Last night saw the first game this season in the newly named Kyocera Stadion. The match against the Scottish premier league side Hibernian was played in warm humid weather and watched by a sparse crowd.

The match kicked off and within seconds Hibernian was awarded a free kick just outside the ADO penalty area. Coutinho in the ADO goal scrambled the ball away, but not out of harms way. The parried shot fell nicely for the Hibernian defender Michael Hart to head home under no challenge at all from a static defence. A goal down after only one minute!
 

Under the new manager; ADO look to be playing in a more adventurous manner, a target man, Lex Immers being fed by two wingers and backed up by two attacking midfielders. It looked as though this suited ADO as at times, some of the pass and move interchanges between the ADO attacks were superb.

Eleven minutes played and new man Frantisek Kubik worked well down the right hand side and got the ball to Buijs who scored a scrambled effort to equalize; 1-1.

After the equalizing goal, the pattern of play dropped to a level typical of a friendly match. ADO the team doing all the running, but faced a back line of six defenders across the box and couldn’t break through. Despite the lack of urgency in the game, there were some tasty crunching tackles that left a few players with sore legs. The first half ended and it looked as though both teams could have gone to the bar for a drink; lethargy was there to be seen by all.

The second half started as the first ended. The players huffed and puffed with no real intent on inflicting damage to each others goal. There were a few glimmers of ADO seeking a winner, mainly from runs down both wings.

Just before the hour mark, ADO had a few chances in quick succession. Van den Bergh, Kubik and Immers all went close. In the sixty second minute, Good work by van den Bergh who played a ball in between Toornstra and Immers. Immers quickest and strongest to react got his shot in and beat the keeper; 2-1.

The final half an hour petered out in to a dire excuse for a football match. Hibernian made several substitutions to waste a bit of time. Thankfully the referee took pity on everybody and blew the final whistle bang on the ninety minute mark.

The new man in charge, John van den Brom seems to know how he wants his team to play; plenty of movement on the floor and less of the hopefully high long ball. The players look suited to it and I believe, well hope that ADO Den Haag will be in for a less traumatic season this time around.

ADO man of the match: Ricky van den Bergh. His willingness to work and provide options for others was commendable.

Attendance: No figure given at the game, but would estimate around 1300.

Next ADO home match is another friendly, this time against the Welsh team; Swansea City, who play in the English Championship division. Match kicks of on Saturday 31st July; kick off at 19.30. Tickets can be purchased from the stadium on the day of the match providing you have some legitimate photo ID with you.

Date for your Diary
On Sunday August 1st it is the ADO Den Haag family day. Between 11.00 and 16.00 there will be lots of entertainment for the whole family. You can get to meet the players who will be signing autographs and posing for pictures with the fans. For the men, tyou can also pose with the ladies from the ADO cheerleaders. Highlights of the day are, there is to be a match played between a team of ex ADO players and a team of celebrities from the local TV West channel. That is between 15.00 and 16.00, after which the full ADO squad for the coming season will be presented to the crowd in the stadium itself. I went last year and it was a lot of fun!

1 - Derek Riordan takes the Hibernian free kick that leads to their goal.
2 - Michael Hart opens the scoring with an easy header.
3 - Despite being a friendly, there were some mean tackles flying around.
4 - Lex Immers is congratulated on his winning goal.

Text and Photos by Neal McClimon
neal@thehagueonline.com
www.itpphotography.com

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