The Excelsior Gazette
Squad19 Aug 2030
Steven Berghuis damages knee ligaments — 144 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 144 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Jesper Baas keeps Excelsior in it on his own
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market19 Aug 2030
Obama Appiah puts it in writing
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Excelsior, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match17 Aug 2030
The wait goes on for Excelsior
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Words at Excelsior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonino Musso is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad19 Aug 2030
No hiding place for Noah Naujoks
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Noah Naujoks, and the manager let it.
Match17 Aug 2030
A bad afternoon for Excelsior against Feyenoord
0‑2 to Feyenoord, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings19 Aug 2030
Nobody could get near Antonino Musso
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings19 Aug 2030
Iman Griffith could not find anything
5.39. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
In brief
- Player ratings Nesto Groen never got going
- Player ratings Wiebe van der Heide could not find anything
- Market The shop window has Nolan Martens in it