While the professional players rest in the dressing room during halftime, the pitch at the Euroborg becomes an arena for local youth to experience their own moment of intense pressure. Page 71 of the matchday programme highlights the grand finale of the Gasunie Shoot-Out, a season-long penalty competition for members of the Green White Bengels (part of the Junior Club).
Taking a penalty is nerve-wracking enough, but doing it on the pristine grass of the stadium in front of 20,000 fans requires nerves of steel. The text notes that 25 boys initially qualified for the quarter-finals. It also honors Theodoor Smit, who won the previous shoot-out during the home match against ADO Den Haag. But for this specific match against Ajax, the spotlight was on the four grand finalists: Eduard Gerds, Robby van Sluis, Stefan Mulder, and Mark Ijbema. These four boys stepped onto the pitch knowing that the entire stadium was watching them. The fact that this grassroots youth competition was sponsored by Gasunie—the massive state-owned gas infrastructure company—shows how deeply intertwined the region’s heavy industry was with the club’s community and youth initiatives.
A Look into the Future
By 2026, the context of the sponsor has changed dramatically. The Groningen gas field has been shut down, and the name Gasunie is now associated with the complex legacy of earthquakes and the transition to green hydrogen. However, for the boys who participated in the shoot-out in 2013, the corporate politics of the sponsor mattered very little. What mattered was the roar of the crowd when the ball hit the back of the net. Today, halftime entertainment has become increasingly digitized and commercialized, but the simple, raw thrill of a local kid taking a penalty kick on their home stadium’s pitch remains one of the purest traditions in football.