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Dutch teams in Europa League

September 18th, 2009 | By: Jan | 30 Comments »

The Europa League is clearly regarded as much less interesting for Australian broadcasters. Not one game was presented here, so all my views are based on what I heard from mates, read in the media and saw on YouTube.

PSV – without Afellay – played a tough away game against the once mighty Sparta Prague (former club of Nedved, Cech, Poborsky, Koller, Rosicky et al), which in the recent history beat Ajax, Feyenoord and Willem II. PSV did relatively well, but needed some help from the referee. In the first half PSV controlled the game well and created some chances, but so did Sparta. PSV was sloppy in possession though and lost the control in the first half, which ended 0-0. In the second half, with 15 minutes to go, Sparta struck from a setpiece, only for PSV to hit back five minutes later, also from a setpiece. A Dszudszak free kick fell in front of Jonathan’s feet – the Brazilian had come on as a sub: 1-1. With only four minutes to go, a counter-attack got the 2-1 on the boards and the Czechs hoped to celebrate a win. But in injury time, the ref saw a foul on Lazovic and placed the ball on the spot. Sub Jonathan -who was almost kicked out of Young PSV last season for being “difficult” – took the ball and coolly hit it home: 2-2. Disappointing football, but an ok result.

Ajax was planning to break the stride of Romanian side who hadn’t lost a European game till the game in Amsterdam. But whatever Ajax tried to do, it wasn’t enough. With Siem de Jong for Enoh, Ajax attacked what it wanted but lacked the brilliance to find a hole to score.

In two weeks, Ajax plays Anderlecht. Relatively tougher, but at least Anderlecht will try to create something, which is not what Timisoara was trying to do.

Ajax had three major chances in the first half (Suarez, Cvitanich and De Jong) but failed to score. Jol: “Sometimes you gotta have a bit more wits to score. We weren’t savvy enough.”

Timmisoara created one goal attempt in 90 minutes. Jol: “If you want to have one positive aspect, we kept the naught. I’ve seen teams play against these types of opponents and even concede one from a counter. At least that didn’t happen.”

Ajax did have numerous corner kicks but to Jol’s frustration, Ajax hasn’t been successful this season with it’s corner kicks. “A highly disappointing evening for us.”

FC Twente kept it’s head remarkably cool in the Hell of Instanbul. McClaren’s team acted highly professional and collected in the vicious circumstances in that loud stadium. And a late goal conceded wouldn’t rock their boat either. Thanks to two N’Kufo goals, the visitors left the arena as the winning gladiators: 1-2.

Christoph Daum’s Fenerbahce was obviously the favorite. On paper, the Turkish team was the stronger, what with Roberto Carlos, Alax, Lugano and a handful of Turkish internationals.

Fener put lots of pressure on Twente in the first half, but the disciplined Tukkers wouldn’t budge. They even got the better chances through N”Kufo and Ruiz.

Twente took control over the match in the second half and was clearly going for victory. This resulted in lack of organization at the back and Boschker was lucky the Fener strikers couldn’t find the target. Ruiz had the 0-1 on his boot after 60 minutes of play but hopelessly missed. Ten minutes later, Topuz scored the 1-0 for the home side.

Twente couldn’t be bothered and in ten minutes the Tukkers led 1-2, thanks to N’Kufo being alert. Twente boldly played the game to a close.

Heerenveen keeps on disappointing… In the first phase of their homegame against Sporting Lisbon, they seemed to be totally overrun, with chances in the first minutes for Liedson and Moutinho.

It was Heerenveen however, that scored the first after 12 minutes. Gerald Sibon headed the 1-0 in the net. Five minutes later the quick Liedson scored the 1-1.

Heerenveen played good football, however and Paulo Henrique thought he had scored, with a lob. But where everyone saw the ball go in, the linesman thought defender Caneiro cleared the ball in time. So, no goal. Later on, the tv proved the referee and linesman had it right.

Not much later, Liedson scored again for Sporting, which defeated Twente in the CL qualifications.

Michael Dingsdag scored a fine goal from a setpiece and hoped to have secured a point for Heerenveen, but in the 88st minute, again Liedson scored the winner: 2-3.

Tags: Ajax, Group C, Jol, Jonathan, NKufo, PSV, Reis, rutten, Sibon, Twente

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 30 comments.

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By Sol | September 18th, 2009 at 5:42 am

Maybe they’re internationals on paper but in reality they aren’t good enough for international football. Schaars and de Silva have both shown that now for Oranje that there’s a big gap between Dutch league and international football. The same can be said for Affelay and Engelaar at PSV. Then we get to the Belgian players, international football (WCQ) has shown that these Belgian players may be good enough for the Dutch league, but again, not good enough for international football.

As for Holman, no idea, didn’t notice him, haven’t watched him much.

El Hamdaoui, yeah, that’s actually a good player, I’d possibly trade him for Kuyt or Huntelaar so I can’t be too negative about him, but I’ll only trade him after he has proven himself outside the Dutch league (German, Spanish, Italian or English are the standard, but apparently even Romanian, Turkish and Greek league is more challenging then the Dutch league now).

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | September 18th, 2009 at 5:45 am

I just saw the highlights of PSV and in my view the Scottish ref is a courageous man to award that penalty, but I think he was right. Wilfried had both hands around Lazovic and was hanging on him, almost. Good thing the ref awarded the penalty. I hate that stuff.

By Jan | September 18th, 2009 at 5:58 am

Yeah but seriously, AZ played Olympiakos right? Not Liverpool or Barca… Schaars might not be Arsenal quality – in your eyes – but he and his mates should have done better against the Greeks. I haven’t seen the game but to me, the difference with how it could have been is in the coach. Big difference: Koeman or Van Gaal.

I personally believe Schaars is Oranje material. The one game against England was a bad one, true, but I have a lot of trust in the bloke.

As for Belgium, here’s an interesting one… They have the funny bloke who plays at Everton, Vertonghen (Ajax), Vermaelen (Arsenal), Aldeweireld (Ajax), Pocognoli (AZ), Kompany (Man City), Simons (PSV), Martens, Dembele (both AZ) and God knows who else… Quite an interesting and relatively young team.

Wim van Hanegem analysed them recently and said the team is being destroyed “Oranje infighting style” by infighting between French and Flemish forces, and Vercauteren couldn’t control that. If Advocaat can, Belgium will impress. In 2012

By Michel-Olivier | September 18th, 2009 at 7:12 am

the solution to belgium is all the flemish should play for orange and the walloon should stay with belgium.
i wouldn’t mind vertonghen, vermaelen, van buyten, wuytens and aldeweireld playing for orange or jong orange.

Posted from United States

By sonneveld | September 18th, 2009 at 7:29 am

wilfred bouma is ready to play again, I like him a lot.

This weekend will be interesting for

de jong
huntelaar
maduro
boulahrouz
braafheid
heitinga

to see where they are in there respective teams

By Alex | September 18th, 2009 at 12:45 pm

Michel-Olivier, I say it again, why the discrimination against Walloon then, if there would ever be a reuniting of the old netherlands of some substantial sort, Wallons in my eyes could function nothing worse than the Frisians, who are also a different people, with a very different language and ways that live in the Netherlands. Ever heard of Eden Hazard, also Wallon.

Posted from Netherlands

By Jason | September 18th, 2009 at 1:17 pm

@ Alex
Speaking from a Canadian perspective, that never really worked out for us. We have indigenous people and French Canadians content to ripping the country apart and bankrupting us for their own interest.

Posted from Canada

By Alex | September 18th, 2009 at 1:31 pm

Oops, well, my previous comment looks more political or geographical than i meant it to be. Please read it with some freedom towards football and players.

Posted from Netherlands

By Alex | September 18th, 2009 at 1:54 pm

Well Jason, I could give you a little talk about governments, peoples, structures and societies. No particular reason, just theoretical.
Canada as well as Belgium have different sorts of structures of society, different from Netherlands, and have in common that french speaking part are somehow(rightfully or not) seen as less in just about everything, which almost becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Frisians are from origine just as different from the common Dutch man as wallon are from Flemish. Only we gave them some freedom within our country, and acknowledged their language as an official second language, and part of our common heritage, history and respected their use of it, but especially asked nothing more from them than living in dutch society and speak common dutch in public. Thus peacefull immigration with now much bigger relative (economical) succes growing in that regions by EU support for instance. In Belgium however, a country formed out of rebellion, they’re torn by deepseeded conflict between the two halves, by numerous reasons, including the ever more extreme seperate states within Belgium that are created by these mindless political and discriminatory games that are still played there this day. However died down a bit, the problem lies with the 7 million Flemish as majority still degrading, offending and generalising Walloon more than the other way around. Therefore, a structure withing a reuniting of these old common lands would have good chance of succes with the conditions that , 1. Walloon accept and learn Dutch as common language as well as hold regional languages as German and French forms as their own, and with recognition of those languages as official within the country.
2. Under a common government there should no longer be any dividing factor as just the Flemish and Walloon, but a restructuring with reuniting and reshaping of old former, but now (internationally)seperated provinces such as Brabant, Vlaanderen, Limburg, Holland. And doing so creating around 14-16 official provinces, fairly equally dividing the lands in relative autonomous regions without one dominating the other. With doing so, u will reduce the risk of serious conflict internal over a long term. The first period might still be a rocky one, but it should not last for long.
3. A brief but solid political plan is instated to help Walloon make a step up in development from the rest.

Simple as that. BTW if you say indiginous, you mean the indian people that the white man drove and murdered of off their native land for no other purpose than that of gain for the colonials. PS, no really don’t think it’s personal, lol

Posted from Netherlands

By finnster01 | September 18th, 2009 at 2:12 pm

@Alex, I am no expert on politics especially Dutch, so I can not comment on your solution. All I will say lets focus on football and take it from there.

By Jason | September 18th, 2009 at 2:35 pm

Finn’s right. Dwelling on the mistakes of European nations from over 200 years ago doesn’t quite fit the blog. So, having said that big game this weekend, Feyenoord v PSV.

I am going with Feyenoord to squeek out the win even with Ibby back.

Also:

ADO den Haag will win hopefully win again. Gotta love the under dog! This could be the tell tale sign the Eredivisie has hit an all time low though.

Posted from Canada

By Michel-Olivier | September 18th, 2009 at 3:03 pm

@ alex
flemish who learn their football in dutch academies should play for orange and walloon like hazard who learn football in france should be able to play for france.

in a political and football term everyone should take the swiss as an example how to run a inter football team and a government.

Posted from United States

By Alex | September 18th, 2009 at 3:49 pm

Well finn, I never asked for comments on it really, so you don’t have to stretch your brain or think up anything concerning that, for all i care you don’t read it at all, but there have been some stranger small subjects discussed or displayed here so. Was only trying to make a point to Jason really how i think such a thing can work.
M-O what i suggested basically is pretty much the Swiss idea in a slight different form,
But rather talk about football instead of trying to think up counterreforms for political systems, let me handle that.

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | September 18th, 2009 at 6:20 pm

Hi guys, I’m with Finn .

Let’s talk football, wags, movies, hairdo’s, shares, fashion and the best resipe for Ossobuco but we’ve been touching on geo-politics before and it didn’t end well . It’s a small step to offending another person or making judgements on race, creed, color, language, culture, religion and it always brings out lots of emotions…

Uptil now, it was a sensible discussion but let’s leave it at that.

The comment I connected with most is the suggestion to have Vermaelen, Vertonghen and Aldeweireld play for Oranje!

By Firezen | September 18th, 2009 at 7:58 pm

Oh boy, one of my friends from the netherlands showed me a website that had links to eredivisie games online yesterday! I am so looking forward to watching the Feyenoord – PSV game.

I’ll share the link once I actually try the website out to prove that the eredivisie games actually run, not just those hoax fake ass links google gives you when you search the games up. As far as I know though, the Davis Cup was running on my browser (the website broadcasts not just football), and for my Dutch friend (whom I asked to click the Willem II – Gronigen link), the player had colour strips / bars (it was before kick off time), so should work.

Can’t wait to use it.

Posted from Australia

By Tiju | September 18th, 2009 at 11:47 pm

Ooiger looks too old……..with a devilish smile….

Posted from India

By Tiju | September 19th, 2009 at 12:58 am

@jason
Afaleey is a time wasting dribbler…with less productivity but kuyt is more productive than him even though he doesn’t have the trickery skills.About Feynoord So you are right…i think with Fer,De guzman,Vlaar,Wijnaldum under a superb coach feynoord must get a convincing victory.But the worrying thing is they do not have a good striker in front..Maccay is not the man for them.i think should have signed RVN from madrid this summer.or ricky van wolfswinkel(for his development and for club).

Posted from India

By Jason | September 19th, 2009 at 2:11 am

@Tiju
Is it just me or does Ooijer look like a halloween costume of a skeleton? We should affectionately call him “Skeletor” from now on…

Posted from Canada

By Jason | September 19th, 2009 at 2:12 am

Maybe its Jim Carrey in the Mask

Posted from Canada

By Jan | September 19th, 2009 at 2:41 am

Tiju, I think your judgement on Afellay is a product of his replacement games at the EC, right?

He was brought on against Italy and France (?) to replace a wide player (Kuyt?) and to keep the win in the pocket. He did dribble a lot but it was relatively functional there.

At PSV, he plays in the central “Sneijder” position and he’s a good passer of the ball with great vision and generally all round skills.

As it mostly happens, players are allowed their debut on either harmless positions (flanks) or on their own spots if the coach doesn’t have an alternative, like with Van der Wiel.

Van Persie started as left winger at Feyenoord. Dennis Bergkamp started as right winger at Ajax, just like Gullit at Feyenoord.

Later on, Van Persie took center stage, as did Dennis while Gullit’s best season in Holland was a libero (!) for PSV.

You have to judge a player at his club, not on the basis of some tactical change for 20 minutes in the National squad.

By Jan | September 19th, 2009 at 2:45 am

Damn Jase, it IS Jim Carey!

By Firezen | September 19th, 2009 at 3:37 am

@Tiju

RVNs going to come back to PSV, our ex players (mostly Dutch) like retiring or taking one of their last stops of their career back in Eindhoven, and our club is more than happy to buy them back. Would really kill the development of at least a few youngsters, but I guess that’s what makes us a family club.

Him to Feyenoord is really beyond the picture frame for fans like us, and I would really drop my jaws if he did.

Posted from Australia

By Jeroen | September 19th, 2009 at 4:57 am

That’s not just at PSV. All of Ajax’s and Feyenoord’s old players usually come back for a year or two at the end. RVN would never go to anything in the Eredivisie but PSV, that’s for sure.

Posted from Netherlands

By Tiju | September 20th, 2009 at 11:20 pm

@jan….agreed on Afaleey but i am still doubting him.

Posted from India

By Tiju | September 20th, 2009 at 11:22 pm

@firezen true…About RVN knew it,if will play with PSV only…

Posted from India

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