Sem Scheperman had an eventful appearance in the cup match against NEC on Wednesday. The Heracles Almelo midfielder briefly feared that he had caused a penalty, but luck was on his side and scored the only goal of the evening in the final phase of extra time.
“This is more than just a cup victory,” Scheperman said after the match. ‘We are in a difficult phase where we are not winning much. We didn’t play well today, but we fought. We have already done that in recent weeks, but we often conceded clumsy goals.’
Scheperman remained extremely level-headed about his goal. ‘That’s how I am, you know. Of course we are happy, but Saturday’s match against Groningen is at least as important. Let’s remain calm, that’s what I remained after that goal. It really hadn’t arrived yet. NEC got two more free kicks and Schöne has a nice kick. In the end it worked out and I’m happy with that.’
The evening could have gone very differently for Scheperman, as he seemed to cause a penalty with a yellow card in his pocket when he knocked Sontje Hansen to the ground. However, referee Allard Lindhout did not see a penalty in it. ‘I could have just been the schlemiel. Was it a penalty? Yes, I think so. I also thought for a moment: why am I doing this? But yes, I had to compete. Now we were lucky.’
Don’t say anything
NEC coach Rogier Meijer became somewhat cynical when the penalty moment was discussed. ‘Referees are allowed to keep making mistakes and we are not allowed to say anything about it. If a trainer says something, he gets a yellow card, has to answer to the disciplinary committee or apologize. Everyone saw that this was a penalty, but according to the referee, Sontje was looking for a penalty. Well, I don’t know that rule. Everything I say about this is too much.”
Meijer also looked at his own team. ‘We ourselves neglected to finish it. We had the best chances and we didn’t take them. And if you don’t make them, it’s still an up-and-down competition. If we had made it, we would have had more space. It is what it is. We’ll have to get through this. It was a tough match and we have to recharge for Sunday. We will start showing character again, we did that today. We just haven’t rewarded ourselves.’
The fact that Meijer is the favorite among some of the supporters and has to leave does not matter much to him. ‘I have no influence on that, so that question should be asked to others. I can’t do anything with it. I’m not worried.’
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