Ajax USA  

FC Utrecht

HOLLAND'S SUPREME CUPFIGHTERS

Ajax's controversial goal in stoppage time of the Amstel Cup final of 2002 (Wamberto was very clearly off-side...) didn't haunt FC Utrecht for too long: the club from Holland's fourth city in size reached the cup final again in 2003 and 2004, and both times no 'blind' linesman could have stopped them. Revenge against Ajax followed in the game for Johan Cruyff Shield (= Dutch Super Cup) of August 2004. Since the turn of the century Utrecht have added three well-deserved pieces of domestic silverware to their trophy cabinet, and that's more than (for example) Feyenoord can say. Holland's supreme cupfighters of recent years are definitely Utreg, as many fans spell the name of their club and city, with an eye-wink to the fact that the letter 't' at the end of words is not pronounced in broad Utrecht speech.

The Dutch cup of 2004 was a particularly unexpected trophy, as the years or glory for Utrecht and their passionate support seemed to have ended rather abruptly in 2003, as club officials unexpectedly admitted that Utrecht were facing a financial deficit of an estimated 40 million euros. The city council and several sponsors came to rescue (not for the first time!), but several key players had to be sold, including strikers Dirk Kuyt and Igor Gluscevic, plus Flemish 'pitbull' and fan hero Stijn Vreven. At the end of the 2002-2003 season Utrecht lifted the Amstel Cup, but it also seemed to mark the start of an era of exodus, poverty and, inevitably, a modest mid-table existence. No-one expected FC Utrecht to win the cup again in 2004... but they did.


A peek inside FC Utrecht's innovative and always atmospheric home ground: Galgenwaard Stadium.

The 2003 exodus brought back gruesome memories of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the club tumbled into a similar black hole after a few glorious years. The Utrecht team of the early and mid 1980s was a notorious gang of local football ruffians, including Frans Adelaar, Gert Kruys, Ton Pattinama and Jan Wouters. Then too, Utrecht played an opportunistic, physical, sometimes violent game. Then too, there was cup glory: the first final  (1982) was lost (1982), but the second (1985) won. Jan Wouters, who moved to Ajax after the 1985 cup triumph, was - in a way - the Stijn Vreven of the 1980s. Striker Erik Willaarts was as much of a no-nonsense goalgetter as Dirk Kuyt.

Then too, however, financial trouble hit Utrecht in the heart. The team spent the large part of the 1990s either fighting relegation or performing in the gray centre group of the Eredivisie. Which was frustrating and painful for a club with such a great fanbase and the ambition to be the 'best of the rest' in The Netherlands. FC Utrecht wanted a lot in those years, but achieved very little, dismissing one coach after the other and turning into a snakepit many quality coaches and officials preferred to stay away from, knowing that five chairmen and two general managers had jumped off the sinking ship in only a few years' time. The supporters of the fanatical Bunnik Side, one of Holland's first and most notorious 'firms', were a highly influential fifth column. A tragedy similar to that of the early 1990s seemed ahead in the summer of 2003, but this time it wasn't quite as bad.


Justice! After a historic linesman's error cost FC Utrecht the Amstel Cup
in 2002, the club won the trophy a year later by beating Feyenoord (4-1) in the final.

Fans of FC Utrecht and Ajax don't get along, although the relationship did improve a bit when Ajacied and Utrecht native (!) Wesley Sneijder attended the memorial service for Utrecht defender David Di Tommaso, who tragically died in his sleep in November 2005. For a few days Dutch clubs and supporters mourned as one family. Sneijder, although he never actually played for FC Utrecht, is part of a long tradition of 'Utreg boys' to have played for Ajax. The Ajax side of the mid-1980s had several, such as Ronald Spelbos, Jan Wouters, Rob de Wit and Marco van Basten. The latter was discovered by Ajax scouts at Utrecht amateur outfit Elinkwijk, one of the three Utrecht clubs that (on a professional level) had merged into FC Utrecht in July 1970. Velox and DOS were the other two. They continued independently as amateur clubs, but joined forces on a professional level. In 1958, DOS had given the city of Utrecht its only Dutch championship ever.


The FC Utrecht squad of 1984-1985 that clinched the club's first Dutch Cup,
including (bottom row, far right) Jan Wouters! [Photo: FC-Utrecht.nl]

'Utrecht away' has always been an extremely tough road fixture for Ajax, even in Utrecht's poorest times: between August 1997 and January 2005 Ajax failed to win a league game at Galgenwaard Stadium (one draw and a string of five straight defeats) and in early 2006 Utrecht even booked a historic 1-4 win at the Amsterdam ArenA. It only adds to the fact that Ajax fans tend to consider Utrecht as one of their supreme enemies in football: just like Feyenoord and ADO Den Haag, and probably even more so than PSV. (MP)

FC UTRECHT FACTS


Founded: 1 July 1970, merger of DOS (1901), Velox (1902) and Elinkwijk (1919)
City: Utrecht
Stadium: Galgenwaard
Capacity: 24,500
Official website: www.fc-utrecht.nl
Honors:
  • Dutch champions: 1958 (DOS)
  • Dutch Cup winners: 1985, 2003, 2004
  • Dutch Super Cup winners: 2004
Recent history: Ajax vs FC Utrecht