FC Twente: Champions of Holland 2009/2010

They did it. The glory days are back in Enschede. For the first time in their history, FC Twente are champions of Holland. After formation in 1965 thanks to a merger between Enschedese Boys and Sportclub Enschede, and a period of relative success in the 1970s when FC Twente won the Dutch Cup and reached the 1975 UEFA Cup final, FC Twente have finally won major league honours with this their first ever Eredivisie title.

The final day of the season in Holland was not without drama. On a pouring wet surface in Breda, FC Twente travelled to face NAC Breda knowing they had to win, or at least equal Ajax Amsterdam’s result at NEC Nijmegen, to be crowned champions.

After an early sending off left NAC Breda with 10 men, Twente missed a string of easy chances in front of goal to leave their travelling fans and the thousands watching on big screens back in Enschede wondering if it wasn’t meant to be. When Ajax raced into a 3-0 lead at NEC, making light work of Nijmegen as they have several other teams in Holland, Steve McClaren and his coaching staff looked on in the rain, apprehensive and nervous. McClaren didn’t use an umbrella. You can understand why.

Then, halfway through the first half, Bryan Ruiz – one of Twente’s stars of the season, took advantage of some awful NAC Breda defending to fire coolly home. 1-0 Twente, pandemonium in the stands (albeit restrained by the perspex cage penning in away fans). McClaren clenched his fists in muted celebration, urging his team back into shape.

More chances came Twente’s way. Blaise N’Kufo missed one from about six yards out. Others were just as wasteful. The second half began. The game ticked on. Ajax went 4-0 up. Was there to be a late twist? McClaren, agitated, shoved a nearby camera out of his face as the cameraman attempted a close-up. Tension filled the air.

But, in a good weekend for Chelsea, it was one of their loanees that helped wrap up Twente’s historic title. With 73 minutes on the clock, Miroslav Stoch provided a moment of magic to calm the Tukkers’ nerves, cutting inside from the left before wrapping his foot beautifully round the ball to curl it into the far corner of the net. 2-0, and the trophy was FC Twente’s.

For Steve McClaren it marks a wonderful tale of redemption for a man so badly ridiculed after failing to get England to Euro 2008. He was the scapegoat for England’s flaws in that campaign, laughed out of the country and into exile at a sleepy provincial Dutch outpost, presumably never to be heard from again.

But, in echoing Sir Bobby Robson after his managerial ordeal with England, McClaren has shown the abilities that got him the England job in the first place, taking a team with a far lesser budget than Dutch giants such as Ajax and PSV Eindhoven – a selling club that lost two of it’s best players (Eljerio Elia and Marko Arnautovic) just last year – and guiding them to a first ever Eredivisie crown.

In doing so he becomes the first English manager to win a major domestic European league since Sir Bobby in 1996 at FC Porto (providing, of course, you don’t count the Welsh Premier League as major).

Congratulations to Steve McClaren and to champions FC Twente. What’s Capello got planned for after the World Cup anyway?

Dutch Eredivisie, Dutch Football, FC Twente, Holland, Steve McLaren