Moral victory for Feyenoord and Dutch youngsters!

Feyenoord had victory on it’s mind at three levels: three points, confidence and the fans goodwill.

Instead of three points, Feyenoord had to make do with one, but it did score on the two other objectives. Gertjan Verbeek: “We didn’t play great football, but we fought for every meter and showed the fans we were willing to die on the pitch. Just as they require. I think we can be satisfied with the result. We came back twice, with focused and concentrated football. The ref? Yeah, he made some mistakes too, but I think both teams suffered from that, so I won’t complain about it. It was a typical Klassieker. I enjoyed it.”

And Feyenoord deserves the kudos. Their complete midfield was absent. Landzaat and Van Bronckhorst injured, De Guzman suspended… In their place youngster Wijnaldum (17), Fer (18), Biseswar (20) and Bruins (22) took charge and fought for what they’re worth.

Ajax played a young team as well, with Gregory van der Wiel and Jeffrey Sarpong amidst other youngsters like Leonardo, Emanuelson, Vermaelen, Sno and Vertonghen. Sulejmani, the young signing from Heerenveen, was replaced after ten minutes due to a hamstring problem and will be out for weeks. Ex-Feyenoord winger Leonardo was his replacement.

Willem van Hanegem: “It was a spectacle. Maybe not great football, but who cares. It was entertaining and the biggest win was the fact that we have two coaches who have the balls to play youngsters from their own youth system. A player like Biseswar, he was almost sent away! And I think even the Ajax fans have enjoyed his game. I am very happy with this development and both teams and coaches deserve our compliments.”

Jon Dahl Tomasson: “I am so happy that we showed the world we can fight when we need to. This team has potential. I am very proud of the young midfielders, they really stepped up to the plate.”

Erik Braamhaar copped some criticism for his performance. Some Ajax-fans thought Suarez deserved a penalty as well and most screamed their lungs out for a red card for Timmer. The ref: “The Suarez situation was different. Both him and Bahia were tugging and pulling. It was a 50-50 for me. Mols on the other hand, was pulled aside quite clearly while Mols was going for the ball. Big difference. The Timmer charge on Leonardo was clear foul. Timmer was too late and took Leonardo out, but Hofland was still between the Ajax player and the goal, so a red card would be too much.”

Huntelaar explains to Braamhaar what his vision is on the qualities of the latter’s work…

Verbeek realizes he avoided his first crisis at Feyenoord. “It’s weird that you could get in a crisis so quickly, but with losing in the UEFA cup and losing two out of three games in the competition, obviously the fans would be unhappy. I can point at all our misfortune in the warm up and the injuries we are currently suffering (Gio, Landzaat, Vlaar, Vincken, Slory, Hofland, Makaay, De Guzman were either injured, just recovered or suspended), but the facts would still remain. This result is very important, at many levels. We stayed on par with Ajax, PSV lost against AZ and our youngsters have gained a lot of confidence. Anyone can see now that this Feyenoord has a lot of potential, but there is still a way to go…”

Marco van Basten didn’t want to go into discussions about the ref. “Listen, we didn’t play well. We had a lead twice. You can’t give that away. We didn’t play the space right, we could have and should have walked away from Feyenoord but we couldn’t handle it. I do have my questions about certain decisions by the ref, but I want to focus on our performance. If we did what we needed to do, we wouldn’t be talking about referees or the opponent. It’s easy to point fingers, but we let ourselves down.”

Klaas Jan Huntelaar was less noble in his match analysis. “I am getting really fed up with the level of referees here in Holland,” he fumed. “I have to say, we didn’t win here because we failed ourselves. Ok? We should have played differently. Most started to play the long ball while it was ideal to play combination football. Now, we handed Feyenoord this game on a platter. I can live with that. But I can’t live with this refereeing. I mean, all the frustration and rumbles and all, it’s all his fault. He was inconsistent and that drives players mad. This guy could handle the pressure. He should have given Timmer red! The only reason those defenders were there, was to get the ball out of the net. I am furious. But I should shut up now. Before you know it, they’ll pay me back in future games.”