What’s worse than losing an all-deciding game? Losing an all-deciding game four times in one season. Delta Venlo Men’s 1 from the First Division had a subscription to the wrong result at the wrong time last year. Sour, very sour, but laughing about it remains the best medicine for them. I feel like Michael Ballack. He also lost all finals in one season,” jokes captain Wouter Lenders (22).
It all started hopeful for Delta Venlo this year. They won the championship in the Topklasse Zaal. Only the indoor fairy tale ended differently than hoped for, the first scratch of the season full of scars. A penalty corner in the very last minute of the nacompetition game against Klein Switzerland, after a 2-1 deficit, opened the door to promotion to the big league. But the ball did not go in. The first blow was a fact.
There was not much time to grieve, as the ball soon rolled on again. In April, the team had a rare opportunity to win a prize, in the final of the Silver Cup. Union was, on paper, the ideal opponent. Not least because Delta Venlo had beaten them 2-1 in the league before the winter break. But the penny didn’t drop their way this time. With a 5-4 defeat they swallowed their second disappointment of the season.
The focus then shifted entirely to the league. But soon the next nightmare became reality. Delta Venlo finished second, just one point behind leader Goirle. With a point total that in the other pools would have effortlessly led to the championship.
But that was not the end of the season. One final hurdle still awaited: the playoffs. After the victory over Amersfoort, promotion to the Overgangsklasse seemed within reach after all. A ray of hope in a season full of disappointments. But in the next round Delta Venlo suffered yet another blow. They lost to HBS. A defeat that left a bitter taste in the mouth of the season.
Delta Venlo suffered blow after blow last season. Photo: Willem Vernes
Which defeat hit hardest? Captain Lenders does not have to think long: the loss of the championship in the First Division, he says resolutely.
‘First we lost the Silver Cup final to Union. The following week we played Union again, for the competition. We won that one. Then we had everything in our own hands. But then we lost the topper to Goirle. No first place, no championship,” Lenders sighed. The disappointment weighed heavily on the team, he says. The idea of having to go all out again during the play-offs felt like an enormous burden. You don’t really feel like doing that anymore. You’ve had blow after blow, you’re done with it. But then the season drags on for another two weeks.’
Fortunately, Delta Venlo was able to keep smiling.
Still, he looks back on a great season, despite everything that went wrong. Five seasons he has now played field hockey in Men’s 1, since the merger in 2020. Never before did his team kick it so far in the Silver Cup that they went on to play nationally. In the league, the results were rarely cause for champagne either. So looking through rose-colored glasses, this was actually a fantastic season for Delta Venlo. Lenders and his teammates cling to that. Because that is also an art: losing so often at the moment suprême and still continuing to smile.
After all those exciting matches and setbacks, the atmosphere remained tight. After the last game of the season – the lost play-off against HBS – the beer flowed in abundance in the clubhouse, as a medicine against disappointment. Lenders recalls a striking remark from a teammate: “He said: I feel like Michael Ballack. Ballack, the footballer who in 2002 at Bayer Leverkusen managed to lose the Champions League final, the cup final and the battle for the national title all in one season. And if that wasn’t enough, he also lost the World Cup final with Germany that same year. Lenders: ‘Every blow came hard, but laughing together kept us going.
Not Delta Venlo, but Union won the Silver Cup last season. Photo: Willem Vernes
Party on the long bus rides
If you ask him about the highlight of the season, he immediately starts beaming. The bus rides to the far away away duels in the Silver Cup. Nothing forges a team like sitting on a bus for hours after a knockout win. Afterwards, those bus trips were the most fun. I really hear that from everyone. We went from Ommoord in Rotterdam to Hoorn and to the final at Fletiomare. We will never forget the semi-final against Hoorn. It ended 1-1 and we had to take shoot-outs. Of the four shoot-outs, we missed three, but still won. I’m sure you can imagine how exuberant the celebration on the bus was.’
Slowly but surely the pain of disappointment is fading. Looking to the future again offers room for new dreams. ‘Next season we will play the Gold Cup. Hopefully we will survive a round and bump into a premier league team. Then we will have the chance to wash away this season’s hangover in one fell swoop.’ He happily laughs about it himself.
by Hockey.nl
