The winning team. Photo Rijk Dersjant In the final of the student football tournament, the Wageningen men’s team beat Maastricht 1-0. The Wageningen ladies did well too: they came in second.
At the annual GNSK, student athletes from all over the Netherlands compete against each other. This year’s tournament was held in Delft and The Hague. Only four teams participated in the football competition: Wageningen, The Hague, Nijmegen and Maastricht. After a pool phase in which each team had to play two matches of forty minutes against each opponent, the two teams with the most points met in the final. These were Wageningen and Maastricht.
Champion’s luck
The Wageningen team included seven players from the Wageningen student football club GVC (Go-Ahead Victoria Combination), as well as WUR students who play football at Ona and SKV. Rijk Dersjant was on the Wageningen team for the fourth time in a row. ‘We always have a good team, and we often come second or third. This year, we were lucky that a few strong competitors did not participate because they had play-offs in their regular competition.’
Wageningen got off to a strong start in the tournament by winning three matches in a row on Saturday, says Dersjant. ‘That allowed us to take it easy on Sunday and recharge our batteries for the final.’ The kick-off for the final was at four thirty in the afternoon. The Wageningen team started the final with a clear battle plan, says Dersjant. ‘Stay compact and hope to score a goal. That worked out well: fairly early in the match, their goalkeeper kicked the ball out. One of our midfielders took the ball and scored. After that, we fought to maintain our lead. We got another big opportunity to reach 2-0, but we missed it.’
War of attrition
In the end, the score stayed at a hard-fought 1-0. ‘We had already played 120 minutes of football in two days and there was a party on Saturday too,’ says Dersjant. ‘You start to feel the effects of that. In the end you are praying that you don’t get cramp with every long pass you make.’ Dersjant himself suffered a minor sprain to his gluteus, while a teammate had already dropped out with a hamstring injury.
Their win meant that the Wageningen team qualified for the 2023 European Student Football Championships in Tirana, Albania. ‘A seven-day tournament in which teams from 20 European universities participate,’ says Dersjant. ‘It’s great to get to experience that. Apparently, the standard is quite high.’
Rules
At the moment, Dersjant and a few of his teammates are studying the rules of the European Championships. ‘Who is eligible to play? Are PhD students allowed to participate? How big can the selection be?’ They are also looking at whether sponsorship is allowed and whether there is funding for transport to and accommodation in Albania. ‘There is some funding, but I don’t think it covers all the expenses, so sponsors are welcome.’
