Football Journey: July 2021

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Holland II Division

Holland – ranked 19^th. The low rank was clear testimony of the big decline Dutch football suffered in the first half of the 1980s. Things were different now with the new talented generation, but ranking was based on past time. The structure was still the same: two professional leagues and no relegation from second level. As for the top league – Feyenoord was still suffering.

Second Division – the formula was unchanged: the top 2 teams were directly promoted up and the best teams of the four quarters of the championship played a mini-tournament for the last promotion.

Telstar finished last and evidently the decline of this club was permanent.

FC Wageningen finished 18^th with 23 points, 2 points ahead of Telstar.

Nothing much up to 9^th place – DS'79 ended there, but they had good performance in one of the championship quarters and thus went to the promotion play-offs.

NAC Breda was 8^th, Vitesse Arnhem – 7^th. NEC Nijmegen was 6^th, but also had strong quarter and moved to promotion play-offs. MVV Maastricht was 5^th. RKC Waalwijk – 4^th, but qualified to promotion play-offs and so did SC Cambuur, 3^rd in the championship with 47 points.

Willem II clinched 2^nd place with 49 points and directly promoted.

FC Volendam bested Willem II by a point and won the Second Division championship. 19 wins, 12 ties, 5 losses, 83-57 goal-difference and 50 points. Third row from left: Hans de Vries, Jan Schokker, Bert van der Poppe, Ab Plugboer, Jack Tol, Nico Zwarthoed.
Middle row: Leo Tholens (verzorger), Ed Vijent, Ron Voorn, Carlo Bond, Eric van Geemen, Theo Bond, Wim Jonk, Hans Bakker, Jan Brouwer (trainer-coach)
Sitting: Gert-Jan Duif, Steven van Dorpel, Jaap Schilder, Jan Klouwer, Ton Guyt, Said Abidallah.

A future big star here – Wim Jonk – but the for the moment just champion and Second Division and happy to move up to top flight.

The promotion play-off was round-robin scheme and there was really battle only for second place, which did no matter.

NEC Nijmegen was entirely out of the race – last with 3 points.

RKC Waalwijk ended 3^rd with 6 points.

SC Cambuur - 2^nd with 6 points.

DS'79 had so-so season, but when it mattered most, they were perfect: 5 wins and 1 loss in the promotion play-offs. 12-5 goal-difference. Nobody came even close to them. Promotion was wonderful achievement this year, but the real test was yet to come in the new season.