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Feyenoord keeps Chelsea at 1-1

July 25th, 2007 | By: Jan | 9 Comments »

The official opening of Feyenoord’s season was different than the one of last season. Or the season before that…

After two dismal years, Feyenoord has it’s pride back! With Bert van Marwijk back at the reigns, captain Gio in midfield and Phantom Makaay upfront, the Dutch Legion faithfully spent their savings on seasons’ tickets and new jerseys.

As a result of the Kalou move, Chelsea was to be the first real opponent in De Kuip. Tickets were sold in record times and the NOS decided, with all the Feyenoord hype, to broadcast this match live. And what a party it was… Not that Feyenoord played extremely well, and don’t forget: Chelsea left several big names at home, but at least pride, hope and support returned to the once-famous behemoth from Rotterdam.

And Feyenoord took the lead. It was midfielder De Guzman who crossed to Kevin Hofland, who made his first official Feyenoord goal 1-0, after Sevtchenko missed a couple of chances earlier. Feyenoord played concentrated and focussed with a will to win. It wasn’t to be, though. A little mistake by Theo Lucius was enough for Lampard to score the equalizer. When Roy Makaay missed a penalty kick in the dying minutes, instead of booing his reward was loud cheering and applause. The crowd forgave him. A missed penalty, defensive mistakes, a draw against Chelsea instead of a win…. Who cares?

Van Marwijk used the following players, which could prove to be the line-up for the season start:

Henk Timmer

Lucius – Vlaar – Hofland – De Cler

De Guzman – Gio – Sahin

Slory- Makaay – Drenthe

Bruins, Hoffs, Greene and Bruins will have to await their turn.

Chelsea played without Robben, Ballack, Terry and Kalou.

It’s clear that Feyenoord is back! AZ, PSV, Ajax…beware…

Tags: Bert van Marwijk, Roy Makaay, Royston Drenthe, The Netherlands

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Comments

By Bruce | July 25th, 2007 at 10:39 pm

Man, I can’t wait to watch a few of their games…

Posted from Republic Of Korea

By J. Donnner | July 25th, 2007 at 10:45 pm

Feyenoord is not back and won’t be back. Just getting some oldies doesn’t make you a champion. Instead oiled machines like AZ, Ajax and PSV however do.

By tjeerd | July 25th, 2007 at 11:19 pm

JAN. I hope your right about Feyenoord. Nice to see de Guzman score another goal.

By goose | July 26th, 2007 at 3:21 am

the game was alright; thought Feyenoord did pretty well considering it was their first real match this season
midfield was pretty strong (though Drenthe tried too hard), was not so impressed with the defence..Vlaar/Hofland both cant play the long ball so its difficult to get to the attack quickly with one pass
was surprised that Makaay missed, not the best thing that can happen in your first home game but im sure hell get over it (he prob. already is..) he will make about 20 this season without many problems

@J.Donner; its true that it is a little early but my guess is that Feyenoord will compete for the Championship this year.. would not call Ajax an oiled machine btw and we can discuss Az’s mental strenght..maybe Feyenoord is not back yet but believe me that they will, its not only a metter of technic/tactic its also the believe in ones own team and thats what Feyenoord and their supporters have…believe that they can win and compete with the best (in Holland that is)

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By tjeerd | July 26th, 2007 at 11:27 am

I stand to be corrected Hofland scored the goal.

By Darth | July 26th, 2007 at 5:10 pm

I’m not a Feyenoord fan, but I’m starting to regret that they won’t play in UEFA cup this year…
Keep it going lads, you’re doing a great job with the blog! This is the only way I can get serious info about Dutch football. Thumbs up!

By Miguel Rosado | July 26th, 2007 at 6:12 pm

Hello everyone, I am very happy for Hofland I always thought of him as a great defender. He is a leader and I think he is better than Mathijsen.

By Miguel Rosado | July 26th, 2007 at 6:12 pm

Hello everyone, I am very happy for Hofland I always thought of him as a great defender. He is a leader and I think he is better than Mathijsen.

By goose | July 27th, 2007 at 4:19 am

@Miguel; think Hofland is ok, but nothing special..think youre right that he is a better defender them Mathijssen but the latter is a better builder from the back..Mathijssen is a better footballer..Hofland is pretty slow and his long ball is not up to standard but he has a great mentality..he has been playing relegation football with Wolfsburg all the time and that can only make you a better player (thats why my hopes are so high on vdVaart who had the same experience this year with Hsv)

would surprise me if Feyenoord would not compete for this years title (can they handle the pressure??)

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

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