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Spurs vs PSV Eindhoven

March 6th, 2008 | By: Jan | 15 Comments »

I was very excited to see this game live in Australia. I wanted confirmation that Dutch clubs are out of their league against big clubs from the four big nations. But… although PSV surely didn’t play too great or created a lot, they bloody well hold their own against a disappointing Tottenham Hotspur.

The PSV ingredients are clear: a great goalie, a disciplined team tactics built on counter-attack and some above average players (Afellay, Farfan, Kromkamp). Spurs played with heart, with great work ethics but not a lot of brains and finesse, in particular with the final pass.

It was a tight game with some good moments by Spurs but PSV was outstanding in breaking the Spurs’ game down, without creating to much themselves. PSV has some good counter-attacks but failed to really capitalize. In the 34th minute, a huge mistake by left back Gilberto was punished by Jefferson Farfan, who took over the ball and smashed it behind Robinson, 0-1. A fantastic position to be in, but PSV wasn’t sharp enough to cash in on the counter opportunities later on in the game, with Afellay of all people to miss a huge opportunity in the second half. But the Spurs were out of ideas soon and were looking for the lucky drop, while PSV saw more and more great opps to counter successfully. Typical Dutch lack of effectiveness (Afellay again) and weak final passes gave the Spurs a fighting chance in two weeks in Eindhoven. Jan Kromkamp, who played a great game, headed in the 0-2 ten minutes before full time but the flag went up for off side.

Goalie Gomez was put to the test with some pot shots in the final phase but PSV never really got in trouble.

A great result - for now - and a disappointment for the Spurs fans.

Tags: Afellay, Gomez, Group C, Jan Kromkamp, Oranje, PSV, The Netherlands

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Comments

By Bruce | March 6th, 2008 at 10:19 pm

It was a good game. I thought PSV played very very smart. They looked threatening whenever they had the ball, whereas Tottenham looked confused.

Posted from Republic Of Korea

By finnster01 | March 7th, 2008 at 5:50 am

Great result for PSV.

Only thing I disagree with is calling Spurs a big club:-)

Average at best.

Posted from United States

By oranje.cn | March 7th, 2008 at 5:57 am

Like Jan, I was very excited to see this game live in China. PSV proved too demanding a task for Spurs, and Mexico’s Carlos Salcido is a key player marshalling the PSV defence with aplomb.

By ClockworkOrange | March 7th, 2008 at 7:14 am

As an Arsenal fanatic and a Dutch-Canadian watching PSV take down Spurs was fantastic (even though Ajax is my Dutch team). Let’s hope they can keep it up in round 2.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Caleb | March 7th, 2008 at 10:02 am

Finnster - Tottenham is much bigger than PSV, that’s for sure. One of the bigger English clubs outside of the top four.

Posted from Japan

By goose | March 7th, 2008 at 10:33 am

agree; Spurs is a big club, esp. compared to dutch clubs

dont agree with Jan that they created few changes, i actually think that after the 0-1 they had changes to make it 2 or even 3

after the first 10 minutes i was really impressed by Psv, they looked like a real team

i wrote before that Affelay was a good player but i was wrong…hes a great player…its always nice to see how some players like the faster pace that you see with great competitions (GB, Spain)…Affelay made very little mistakes (ok, he should have scored the 0-2) but i was very impressed

very good result for Psv and a good result for dutch football

heres the Beeb’s view on it all

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/7272701.stm

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By Marc | March 7th, 2008 at 11:00 am

lets hope psv crush totenham next week again so that we can finally see the revival of what once were the greatly feared dutch clubs!!!

Posted from Switzerland

By goose | March 7th, 2008 at 11:31 am

@marc; well if that would happen it would only be a ‘one off’..think we will have to accept that the days dutch clubs were feared is something from the past

we will see a dutch team do well in the Uefa cup once every few years but thats it…no dutch team will ever get to the Champ. Leg. final…ever!

but Psv really did very well yesterday and they have a proper change to get to the next round

another player you people on this blog should hear about is Dirk Marcellis..hes a young dutch central defender and is doing really well..at first i didnt realise he was dutch cause of his surname (thought he was south-american)…hes a player to watch

LATEST:

Cruijff and Ajax have split!! just in; Cruijff made a plan, but could get the back-up from the people who needed to put Cruijffs plan into work…so it lasted only a couple of weeks…im sure Jan will have more on this later on

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By finnster01 | March 7th, 2008 at 11:32 am

Spurs is still a small club. Nice to see Dutch clubs beating the crap out of them. Good for the country.

Posted from United States

By Mario Rosado (Dutch admirer) | March 7th, 2008 at 12:21 pm

PSV played their game, they were very smart and did what is needed as visitors.

I agree that Kromkamp, Afellay and Farfan were magnificent but the whole team was very focused and that was the key.
I really do hope Kromkamp gets called for the Oranje team because he is a really great player. He is a good defender, smart, attacks and gives good crosses. Why is he not selected, is Van Basten crazy!!!.

PSV have to be aware of the 2nd leg because Spurs’ coach is very smart and they have the players to turn things around.

By Jan | March 7th, 2008 at 6:50 pm

Hi all, with big club I do mean that from a budget perspective, the Spurs are big compared to PSV. The number 18 in the EPL gets more tv money than the number 1 in Holland. I don’t know the exact numbers, but in terms of money Spurs is probably twice PSV.

@ Goose: with creating not too much I meant that PSV reacted to the Spurs and had counter-attack opps. The goal was made from a huge Gilberto mistake. The opps PSV got were based on quick break outs. PSV wasn’t playing there to create and dominate, they were there to suck up the pressure from Spurs (and they did well) and build on the mistakes Spurs made. A big difference with AZ in their great UEFA cup year under Co, when AZ actually created their attacking flow and opportunities, just like Oranje wants to and Ajax used to. PSV plays a more German type of football. Sitting back and slaughtering the opponent on the counter.

That’s how I see it anyway. And don’t get me wrong: i don’t mean it as criticism, it’s just another way to execute football.

Posted from Australia

By goose | March 7th, 2008 at 9:05 pm

@Jan; ok, understand what you mean,,but still think they created more than enough for an away game… i wonder what the home game will bring; will they let Spurs do the attacking or will they try to win the game themselfs when playing at home??

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | March 8th, 2008 at 4:47 am

Yeah, they did get enough opportunities, that’s right. If they played their cards right and with a bit of luck, they could’ve won 0-3. Afellay had a big chance and so did Farfan. At home, Spurs will have to come and try to score. PSV loves that position. So, they’ll go for the counter-attack again I think. But Spurs isn’t defeated yet I’d say.

Posted from Australia

By Jerome | March 8th, 2008 at 2:58 pm

I don’t think that Spurs are a bigger club than PSV, even if they have got more money. I’ll bet they have not won as many League titles as PSV. And how many European Cups has Spurs won? Having lots of money does not make a club “big”. If that were the case then Derby County are a bigger club than Ajax/PSV/Feyenoord.

Posted from Australia

By Jan | March 9th, 2008 at 5:14 am

Jerome, you’re right… What determines a big club… History, prizes won… But leaving all that aside, I always look at the difference in spending power of clubs. Money is key nowadays. Clubs with more money can spend more on players, technical staff, training and support facilities, medical, scouting, etc etc. That’s why to me it’s great that PSV beat the Spurs. The fact that PSV won the European Cup in 1988 doesn’t really matter. To me it’s the guys with 80 Mio Euros who won against the guys with 200 Mio Euros (I made those numbers up though…).

Barnley beating Chelsea. Excelsior beating AZ. But I admit that my “definition” of a big club is lacking somewhat…