Cup football often serves as a temporary sanctuary for teams drowning in league misery. Page 2 of the December 19, 2013 matchday programme profiles an opponent desperately in need of such a distraction: NEC Nijmegen.
The “De Tegenstander” (The Opponent) section paints a grim picture of the visitors’ Eredivisie campaign. The club was sitting at the very bottom of the table, fighting to extend their proud 20-year uninterrupted stay in the top flight. The text notes the early-season panic that led to the dismissal of manager Alex Pastoor and the appointment of Anton Janssen. Yet, despite the league trauma, the KNVB Beker offered a glimmer of hope. The programme traces both teams’ paths to this 1/8 final clash: Groningen had dispatched amateur sides in the away match vs AFC and the home match vs VV Capelle , while NEC had beaten Harkemase Boys and FC Eindhoven.
But the most fascinating detail is hidden in the historical cup statistics. The text points out that NEC actually had significantly more cup pedigree than FC Groningen, having reached the KNVB Cup final four times (1974, 1983, 1994, 2000)—though they lost all of them. Groningen, at that point in time, had only reached one final, losing in 1989. For NEC, a cup run was a rare chance to dream amidst a nightmare season.
A Look into the Future
The sanctuary of the cup did not save NEC Nijmegen. They were ultimately relegated from the Eredivisie at the end of the 2013/2014 season, ending their two-decade stay in the top flight. However, the historical cup statistics mentioned on this page carry a beautiful, heavy irony for the home fans. While the programme notes Groningen’s lack of cup finals compared to NEC, that narrative was about to be permanently shattered. In the very next season (2014/2015), FC Groningen would reach their second-ever final and finally lift the KNVB Cup, erasing the historical deficit mentioned on this page and achieving the ultimate glory that always eluded the team from Nijmegen.