The heaviest defeat of Huub Stevens
Huub Stevens has achieved many unforgettable victories in his long career - such as the 1997 UEFA Cup triumph with FC Schalke 04 as a coach. But the Dutchman still remembers his biggest defeat very clearly. Today Huub Stevens celebrates his 70th birthday!
"That was honestly the lowest point in my career." Huub Stevens was only in his mid-twenties at the time and playing for PSV Eindhoven - but that memorable evening in November 1979 was to be the biggest defeat of his life. The Dutchman, who is celebrating his 70th birthday today, was playing for PSV Eindhoven at the time and the second leg of the UEFA Cup was against French side Saint-Étienne.
The Dutch side had won the first leg 2-0, thanks in part to the meticulous preparation of the young Huub Stevens, his teammates Adrie van Kraaij and Willy van der Kuijlen and his coach Kees Rijvers. Together, they had traveled to a Saint-Étienne league match in Strasbourg to watch their upcoming opponent.
In his book "Never give up", Stevens recounts this curious and dramatic journey with their coach: "We didn't know that Kees Rijvers' wife Annie always had to tell him everything while driving, such as: Stop, it's red! We were driving on a ring road with a few traffic lights and Rijvers happily drove through every red light. He was so busy that he didn't notice. Adrie, Willy and I took turns driving later on and arrived at our destination safely." And indeed, the information they had gathered on site helped the team to win the first leg 2:0. PSV Eindhoven traveled to St. Etienne on November 7, 1979 full of hope.
"I just paid for the door"
But then something happened that nobody could have expected. Shortly after the start of the game, the Dutch team were 3-0 down within five minutes. Stevens remembers: "Someone told me later that he went to the toilet just before kick-off. When he came back, the score was 0:3 and I was really stunned. I had never experienced anything like that before and would never experience it again." But there was another reason why the evening turned into a personal drama for the young Huub Stevens. His coach Kees Rijvers decided to take him, of all people, off the pitch after just a quarter of an hour.
Stevens looked at his coach in disbelief. Why did the coach take him off of all people, he asked himself? Was he supposed to be the scapegoat for the fact that the entire team was completely out of sorts? Stevens still remembers everything about that memorable day: "Man, I was so angry. I went into the changing room and kicked the door so hard that there was a huge hole in it afterwards. I had to pay for the door later. They sent me a bill home for the equivalent of 240 guilders. An amount for which they could afford a really good door. But anyway, I just paid for the door."
Still not in double figures
But Stevens wouldn't be Stevens if he hadn't regained his composure minutes later after a cold shower and whipped the team forward. After all, a goal would have put his team back in the race. Thanks to the away goals rule that still existed at the time, PSV Eindhoven would even have gone straight through to the next round. But that was not to be the case on that blasted day. Quite the opposite.
The high-caliber AS Saint-Étienne team led by young French star Michel Platini, established stars such as Dominique Rocheteau and Patrick Battiston and Dutch runner-up Johnny Rep showed no mercy and played their game through to the end. At the final whistle, the score was 6:0, but observers on site were still saying for a long time that the completely one-sided game in the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard should have been a double-digit victory for the French.
"And what can I do about it?"
But this biggest and heaviest defeat in Huub Stevens' professional career also had a funny side at the end - even if nobody could laugh about the situation at the time, immediately after the game, as the Dutchman recalls in his biography, which is well worth reading: "After the game, Rijvers got a good telling off from his wife. She was also outraged because he had taken me out of the game. I preferred not to say anything and didn't look at him. I was still incredibly angry and incredibly disappointed." But Stevens was later caught up in the whole story.
The day after the match in St. Etienne, his coach came to him and complained loudly that he was actually having a fight with his wife because of him. But Huub Stevens reacted in a cool and level-headed manner. He replied thoughtfully: "And what can I do about it? You shouldn't have substituted me."
And with that, the defeat was over for the time being - but Huub Stevens never forgot that particular day of shame. Fortunately for the future European Cup winner with FC Schalke 04 in 1997 against Inter Milan, it was to remain the biggest defeat of his career. Today, the likeable Dutchman celebrates his 70th birthday. All the best and good luck, dear Huub Stevens!
Despite the successful preparation for the UEFA Cup match against Saint-Étienne, PSV Eindhoven suffered a heavy defeat in the return leg, losing 6-0. Huub Stevens, then a player for PSV, was substituted after just a quarter of an hour, leading to a memorable evening filled with disappointment and frustration. In the Soccer Bundesliga, FC Schalke 04, a team Stevens would later coach, has also experienced its share of ups and downs.
Source: www.ntv.de
