Kozak Boys trainer Scott Calderwood is enjoying the historic KNVB Cup evening against Vitesse on Wednesday, but he still has to check one thing with his captain Kaj Ramsteijn. To his coach’s surprise, the left-footed defender shot the deciding penalty in the series with the right into the intersection.
By Rypke BakkerWhen Calderwood woke up on Thursday morning after a few hours of sleep, he thought: I forgot to ask Kaj about that penalty. “Yes, I still don’t understand why he did it with the right,” Calderwood tells NU.nl.
The trainer of the Tweede Divisie club from Werkendam had briefly trained his players on penalties the day before the cup match against Vitesse.
“At the end of the training, I made two teams that had to complete a series. But with the extra element that the player had to tell the keeper in advance in which corner he was going to shoot. Then the keepers had a better chance and you lay Playfully more pressure on the taker. They then have to shoot the ball well in order to score. Then I saw our captain Ramsteijn shoot with the right, while he is purely left. I thought he might not take it so seriously. “
A day later, 32-year-old Ramsteijn, who played for Feyenoord, Excelsior and VVV-Venlo in the Eredivisie, had to take the fifth penalty in the series against Vitesse. Kozak Boys had kept the Eredivisionist 2-2 at Sportpark De Zwaaier in 120 minutes and after a miss by Vitesse defender Melle Meulensteen, Ramsteijn was able to shoot the amateurs one round further.
“I saw Kaj so behind the ball that he could only shoot with the right again,” says Calderwood. “I thought: what is he doing now? But then he shot the ball beautifully into the intersection. That makes the story even more special.”
‘The players could hardly walk’
The flawless series was the final piece of a historic evening for Kozak Boys, which eliminated an Eredivisie club for the first time after the stunts against first divisionist De Graafschap in 2017 and against Almere City FC a year later.
“If we play against Vitesse ten times, we will lose nine times,” says Calderwood. “We are lacking in quality, we had to compensate for that with mentality. And the players have done that fantastically. They went so deep that they almost fell over during the game.”
The players of Kozak Boys therefore preferred not to extend after Lowie van Zundert’s 2-2 in the 82nd minute, Calderwood says. “They said: trainer, we want to finish it right now. And I understood that.”
“They could hardly walk anymore, you can see what could happen in extra time. But the staff and I chose to keep playing in control. It’s so sour when you go down in the last minute with 3- 2. Rather fight down in the extension. But it became much more beautiful.”
‘The left back threw open his snack bar’
After Ramsteijn’s decisive penalty, the fans of Kozak Boys ran onto the field. “The best are the happy faces of the people in the village,” says Calderwood, who was only home at 4 a.m. “It was a nice party. And I still had to drive an hour and a quarter to my house in Doetinchem. On the way I passed Arnhem. That felt good.”
Some of his players made it even later. “They celebrated it first at the club. And then in the snack bar of our left back Kevin Cornet. He threw open the tent at night. The players could still have a bite to eat as boys among themselves. Wonderful. I’ve had them for four days now released, they deserve it.”
The next competition match of Kozak Boys is next Saturday and the second round of the cup tournament is not scheduled until January. The draw is Saturday. Calderwood hopes for a top opponent.
“I hear people say that they want another amateur club as an opponent, because then we can go even further. I hope for something else. Converting is nice, but the chance that we will win the tournament is very small. That is why I am already hoping for a home game against a top club. Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV… That would be fantastic.”
