Gelderland is eagerly awaiting the Gelderland derby between NEC and Vitesse. Both arch-rivals will meet again on Sunday after four years at the highest level. John van den Brom is one of the few who experienced the derby as a player and as a trainer. The current trainer of KRC Genk wore the shirt of the Arnhem team and was also responsible along the line. You don’t have to expect Van den Brom to show himself in Nijmegen.
“Then my eyes start to sparkle”, Van den Brom answers with ESPN when the Gelderland derby comes up. “Every coach or player who can or may play a derby will say that it is the derby, but this is a very special one. You have never seen me in Nijmegen. I am not going there, really not. It is that deep “I don’t have that feeling of the past at all, I have experienced it as a player and as a coach. You went there once a year, for the derby. Otherwise you won’t see me there.”
Van den Brom played more than two hundred games for Vitesse in his career and was trainer there in the 2011/12 season. “When I was coach of Vitesse, we played against NEC in the play-offs. Giorgi Chanturia scored at the time and you noticed what it did to that boy and the supporters. You can make yourself immortal with that if you score in the derby. And this was also the winner. That’s great. Vitesse always stands for beautiful football and at NEC it is more focused on fighting. Rolling up your sleeves and fighting, while we had to rely on making a difference based on football.”
That does not mean that NEC has never achieved results against Vitesse, Van den Brom knows all too well. Vitesse won two of the last five mutual encounters, drew twice and NEC stepped off the field once as the winner. “That’s why they also have competitions,” Van den Brom continues. “Fight in a derby meant that we could not play football. Then we had to go along with that. It sometimes went wrong. That is very difficult. Then you have to demand things from players that they control less.”
Related
More sports news