Sometimes being a football supporter is a tough existence. Like when your team spoils the chance of becoming Dutch football champion by losing the decisive last match first, and then tragically also loses the Dutch cup final by one lousy penalty only one week later. Both events happened in Rotterdam and I was there both times.

Losing the championship I guess was well deserved, looking at the lousy performance (sorry guys, I have to be honest) of AZ Alkmaar against Excelsior. How can you lose such an important match against the nr. 16 of the Dutch league that was actually not playing for any goal in the season anymore? Or were the rumours of Excelsior players getting rewarded generously by Ajax Amsterdam if they would win right after all...Still even in that case of course AZ should have won, that was all they needed to stay ahead of Ajax and PSV.

Losing the cup final was another story. Not being objective of course, I am still convinced AZ was better than Ajax and they deserved to win. On the other hand they failed to grasp the huge chance to win a prize for the first time in 25 years again. With all the chances they got, they should have scored much more than only once. Too bad that one of the best players of the season had to miss the decisive penalty. So me, my brother and his colleague and about 15,000 other AZ fans had to return home sad and angry once more. One more chance left to finish the season with a smile on our face: if we manage to win the play offs, we might see Manchester United, Barcelona or Inter Milan in Alkmaar for Champions League matches next year!