Bittersweet night for Marcellis
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Article summary
Dirk Marcellis, 18, told uefa.com he could look back on an "amazing" senior debut despite being sent off as PSV Eindhoven exited the UEFA Champions League.
Article body
The most important date circled on the calendar of PSV Eindhoven defender Dirk Marcellis would usually be his birthday on 13 April, but Wednesday 11 April 2007 is a night he will never forget.
Birthday present
Just two days before turning 19, Marcellis received the news he had been waiting to hear ever since he was old enough to kick a football: "You're making your professional debut tonight." PSV coach Ronald Koeman waited until the morning of the match before he took Marcellis aside and informed him he would be filling the right-back position in his starting eleven. Not only that, he would have to face Liverpool FC in a UEFA Champions League quarter-final at Anfield. No pressure then.
Worst nightmare
However much Marcellis might have imagined it though, it is safe to say he would not, in his worst nightmares, have envisaged being sent off just 64 minutes into his arrival on club football's biggest stage. A foul on fellow Dutchman Boudewijn Zenden earned him a dismissal but, despite watching PSV lose 1-0 on the night and 4-0 on aggregate from the sidelines, Marcellis still managed to raise a smile when he looked back on his dramatic entrance and exit.
'Great feeling'
Marcellis told uefa.com: "It was a great feeling when the coach told me I was playing. These are my first minutes in a PSV shirt and they are in the Champions League against Liverpool in this fantastic stadium, with all the people so close to the pitch. It was amazing." Those Liverpool fans gave Marcellis a warm and sympathetic ovation when he was sent off but their encouraging applause fell on deaf ears. "I was too upset to hear them if they were clapping me to be honest," he said.
New targets
A young man needs new goals to put disappointment behind him and Marcellis, who captained his country at the 2005 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Peru, already has two more ambitions on the immediate horizon. "On Friday I will celebrate my birthday with my family and friends - I think I will get a big reaction from them after this game!" he said. "Then I want to get into the PSV first team every week as fast as I can." With PSV's next match coming at home against FC Twente in the Eredivisie on Saturday, those birthday celebrations will have to be muted.
