Last week, I wrote about how the coming days would be essential to Ajax’s season. And once again, Ajax didn’t fail to deliver. They beat Legia Warsaw and Heracles Almelo, as we all hoped, but once again, Feyenoord f*cked everything up. By beating PSV, they remained in the top spot of the Eredivisie comfortably. Which is not extremely unexpected, but the way it happened really says it all about this season.
They won it by a millimeter, which was caused by Jeroen Zoet pulling the ball over the line and the goal-line technology showing referee Bas Nijhuis the ball had actually crossed it. Which is, all by all, a little clumsy and only a little bit lucky, but extremely, ex-f*cking-tremely frustrating. It appears that our beloved arch-rivals have received some kind of supernatural blessing. They are not allowed to lose this title anymore.
I found out about the Feyenoord-winner on my way to the ArenA, in the subway next to a lot of other Ajacieden, who all found out at about the same time. The mass frustration was beautiful to witness. It’s that uncontrollable feeling that you want to punch something or blame someone, even though what happened to you was completely justified. I struggled with those feelings ever since Sunday and I really don’t know what to do with them.
Obviously, I now hate Jeroen Zoet, goal-line technology and Nijhuis, but that doesn’t feel sufficient. It just seems like the universe wants us all to accept the certainty of a Feyenoord-title, and I am really reluctant to do that. You must know, I was born a month after the last one won by our rivals (back in 1999), so I could always tell my Feyenoord-friends (I know, I know) that I had never witnessed a title of them.
Feyenoord actually winning something important (I know Kuyt made it look like the KNVB Beker was something, but it just isn’t) is something that’s so far out of my comfort zone, I really don’t know what to feel.
Which is why I’m starting to deny they’re even at the top of the league.
And it feels a whole lot better.