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Koevermans saves PSV!

October 23rd, 2008 | By: Jan | 8 Comments »

Danny Koevermans scored twice for PSV and directs his frustration and anger at a “certain person on the stands”… Mr Jan Reker maybe?

While PSV is looking in every nook and cranny for a new striker in Europe, Danny Koevermans gave his calling card against Olympique Marseille. The former Sparta striker scored twice, securing PSV’s first CL victory this year.

The fans had given up on PSV Eindhoven. But Koevermans turned into their hero. After 71 minutes of football, he hit his shaved head against a corner kick by Wuytens and the precisely placed ball found the net. Five minutes before the final whistle, he did it again, this time diving for the Mendez cross.

PSV has a serieus chance to go to the UEFA cup tournament, now the third spot in Poule D is in sight. Another win or a draw in Marseille could be enough.

In the first games – against Atletico and Liverpool – PSV played the role of “mouse”. Yesterday, PSV seemed to have matured. With nine internationals and two youth internationals in the squad, PSV actually looked solid and stable.

Coach Huub Stevens changed his forward line up. Dzsudzsak, Lazovic and Amrabat were subbed, in favor of Koevermans, Bakkal and Mendez. Otman Bakkal was the danger man with his penetration runs in the French defense.

PSV fought Olympique with aggression. PSV dominated the game and didn’t give anything away. The sharpness and smarts let Stevens’ team down in the French box, meaning the dominance wasn’t translated into goals.

In big matches, you only get two or three real chances, is the cliche. PSV would get seven serious opps and should have had closed the game off long before Koev scored his goals.

Bakkal offered Wuytens a huge chance in the 6th minute, but he missed. Bakkal, Afellay, again Wuytens and Koevermans should have opened PSV’s account, but they didn’t.

The anxiety on the stands grew with every opportunity wasted. After Koeverman’s first goal, the French tried to create something and took the game to PSV for the first time. But they didn’t deserve anything and ended up with nothing.

Huub Stevens was very satisfied with his group’s mentality against Marseille.
“Today, we saw a team that didn’t want to lose. I think they learned from the NAC game. Tonight they’ve shown that they can work and sacrifice themselves for the result and the team. This was a fantastic performance. They deserve the credits for how they played: with discipline and passion. This is why people come to see us.”

“We knew we would create chances. You need to be patient and score them. I rather would have seen the goals earlier in the game, we did get those opportunities… Yesterday, Juve got two opportunities against Real Madrid and they scored both. We got six chances and also scored two. That’s the efficiency we miss, and that’s the difference between PSV and Juventus.”

Does this mean Koevermans will be the man upfront from now on? “No, we will determine our ideal line up on a match by match basis. This was the best line up for this game. The next game will be different.”

Danny Koevermans was remarkable in how he celebrated his goals. As if he was angry? “I was, let’s say, agitated. Someone on the stands had said something about me. I wanted to express my frustration with that. Scoring twice is the best thing to do, I guess. I won’t tell you his name. He knows, and that’s enough.”

The media speculated that PSV manager Jan Reker was the man who copped the anger of the former AZ striker. He had said in the press that PSV needed a striker who could score a “9″, instead of a “7″ like Koevermans…

Tags: Afellay, Bakkal, CL, Group C, Holland, Koevermans, Oranje, PSV, Stevens

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Comments

By Caleb | October 23rd, 2008 at 9:07 am

PSV played well sometimes but still looked sloppy at other times. They missed three (!) open net opportunities – one from Afellay and two from Wuytens. They got lucky that Koevermans saved them in the end.
I thought Bakkal played well – he had a good opportunity and set up several of the open net chances that his team mates wasted. Afellay was not so good last night.

Posted from Canada

By Alex | October 23rd, 2008 at 10:12 am

Salcido did what he usually does, pretty solid game, not very spectacular but decent.
Surprisingly, I thought “Maza” Rodriguez was much better, and much more convincing than Brechet, although Brechet must have had his best PSV game yet. Also thought you could really see on what fronts Marcellis needs to improve. I said it all before, he needs to improve his defending in one-on-one situations, you could see it very clearly in his confrontations with Ben Arfa, he got past him pretty easily a few times. Also needs to improve on heading and high-balls, and a bit of positioning, covering. The basics are there, but needs more experience and development before he’ll make the step to a higher level. But I think it would be a good move to put Marcellis in as a regular right-back, because putting a fairly unexperienced defender on another position than he’s used too is considered a bit less dangerous(any mistakes will probably happen outside the box), you pretty much force him to (try and) acquire/learn new skills needed for that position as good as possible, overall it’s very helpful in a defender’s development, look at players like Puyol(RB, turned CB), Stam(RB, turned CB, eventually turned RB at Milan and back to center at Ajax) or Maldini(RB, turned LB, turned CB). After all of this, don’t think i’m bashing him, cause i’d love to see him turn into a sort of dutch Cannavaro or Gallas.
I’d like to see

Isaksson
Marcellis-Rodriguez-Salcido-Brechet/Pieters
if that doesn’t work maybe

Isaksson
Kromkamp-Marcellis-Rodriguez-Salcido
or continue were he left against L’ol or whatever it’s called
Isaksson
Marcellis-Rodriguez-Pieters/Brechet-Salcido

I would from now on start with Rodriguez, Salcido and Marcellis as regulars and rotate according to the opponent with Kromkamp, Brechet, Addo(best sub you could have, plays 4-6 games a year and only bitched about it one time) and Pieters

Posted from Netherlands

By goose | October 23rd, 2008 at 2:38 pm

off topic; some news on Bergkamp (&Cruijff)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/7687404.stm

Posted from Netherlands

By Michel-Olivier | October 23rd, 2008 at 3:06 pm

villa 2 ajax 1

heerenveen 0 milan 2

nancy 2 feyenoord 0

bad day for dutch club

Posted from United States

By ghost of steve finnan | October 23rd, 2008 at 5:52 pm

Full time: Villa 2, Ajax 1
Nancy 3-0 feyenoord
milan3-1 heerenveen
dinamo z 3-2 nec
twente 1-0 racing

1 for 5 (Mcclaren!), but 3 of the 4 losses were away, and heerenveen at home v milan, so its not over, but wasnt a great eredivisie showing either.

Ajax looked like boys v men on a physical strength level against villa, although i thought urby looked very good and had a great low shot from just outside the box that forced Freidel into a diving parry, but no Ajax player could pounce for a late equalizer. Silva, the RB, was tortured by Ashley Young all day and was Ajax weak link. Lindgren was also poor in the mf and Gabri pretty invisible. If Ajax takes care of its 2 home games, where it will be favored, then it’ll advance even if they lose at hamburg–which they will.

Posted from United States

By mario | October 23rd, 2008 at 6:22 pm

Well…it seems van Basten still has plenty to learn. His Ajax is a laugh. I mean, Ajax game is very poor. It is a pity that a team with such tradition loses to teams like Aston Villa but also the players that Ajax have now are not good enough…Huntelaar should get out of there because he is not improving his form at that team and right now he is not playing and scoring like he can do. Will the board support van Basten???

By Felipe | October 23rd, 2008 at 6:23 pm

And Feyenoord… UGH! What a bad year they’re facing!

By Jan | October 23rd, 2008 at 11:55 pm

I think van Basten IS the Board at the moment… And I think it will turn out well for Ajax, too. Feyenoord will come good as well, but it might take some time. It’s great how Sollied started the Heerenveen game one-on-one at the back. Ancelotti couldn’t believe his eyes