Match Preview: NEC - Ajax

27 Mar: Other clubs' supporters usually pronounce NEC as 'neck'. Fans of the Nijmegen club, however, do not. The name of their club stands for 'Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie' ('Nijmegen Unity Combination') and is pronounced N-E-C, as three separate letters.

Yes, NEC is a 'combination' of two clubs, but no living fan is old enough to have been a conscious supporter of either Nijmegen football club (of 1900) or Eendracht (of 1908). The fusion (1910) is old enough to make NEC one of Holland's respectable old-timers in football, residing in the picturesque south-eastern city of Nijmegen, which origins were built over a thousand years ago, by the Romans on the south bank of the river Waal.

As a club, NEC was not always considered beautiful, though. The unusual combination of colours (black, green and red) of the club jersey is considered 'interesting' by many, and the old, concrete Goffert Stadium, with its gray cycling-track around the pitch, competed with FC Twente's former Diekman Stadium for the number one position on the ranking of horrible football grounds according to Dutch players and supporters.

This season, the club colours are just accents on NEC's white home jersey and - like almost every Eredivisie club - Goffert Stadium was turned into a beautiful, modern seats-only facility.

So much for the interesting trivia. Now for the main thing: this season's NEC plays really nice football, too, and every NEC fan will acknowledge the decisive role of this season's head coach: Johan Neeskens, key figure of the legendary Ajax and Holland teams between 1970 and 1974.

Under his supervision, modest NEC had a spectacular season's start, in which Bulgarian striker, Giorgi Hristov, proved to be a top-notch killer, scoring 7 out of his 14 goals in the first weeks of the season. Hristov's, as well as NEC's, average dropped a bit since, with a more realistic ranking as a result, but still: 9th, and a fine season indeed. NEC is one of only two visiting teams to notch points at the Amsterdam ArenA (0-0). And -- even more important to the Nijmgen crowd -- they embarrassed Arnhem neighbours Vitesse, 4-1.

NEC has won only one out of its last five games, but Ajax should take that fact as a warning and not as a reassurance, against a club which booked its best achievements in its hardest times. NEC's highlights are modest, but unique: they played - and lost - two Dutch Cup finals as a First Division team. The first time (against Ajax) was in 1983, a season in which NEC was also relegated to the First Division. Ajax won the national title that year, which lead to the first and only time that a First Division club represented Holland in the European Cup Winners Cup the year after.

In that competition, NEC got past Brann Bergen from Norway. That first round game was followed by a legendary second round against Diego Maradona's FC Barcelona. At Goffert Stadium, NEC took a shocking 2-0 lead within 25 minutes. Barcelona won, 2-3, and wrapped it up at Nou Camp (2-0), but who cares about that?

In 1994, NEC made it to their second Dutch Cup final, once again - believe it or not - as a First Division club. After having left the mighty Ajax of Litmanen, Blind and the De Boers flabbergasted at De Meer (1-2 in extra time), NEC gave Feyenoord a hard time in the final, but did succumb to the Rotterdammers in the end, 2-1. No trophy, but one more heroic Cup campaign.

Ajax, probably having to miss out on Nikos Machlas and Cristian Chivu on Sunday - won 16 out of the 24 previous games in Nijmegen, while losing only once. NEC a small timer? Yes, but not if the opponents think they are, like Diego Maradona and Bernd Schuster did, in those legendary 25 minutes at Goffert Stadium, in 1983. (MP)