Dutch Comedy Capers in the Eredivisie

When I moved to Australia in 2003 I thought I had to kiss Dutch Eredivisie football goodbye. It was a bit sad, really. I too grew up with my plate on my lap. But, I figured, I get to see the CL games, the WC and ECs and then there’s the Olympics… And who knows, maybe I do enjoy Rugby and who knows, maybe one day I will understand cricket a bit…

In 2004 I had to watch the EC games in Portugal via a complicated video-tape system. A friend of a friend would tape it live. He’d then send the tapes overnight to where we were and the next day we’d all watch the matches, making sure no one would read the papers, go on the internet and we also told our mates in Holland not to text us about the matches. No fun. You sort of miss that “spur of the moment” excitement and it did happen a couple of times that people in town would yell: he Dutchie, congrats with the match mate…”. And you’d go…Aaaarrrghhh…

Now, in 2008 we have Setanta Sports and I can see a Dutch Eredivisie match live every week. Yea! I have to set the alarm for 4 am, but at least I get to see the Feyenoord and NAC gladiators sluggin’ it out.

But man oh man… What a waste… Of sleeping time. What a dreadful match. And believe me, all matches I saw recently of Dutch Eredivisie games were poor as. Shocking… I know we here are all Oranje fans, and we do have great Dutch players playing in Spain, England, Italy and so forth but…

Feyenoord led the standings in 2007 for a short while. Things looked good. Last week they lost against Sparta (relegation candidate) and yesterday NAC was too strong: 3-1. And I know, Makaay, Slory, Sahin, Vlaar…all injured. And I know, Michael Mols is 37 years old and doing his best… And I know, NAC is in the top 5… But still… Fighting for their chance to end in the Top 5 and being able to qualify for CL next season didn’t really inspire the Feyenoord players. It.was.poor. I didn’t see any chance bar one for Gio in the second half. Defending and building up was poor and the NAC strikers had a field day. They could even afford to miss a penalty. Feyenoord scored first by the way (youngster Fer) in the tenth minute and decided to leave the possession to NAC. Bad decision. The Ernie Brandts led team got into rhythm and crushed Feyenoord.

Pop Quiz: Ernie Brandts has a WC record to his name!! Does anyone know what that is?

In the last three matches, Feyenoord will have to win twice and draw once at least to even make it to the play-offs.

The Play Offs. The wise old men of the NV Eredivisie (and the clubs) decided that next year, the Play Offs will be canceled. The number 2 will automatically qualify for CL qualification games. I will make a separate post on this decision.

Tomorrow, the KNVB wants to present Bert van Marwijk for the press. The former UEFA Cup winner wasn’t in the mood. “You don’t have to come. Really, I am not in the mood, I won’t say a lot. I am focused on Feyenoord. We have some tough challenges before us and I’m only in Zeist because the KNVB wants me there. Stay at home.” Well, the KNVB wanted to sign a press-genic coach… Here ya go :-).

This weekend, PSV wasn’t able to win the title. They drew 0-0 against Mario Been’s NEC.

Ajax on the other hand resurrected themselves against Heerenveen and try to stay in form for the Play Offs. Adrie Koster decided it was time for more flair after lacklustre performances at PSV and FC Twente. The former Oranje winger decided to bring Perez back in the team and with that typical Ajax bravado, the Sons of Gods beat Heerenveen 2-4. Koster played with three strikers and Perez as attacking midfielder. For Huntelaar, there was a little party, he scored his 100th Eredivisie goal and he managed to score against every Eredivisie club in his career. Quite a feat. Now, the former PSV talent wants to get a 1-1 ratio: 34 goals, in other words. He still has a couple to go, but he is close!

AZ… Now that’s a story. Goose already mentioned it. Louis van Gaal threw the towel last Thursday. He can’t stand the lack of discipline after 6 (!) players were too late for training. He decided that obviously, the majority of the players didn’t want to work for him anymore. He talked to chairman Scheringa and said: let’s just part ways. The next day the two AZ captains (Schaars and Jaliens) went to Scheringa and pleaded with him to force Van Gaal to stay. The proud coach decided to stay on till the end of the season. Van Gaal will now determine on the last three games whether he will go on with this group of whether he’ll leave anyway.

The two main broadcasters in Holland (NOS and RTL) however, decided to bring the news with a different slant: Van Gaal was sacked, but the players saved him for now. And Scheringa will determine - not Van Gaal - whether Louis can stay on.

Rubbish! Bullshit! Van Gaal was foaming at the mouth and decided to boycott the two broadcasters “until they formally apologize for this piece of shit journalism”. Never a dull moment with Van Gaal…

AZ did win again, at long last. The last home win was in December 2007! AZ beat Vitesse 2-1 with a late goal by sub Julian Jenner. His first touch was the winner.

Our boys abroad now… Not a lot of news: Van Persie scored from the spot (the only good thing he did in the match) to help Arsenal win a tight match. Sar is still injured and didn’t play with Man United (won 4-0). Sneijder gave the assist on Heintze for Real’s easy win over Sevilla. Earlier in the weekend Barca lost their match.