw him score the most celebrated tour-goal ever, with what can only be describes as “scenes” as the entire team engulfed him in the middle of the pitch. For the rest of the half, the boys did well to stick to their game plan, despite their opposition’s best attempts to disrupt them.

The development team weathered a first-half storm by their opponents to thoroughly out-class them in the second half, wanting the victory more and proving this with their power, determination and confidence on the ball.  Paddy H finished with four goals, captain Elliot J with a hat-trick of his own as did the impressive Ben A.  Further goals were scored by Cole C, Ollie M, Dan H and James S, whilst the moment of the match for the team came at the hands of the defence – ‘keeper Henry S making a fantastic double save, backed up with a block on the line from Max A before the striker resorted to handling into the net, a goal rightly ruled out by the referee.  Overall, a dominant first performance on foreign soil for all of the team to produce a fantastic win.

After the match, the boys enjoyed some chips at the hands of their opponents before a celebratory KFC finished them off for the day, settling into their rooms after one of the busiest days ever experienced on tour came to a close.

Sunday came and with it the promise of an early-morning kick-off against the boys’ second opponents, FC Aalsmeer.  Arriving at the club after a superb buffet-style breakfast at the hotel, the lads were well impressed with their hosts’ facilities – a superb clubhouse featuring a café and 16 changing rooms supporting two grass pitches and four 3G pitches – all floodlit.  Not many local clubs in England could boast such a set-up, but seemingly all in Holland can. The As got off to a great start again, with Ollie M opening the scoring with a  fantastic strike from outside the box, the ball nestling in the top corner beautifully.  For the rest of the half, the team moved the ball well and a number of passing moves were finished by James H and Zak M.

Clearly appearing as a more-organised set of opponents than the night previously, the Bs found the opening ten minutes of their match hard-going, going down 2-0 to two well-taken goals by opponents made up of mainly 17- and 16-year-olds.  Still being under some significant pressure, the moment of the tour arrived as, with Aalsmeer being through down the left, their winger squared it across the face of goal for what seemed an easy finish from their striker.  Shooting high into the top right-hand corner, the ball was heading past keeper Henry St when left-back James F, channelling his inner Paul Dummett, rose high and, with a flick of his left boot, pulled off what seemed almost impossible and deflected the ball over the bar.  This immaculate piece of defending left Aalsmeer deflated and buoyed NSB dramatically, with them taking control of the match after that, driven forward by the determination of captain Paddy H.  The As, however, were meanwhile bossing their game against the Aalsmeer opposition, and at half-time the setup completely changed.  Two squads of NSB players mixed from both teams – Team Sander and Team Clark – came out for the second half, which produced a pair of closer matches to finish off the boys’ tour playing experience.

The welcome given by our hosts was fantastic, and after some celebratory chocolate milks – the drink of the tour – the party headed back on the bus and into the Amsterdam match-day traffic, heading back to the ArenA to take in the match between Ajax and FC Twente. Despite consistently threatening to break into famous Toon Army songs throughout the match, the boys thoroughly enjoyed taking in the local football atmosphere as Ajax ran out 2-1 winners, the winning goal a penalty scored right in front the group. Despite our pleas from the corner of the ground, former NUFC hero Siem de Jong didn’t make it onto the pitch in what was a familiar sight for many of our travelling season ticket holders, though ex Newcastle striker Haris Vuckic performed admirably up front for Twente.

After the match, we headed back to FC Aalsmeer for the much-anticipated draft match – the Seattle Sanders vs Sporting JC.  Mr Sander and Mr Clark had, the previous evening, drafted all of the tourists into their two sides, Mr Clark taking the advantage by winning the coin toss both for first pick and also the privilege of wearing the tour playing kit, whilst the Sanders were forced to play with theirs inside-out.  It seemed that playing in white suited the “Away” team, as they took an early 2-0 lead through the elegant Zak M and clinical James H, whilst team JC struggled to get a foothold in the game.  That changed just before half-time, when Jake S scored the goal of the tour with a rasping 30-yard drive that curved into the far corner, with Sanders’ keeper unable to get a hand to it.  Henry S did, however, make the game-changing save when 1-on-1 with converted striker Max M, and from then on the Sanders never looked back, Zak M and James H linking up on three more occasions to make the final score 5-1.  The victory was completed when it became apparent that, whilst Sporting JC had formulated an ingenious if slightly-flawed game-plan, the Seattle Sanders had merely worked on co-ordinating celebrations, and on five occasions were the entire party, and many local Aalsmeer fans, treated to some exceptional choreography by the victorious team.  A resounding win.

After what could only be described as a gourmet meal back at the hotel, the boys headed out to the local bowling alley to let their hair down.  Once conversations with the management about their choice of playlist were complete, the boys proved that they weren’t sportingly-invincible with a collective horror-show of a bowling performance.  The teachers provided all three of the highest scorers at the alley, with Mr Waterson demonstrating that his bowling proficiency isn’t confined to just one sport with a monster score of 138, with Mr Sander only just behind.  Not all of the bowling performances were horrific, however, with Rory N backing up his pre-match bravado somewhat with a decent score of 89, the highest from the boys on the tour.  A quick cool-down in the hotel pool at 10.00pm was then exactly what the doctor had ordered after a second busy day in succession, before bed with an early morning to follow.

The final day in Holland was a much more relaxed affair for the boys now that their playing commitments had been fulfilled.  Amsterdam hadn’t seen such a display of excellent fashion sense in a long time when the luxurious Cumbria Coaches coach pulled in and dropped us of for our tour of the city, and a canal-boat cruise around Amsterdam was both relaxing and informative.  An excellent lunch at a pizzeria was a welcome change from the fast-food we had previously experienced, and the boys found time to buy some souvenirs, snacks and home-made churros before heading back to the ferry to begin our return journey.  Despite the ferry journey being much more tumultuous on the return leg, with some excitable waves testing everyone’s sea-legs, the boys were far too exhausted to really care, venturing only as far as a return to the all-you-can-eat buffet before hitting their cabins for some R&R.  A successful tour had come to its conclusion the next morning, with the boys taking home some fond memories of the Dutch people, their excellent hospitality and three superb “international” wins in which every single member of the tour played their part.