Saturday, 16 October 2021

Go Ahead Eagles

Regular readers will know I am fascinated by football club names. See my earlier post about the Stuttgarter Kickers. The Go Ahead Eagles are a club in the Eredivisie - the Netherlands First Division. They gained promotion last season by finishing second in the Eerste Divisie (First Division, which is what the second tier competition is called - don't ask). They last won the Eredivisie in 1933, so it's time to Go Ahead again.

Proper football fans, i.e. all our readers, will be interested to know that the Go Ahead Eagles were the first club of renowned player Marc Overmars, winner of 86 caps for the Netherlands. Marc came out of a 'retirement' in 2008, after leaving Barcelona in 2004, to give some glamour to his home town club for a year at the age of 35, making 24 appearances for them in the Eerste Divisie. I always find it heartwarming that there is still romance in football.

The club is from the city of Deventer, population 100,000; the eagle is in the coat of arms of Deventer
Hence Eagles in the club's name. The club was founded as Be Quick in 1902 but had to change its name because the players were not quick enough there was already a Go Ahead club. As for the name, dutch.news.nl tells us "The Dutch, as we know, are a sensible folk. But not when it comes to naming their football clubs. In most countries football clubs have really boring names like Manchester United, Barcelona or Paris Saint Germain. But not so in the Netherlands. Here, names are descriptive."

I guess that's some kind of answer and at least it give the fans - average attendance 6,500 - a reasonable chant. And ... I have a song for them:

1, 2, 3, GO!
Go ahead now! See the mail order
Go ahead now! Cooling off the paper
Fall in, fall out, Fall in, Fall out

Go ahead now! Check your speedmeter
Go ahead now! Refrigerator
Fall in, fall out, Fall in, Fall out

Take a big mess, take a little rest
Take your reflex, spoil your test
We're pinheads! Here we go now!

Go for it! Let'em make a phone call
Go for it! Let'em get a own goal
Fall in, Fall out Fall in, fall out

Go for it! Let'em dig a big hole
Go for it! Let the good times roll
Fall in, Fall out Fall in, fall out
Let's go!

Take a big mess, Take a little rest
Take your reflex, Spoil your test
We're pinheads! Here we go now!

Let'em scoot, Let'em go!
Go ahead now! Go for it!
Go ahead now! Go for it!
Fall in, Fall out

Here we go ahead now now now now!

Take a big mess, Take a little rest
Take your reflex, Spoil your test
We're pinheads! Here we go now!

Take a big mess, Take a little rest
Take your reflex, Spoil your test
We're pinheads! Here we go now!

The song is by Polysics, a Japanese new wave and rock band from Tokyo, who dubs its unique style as "technicolor pogo punk". It was named after a brand of synthesizer, the Korg Polysix. [according to Wikipedia]. This is it:
Obviously a bit tricky for the fans to sing, but a great "entering the field" booster.

You'll be pleased to know they are Going Ahead reasonably well so far this season. And - at the time of writing - they have just gone ahead in their latest match.

1 comment:

  1. Go Ahead Eagles beat Heracles Almelo 4-2 to go 12/18 in the Eredivisie on 16 October 2021.

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