The De Kuip stadium in Rotterdam has always held a strong mystic to me. It’s a stadium that first landed on my radar as a 13 year old watching Manchester United vs Barcelona in the European Cup Winners Cup Final. A few years later it was the scene of Holland Vs England for a place at the World Cup, Koeman’s free kick, the end of Graham Taylor.
In recent years whenever I’ve come across a Feyenoord game on TV I’ve been struck by how it doesn’t appear to have really changed much, and in the modern football world we live in with the sterilized atmosphere of Europes richest clubs, it still looks like a proper old school football ground with its soul intact. And ultimately that’s exactly how I found it.
I had less than 24 hours in Rotterdam after an incredible two days in Germany. I was amazed at how big, clean and alive the city was. For some reason I had it down as a sleepy poor man’s Amsterdam. I was dead wrong.
The highlight in the couple of hours I spent walking around pre match was Markthal, a giant food hall. If there’s a better food hall on the planet I’d like to see it.
After a short tram journey to the stadium, I wandered around soaking up the atmosphere of what was ultimately an end of season dead rubber for Feyenoord against lowly PEC Zwolle. Except for the fact that since their last home game, it was confirmed that their manager Arne Slot, who delivered the Eredivisie title a year ago will be taking over at Liverpool for the start of next season.
The home fans gave Slot a great reception when he came out chanting his name and generally showing him he will be dearly missed.
My ticket was for section Z2 which is in the lower tier of the side behind the benches and a very casual set up with no set seat numbers, a general admission type affair in what seems like a temporary metal stand. People stand for most of the game, drink, smoke, the usual stuff you can’t do at your seat in England.
The atmosphere is similar to England though with fan chants at sporadic times rather than the non stop ultras style of Germany and Italy. One could imagine in a big game the noise would be electric. This however was not a big game so was probably more muted than usual but got going more in the second half as Feyenoord cruised to a comfortable 5-0 win.
I left De Kuip extremely satisfied that my gut feeling was right: the soul of football is still intact and despite “not looking great on paper” so was mine.
Comments