Oranje-Rood 2-1 Kampong: 32 and Counting as the Leaders Win the Rearranged Top Match
Thirty-two games. That’s how long it’s been since anyone beat Oranje-Rood in the Hoofdklasse.
The Eindhoven side stretched that run to 32 on Thursday night, winning 2-1 away at Kampong in the rearranged Round 3 match at De Klapperboom. And they did it the way they’ve been doing it all season: not by blowing teams away, but by being ruthlessly efficient when the chances come.
Victor Foubert broke the deadlock just before half-time, a cross from the edge of the circle that somehow found its way in. Kampong will feel they should have dealt with it. That’s the thing about playing the leaders, though. Half-chances go in.
Borja Lacalle doubled the lead in the third quarter, set up by Tijmen Reyenga, and at 2-0 the game looked done. Kampong kept pushing, and Jip Janssen finally pulled one back from a penalty corner with 58 seconds left on the clock. Fifty-eight seconds. Not enough. No equaliser came, and Oranje-Rood walked out of Utrecht with all three points.
Oranje-Rood now share top spot with Amsterdam and Den Bosch, and the gap between the top three and the rest is starting to look like the real story of this season. Kampong, meanwhile, have now lost two of their big games this year, after the 3-2 defeat to Pinoké. They’re good enough to be in these matches. They’re not yet good enough to win them, and against the very best that distinction is everything.
The table doesn’t lie at this stage. Oranje-Rood don’t lose. Until somebody finds a way to end a run that now stretches back 32 league games, the title race runs through Eindhoven.
Kampong don’t get long to dwell on it. Round 8 is Sunday, and they travel to HDM. Oranje-Rood host Amsterdam the same day, first against second in everything but name. That one is the game of the weekend, and after Thursday night, it’s hard to bet against the visitors’ unbeaten run surviving it too.
