All Dutch clubs through!

“Wijnaldo” scored the first for Feyenoord….

I told you so, Dutch clubs belong in the UEFA Cup. I’ve never seen Feyenoord players be so happy after winning the first (!) round UEFA Cup…. It’s sad, but I decided to leave that for now and to party with the rest of them. Hup hup hup, ole ole ole ole…

Feyenoord played away but so did Kalmar. The game was played on some sort of astro turf, and the young and very able Feyenoord talents loved it. As if they played indoor. The more physical Kalmar players were impaired by the surface and after a nervous start, Feyenoord took control of the game, led by an outstanding Kevin Hofland, directing the game. 17 year old Wijnaldum scored the first goal after 20 minutes or so, from 20 meters. Feyenoord and had some good chances on more, but Makaay and Hofland were denied. Kalmar was dangerous from setpieces and three seconds into the second half, a long stray ball ended in the stride of a Kalmar striker who beat Van Dijk: 1-1.

Six minutes later Leroy Fer headed a Luigi Bruins corner behind the Kalmar goalie and Feyenoord was virtually through: 1-2. The Swedes put a lot of pressure on Feyenoord but in the last half hour, Feyenoord played it cool and never got into trouble.

Gertjan Verbeek: “This is very important for the team and the club. We showed again that even if you’re not in the best of form or missing important players, the right mentality and focus and fighting spirit can get you a long way. This team deserves our compliments. They made a statement. We’ve got quality and spirit. The only negative is my debutant goalie, who made one mistake.”

Verbeek joked about the 39 year old Van Dijk, the Kalmar goal was 100$ unstoppable for any goalie.

Ajax played it’s second leg in a cold Arena in Amsterdam. The fans counted on Ajax going through and didn’t bother showing up, bar 15.000. Ajax won 2-0 in a game with chances but not many goals and seemingly, not a lot of motivation. Jeffrey Sarpong and Luis Suarez scored. Van Basten was happy with the result, but more so with the lesson: “We have demonstrated here that if you approach a match like this half hearted, you can’t perform at your top. Let this be a lesson. If we want to succeed against bigger teams, 100% concentration is key!”

The NEC players celebrate their win!

NEC defended their 1-0 lead over Dinamo Bukarest with relish. Mario Been’s team kept the hosts at 0-0. Both sides got humungous chances for the win late in the game, but the cross bar denied NEC and the Dinamo player scored a three pointer. If it was rugby. It’s for the first time since 1983 that NEC reached the second round in Europe. Coach Been was delighted: “This feels like doping. I am incredibly proud at the team and the club. We have only a young team and to face a big name like Dinamo Bukarest as we did is just an immense result.” Despite the hostile shenanigans between NEC and Dinamo fans, both in Holland and in Romania, all the fans applauded NEC when they left the pitch. “That is just great,” says Been. “It goes to show that we impressed, but also that Dinamo Bukarest as a club has class.”

SC Heerenveen only needed 30 minutes to score three goals. Led by Olympian Gerald Sibon who scored twice, Heerenveen put up a football show and also allowed Setubal some fun: 5-2.
Coach Sollied, who might leave for the Norway national team according to Finnster, applied a shrewd tactics. “We left the center open at front and used the wings to penetrate. They didn’t like that at all. We finished the job quick in the game, but lost too much concentration. When it was 4-2 and they created more opportunities, I got a bit nervous. But 5-2 was a great score. Seven goals in UEFA cup football is rare. And the lesson for the boys is also: stay focused for the full 90 minutes.”

FC Twente needed one goal against Stade Rennes after the 2-1 defeat in France. N’Kufo scored in the second half, resulting in some scary last 20 minutes or so. Steve McLaren can be proud to. Stade Rennes is not just some opponent. Twente started weak and nervous, with the French club taking charge and even scoring a goal, which was disallowed for off side. Twente regained their posture in the second half and N’Kufo - responsible for Twente’s defeat in last year’s UEFA Cup against Getafe - took revenge on himself.

All Dutch clubs move into the group stages now. Some of them will have a real chance of making it through those, depending on the draw I guess, others will just fill the warchest a bit.

Well done