FC Den Haag’s promotion dream seems to be falling apart

A match that had to be won, as the duel with Almere City at FC Den Haag was seen. After a whirlwind opening phase, that victory seemed to come, but Dick Advocaat’s team gave up a big lead, lost 2-3 and needs a miracle to reach the play-offs.

“If you want to keep up, you have to win today”, were the words of trainer Dick Advocaat beforehand. In The Hague, new hopes for the play-offs had arisen after Friday, now that number 8 NAC is behind against Willem II with fifteen minutes to play. A win would suddenly bring FCDH back to three points from a play-off spot, with five games to go. Instead, the team from The Hague went down in a painful way.

Because Dick Advocaat’s team was quickly 2-0 thanks to a lightning start in a Bingoal Stadium filled with more than eight thousand spectators. Via a nice goal from the masked Thomas Verheydt, who volleyed in the ball on a pass from Xander Severina, it became 1-0. Five minutes later, Titouan Thomas, who made a mistake in the second minute and did not see his slipper being punished, tapped in the second Hague goal.

It all happened with striker Mario Bilate on ‘ten’, behind striker Thomas Verheydt. Very offensive on paper, in practice it turned out to work well in the first half. For a long time there was little going on for FCDH, until Tyrese covered Asante on the wrong side at Almere City player Kornelius Hansen, who made it 2-1. FCDH then got the chance to run out through Xander Severina, but didn’t do that and completely lost grip.

Football lesson

Immediately after the break, that led to a goal against, shot in by Hamdi Akujobi. A blow that FCDH could not recover from. The team from The Hague then received about twenty minutes of football lessons from the opponent from Flevoland. The 2-3 by former FCDH player Lance Duijvestijn was a logical consequence of this. FCDH turned on in the final phase, but did not bother anymore.

A win had brought FCDH fully back into the race for a play-off spot, now the deficit remains six points, while NAC still has fifteen minutes to play against Willem II. The play-offs are therefore only a utopia for FCDH.

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