Ronald Koeman junior hit out after Telstar's surprise 2-1 win over NEC over the way referee Martijn Vos treated him during the match. Koeman was jeered by the Nijmegen crowd for alleged time-wasting and also shown a yellow card in the closing stages.
With twelve minutes left, Vos booked Koeman for taking too long over a free-kick. The Telstar goalkeeper, though, feels the referee had been watching him closely throughout the game.
Speaking to Koeman, reporter Milan van Dongen pointed out that at goal-kicks he sometimes deliberately chose a ball that was a bit further away. "If that's how you want to put it...," Koeman replied to the ESPN cameras. "I do feel like I'm being singled out. By the crowd, the referee... I have to go and get that ball and he's already counting."
Then, in stoppage time, Koeman ran into a relatively new rule. The officials awarded NEC a corner because the goalkeeper, in their view, had waited too long to take a goal-kick.
"You also understand that I'm not going to sprint," Koeman replied. "You have to keep the tempo in the game and I think it's a fine rule, but we mustn't exaggerate. And that yellow card..."
When Vos showed him the yellow, Bryan Linssen was still standing too close to the ball, according to Koeman. That is why the goalkeeper believes Vos should not yet have started counting down the available time.
Koeman then revealed a striking comment from the referee. "Then he says to me: 'I'd start thinking about how you want to do that this season.' I think that's a very odd reaction."
Even so, Koeman did not want to dwell for too long on Vos's performance. "Other than that, he refereed fine, let me put it that way," laughed the goalkeeper, who took three points away from Nijmegen with Telstar. "In the end we have three points, so I don't care any more either."