Up, up and away…. Ajax and Feyenoord lead!

And we’re off!

Leaving all the pre-season shenanigans and friendlies and tours and tournaments behind us…

Last week we saw NAC, Twente and PSV impress in Europe and last weekend the Eredivisie kicked off!

And as many of you posted already: with some surprises on match day 1.

Champions AZ lost the plot against Gertjan Verbeek’s Heracles in Almelo: 3-2. With 15 minutes on the clock, AZ was even trailing 3-0! Pelle and El Hamdaoui hoped to bring AZ back into the game, but AZ’s defense – a known weak spot – trembled under the Heracles pressure. Swerts and Pelle were even red-carded due to frustration when late in the game the ref waved a call for a penalty for AZ away. Ronald Koeman was furious and feels AZ deserved that penalty: “I am really disappointed. And not so much because of the loss today, but mostly because my players couldn’t control themselves and Swerts and Pelle will be looking at the suspension. This is truly a bad start…”

Runner up FC Twente started how it ended: winning with good football. Sparta copped it this time (2-0) and N’Kufo established himself next to Jan Jeuring as Twente’s all time goal scorer. Newcomer Ruiz – impressive in the pre-season – scored the second goal.

Ajax didn’t have any problems with FC Groningen. In the past seasons, Groningen seemed to become Ajax’ angstgegner, but Jol’s men didn’t get in trouble at all: 0-2. Jol had positioned De Zeeuw and Enoh centrally in midfield and he was happy with what he saw: “Both De Zeeuw and Enoh bring body and strength to the team. We never got in trouble and I saw flashes of the Ajax I want to see. De Zeeuw said that he only wants to play better, so if today’s the benchmark I’m keen to see more. He was outstanding!”.

Ajax’s vulnerability in defense seemed to have evaporized due to the midfield changes. Aissati was kept on the bench – despite his impressive pre-season – and Dennis Rommedahl – last season borrowed out! – was the man of the match with a goal and an assist. Sulejmani scored the first goal.

Jol is still on the lookout for a central defender and a striker. “I was able to stopgap our defense by sacrificing Aissati, but I think we need a blocked and strong center back.”

Playmaker De Zeeuw pushed Ajax forward and controlled the game allowing Sulejmani, Suarez and Rommedahl many more chances. Stekelenburg started the season as Ajax’ first goalie.

PSV had it’s first drama against newcomers VVV. The guests were 2 goals down ( Amrabat and Toivonen) and Rutten feels PSV should never give a 2-0 lead up. But they did. They allowed VVV to come back into the game twice. When Toivonen scored the 3-2, it didn’t appear to be enough: 3-3.

PSV’s new coach Fred Rutten is worried: “Worst case scenario when you lead with 2-0, is that you kill the game off. We weren’t even capable of doing that, against a minion in the Eredivisie.” Rutten hurried to say VVV played courageous football and deserved the point. ” We missed the discipline to dominate. Seek the simple solutions. We can play tremendous football, at times, but it’s not enough. It takes power and determination to win games too. I think VVV taught us that today.”

Feyenoord opened against NEC at home, Been’s former club now managed by former PSV coach Dwight Lodeweges. Feyenoord brought home the bacon ( 2-0 ) but didn’t impress. Yet. Mario Been:”I’m not too happy with the performance, but winning your first game in a packed Kuip is important. Maybe the pressure is off a bit. We played too hasty and therefore too sloppy. All our midfielders wanted to get in on the act, leaving us exposed at times. We’re lucky that NEC didn’t benefit from that and we’re lucky that goalie Darley doesn’t have any stage fright. Too many players played in front of the ball and we lacked balance. There’s still quite some work to do.”

One of the jobs Been decided to take on after 45 minutes was replacing the invisible Makaay for Diego Biseswar who had a great second half. “Roy sometimes doesn’t do enough. He was too complacent. Again. You can’t just walk around when you’re Feyenoord’s number 1 striker. Midfielders need to be able to pass the ball. He needs to up his act.” The shrewd Tomasson scored the first goal for Feyenoord, Leroy Fer scored the second in the second half from the spot, after Biseswar was fouled.

ADO Den Haag lost against NAC but reaped the compliments for trying to play football. Sometimes, however, that’s not enough to win games.

Willem II won 3-1 versus Vitesse and leads the standings, while FC Utrecht won away against RKC 0-1.

We’ve started!!!

Other exciting news: Inter and Real Madrid have agreed on a deal for Wesley Sneijder. The latter needs to get an agreement with the Mourinho coached team now.

Huntelaar is still on the wishlist of AC Milan, while Raf van der Vaart also declared to want out of Madrid.

Another rumor to add to the mill: Arsenal wants Ibrahim Affelay. But PSV coach Rutten declared he doesn’t want the playmaker and Oranje international to move this summer.