Cambuur trails Heerenveen for ten minutes, but loses derby after all

The Frisian derby between SC Cambuur and sc Heerenveen was won by the visitors from the province. In Leeuwarden, Heerenveen won 2-1 and so will enjoy starting the 30 kilometers home.

For Heerenveen, a series of four defeats in a row comes to an end. SC Cambuur remains bottom of the Eredivisie.

The fans of both teams had reminded their players in word and gesture beforehand of the importance of this match. Cambuur had understood the message best, because before the smoke from the welcome fireworks had completely dissipated, the ball was already in the goal.

Michael Breij snatched the retrained left-back Mats Köhlert from the ball and then delivered a fine cross to Bjørn Johnsen, who got in front of Jeffrey Bruma and volleyed the ball magisterially into the far corner.

Remarkably, Johnsen’s first goal in the premier league, then for ADO Den Haag, was also against Heerenveen.

The visitors did not seem awake after that either, as Breij combined whistling through the Heerenveen defense. He just didn’t get his passes right, however, and so Kees van Wonderen’s team got off with a scare.

After that stormy opening, Cambuur took a step back and let Heerenveen come into the game. And that cost the home club dearly.

Last year’s derby against his old club Heerenveen lasted only twelve minutes for Cambuur defender Doke Schmidt, when he was forced off the field with red. He was spared that this time. But again, the only Frisian on the pitch – goalkeeper Andries Noppert is still injured – unintentionally played a role in Heerenveen’s 1-1 draw.

Via his leg, the ball came to the feet of Osame Sahraoui, who immediately graced his starting debut with Heerenveen with a goal.

Watch the reactions of Cambuur striker Bjørn Johnsen and Heerenveen attacker Osame Sahraoui below.

Barely three minutes later, Sahraoui also almost had an assist behind his name, but his superb cross was headed just wide of the goal by Ché Nunnely.

After that exciting first phase, it became a real derby in Leeuwarden, with excited stands on the field and cups of beer from the stands. Nice for the excitement, but it did not improve the quality of the match.

The first big chance came only after a little over an hour and immediately produced the lead for the visitors.

Again Sahraoui was the instigator with a nifty dribble into Cambuur’s sixteen-yard area. The Norwegian pounced on Robin Ruiter’s legs, the rebound was headed onto the crossbar by Sydney van Hooijdonk and then worked over the line by Milan van Ewijk with a fine overhead kick.

For a moment, Ché Nunnely seemed to have the goal to his name (he tapped the ball into the goal just to be sure), but from the replay it appeared that Van Ewijk’s overhead kick had already crossed the line.

For Van Ewijk, it was the icing on the cake in an already special game. After all, Van Ewijk started in the starting lineup for the 100th consecutive time in an Eredivisie game and that for his 23rd birthday.

This makes him the youngest player after Marc Overmars (21 years, 152 days) in 1994 to always start his first 100 games in the starting lineup. Nice detail: in the 2019/2020 season, the Amsterdam native also played two league matches for Cambuur. Under coach Henk de Jong, he did substitute in one of those games.

Coach Sjors Ultee brought in quite a few substitutes to turn the tide in the closing stages. One of them, Frenchman Robin Maulun, was immediately close to scoring the 2-2. His shot went wide, however.

Two other substitutes, Silvester van der Water and Roberts Uldrikis, also made their contribution. Van der Water took advantage of a mistake by Köhlert again and crossed to the Latvian striker, but he forgot to choose an angle for his header. That way goalkeeper Xavier Mous (former Cambuur) could easily stop the ball.

And so afterwards there was bitter disappointment for one Norwegian standout Johnsen and euphoria for another Norwegian standout Sahraoui. The latter scored two more goals for Vålerenga in the Oslo derby against Lillestrøm last September.

Now he played a starring role in the Frisian derby on his starting debut in the premier league. Sahraoui enjoyed: “I love such matches.”