My European football adventures began in a seedy bar in Amsterdam in December 2002. I had gone for a weekend with my three housemates. We hadn’t intended to see any football that weekend but as we discussed the day ahead at breakfast, the female amongst us, told us in no uncertain terms that she was going to the Van Gogh Museum and if we wanted to come then we could. It sounded interesting but we opted for the pub. As we sat at the bar, we learned from the barman that Ajax were playing PSV that afternoon. One of the biggest games in Dutch football. It was sold out but he told us if we went down to the stadium we might get lucky. We thought why not? and made our way to the Amsterdam Arena. What happened next is foggy but money was exchanged with a man underneath a bridge, that famous bridge that Ajax fans go mental under in viral, football casuals type social media videos. Around €40 a ticket if I remember and we took our seats behind one of the goals. Great game despite some dreadful goalkeeping. A young Arjen Robben opened the scoring for PSV before a young Zlatan ibrahimovic equalised for the hosts. Dennis Romadahl ran riot for PSV and the visitors left with a 4-2 win. The away fans were up high behind a large net protecting them and the rest of the stadium from missiles which I had never seen before. As we sat there, I turned to one mate and said, why don’t we do this more often, show up to a massive European stadium and pay a man under a bridge?
Ajax:
Stekelenburg, De Jong, Bergdolmo, Chivu (Pasanen), Van Damme, Galasek, Pienaar, v.d.Meyde, Maxwell (Witschge), Litmanen (Mido), Ibrahimovic. Coach - Koeman
PSV: Waterreus, Bogelund, Ooijer, Faber, Bouma, v.d.Schaaf (Lucius), Vogel, Robben, Kezman, Rommedahl, Vennegoor of Hesselink
Coach - Hiddink
Goals: 0-1 Robben (14.)
1-1 Ibrahimovic (27.)
1-2 Kezman (48.)
2-2 v.d. Meyde (54.)
2-3 Vennegoor of Hesselink (56.)
2-4 Vennegoor of Hesselink (78.)
Attendance: 49,871
Highlights: https://youtu.be/EC8OLPbCglw
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