WEEK 2 – Sunday 11th August 2013

PSV Eindhoven will be celebrating tonight after title rivals Ajax and Feyenoord both tasted defeats just two weeks into the new season. Another great day for goals in the Eredivisie and Will Burns is here to describe them all.

FEYENOORD 1-4 FC TWENTE

The first game of the season at De Kuip and as always the crowd was jumping, well that was before the game. After the final whistle the supporters were leaving hanging their heads in shame. Feyenoord finished the match with just nine men on the field and Twente had defeated them by four goals to one, ending a 28-match unbeaten streak in Rotterdam.

The hosts went ahead after half an hour with their usual source to goals, Italian Graziano Pelle heading in at the front post from a Jordy Clasie out-swinging corner.

Twente hit back from the kick-off and fired a warning shot when former Feyenoord striker Luc Castaignos smashed a shot at Erwin Mulder’s goal that rattled the crossbar, and the woodwork had saved Koeman’s men.

They did not take heed of the warning as a minute later the scores were level and it was another former De Kuip man who scored the goal. Kyle Ebecilio recently signing on a free from Premier League club Arsenal kept his cool to finish inside the area, after a scramble.

With usual right-back Daryl Janmaat injured, the young Jordy van Deelen was making his first start for the club and midway through the second half he made a fatal mistake. Failing to get ahead of Shadrach Eghan, he pulled the Ghanaian midfielder down in the box and referee Richard Liesveld pointed to the spot and dismissed the debutant. As the rookie was trudging off the field, Dusan Tadic stepped up and slotted home the spot-kick to give Twente the lead.

Nine minutes later, Feyenoord lost another defender to the red card. Stefan de Vrij who had stupidly been booked midway through the first-half for diving in on a tackle he had no business is challenging for in the opposition’s half, did the same again on Castaignos inside the centre circle.

Twente’s attacking left-back Dico Koppers, a recent buy from Ajax in the summer, won a penalty surging into the box and being felled by Joris Mathijsen. Mathijsen received a yellow and Tadic converted his second penalty of the match.

The game was done but Twente weren’t finished as Castaignos and Tadic combined on the edge of the box and the former finished clinically to make the day worse for the Rotterdam fans.

Pressure will be on Koeman now, his team was tipped to be title challengers, but are now already six points off the top spot. The two defeats in two equals their worst start since the 1963/64 season, fifty years ago.

AZ ALKMAAR 2-3 AJAX

Last years’ Eredivisie champions Ajax took a major blow in the defence of their title as AZ Alkmaar gained revenge for last month’s Johan Crujiff Schaal match, and ended their fifteen match unbeaten run with a 3-2 victory on Sunday afternoon.

Frank de Boer’s men did take the lead on 20 minutes with a wonderful free-kick from Danish playmaker Christian Eriksen. From around 25 yards out, he lifted the ball superbly over the wall, spinning low into the goal past Esteban Alvarado, leaving the Costa Rican goalkeeper helpless.

The home side were level before half-time due to some bad goalkeeping by Dutch international Kenneth Vermeer. Trying to punch the ball away in a battle with Viktor Elm but flapped miserably and the ball fell in the path of Roy Beerens to poke home.

De Boer must have been furious with his goalkeeper so much that he replaced him at half-time with Jasper Cillessen. The Amsterdammers regained the lead on the hour mark but Siem de Jong delightfully finishing a Bojan cross, but it was poor defending from AZ as the Oranje midfielder was all alone to score.

Then disaster struck for Ajax five minutes later. Right-back Ricardo van Rhijn pulled down Nick Viergever in the penalty area and received his marching orders. The new American international Aron Jóhannsson’s spot-kick hit the back of the net and the reigning league champions were on the ropes.

Shortly after his entrance substitute Maarten Martens was invaluable for AZ, his beautiful pin-point cross found Elm unmarked at the back post, who placed a superb first-time volley into the back of the net.

It was a fantastic win for Gertjan Verbeek and the fans inside the AFAS Stadion but will probably be celebrated more by PSV coach Philip Cocu, whose side are already three points ahead of their rivals after just two games.

HIGHLIGHTS

FC GRONINGEN 2-0 FC UTRECHT

Although less convincing than last week in Nijmegen, FC Groningen won their second game of the season. Utrecht, going through a real bad spell at the moment, fell 2-0 in the Euroborg Stadion, thanks to goals from Nick van der Velden and SIXTEEN-year-old Richairo Živkovic.

For those who had not taken their seat when the opening whistle was blown by referee Dennis Higler, they may have missed his second whistle too, when he blew for a penalty kick. Utrecht’s captain Mark van der Maarel fouling Filip Kostic and Van der Velden took advantage of the spot-kick.

FC Groningen pressed throughout but did not double the score until 71st minute. After Robbin Ruiter parried a Van der Velden shot, the young Živkovic, brought on as a substitute just five minutes earlier, cooly converted a rebound. This was his second goal in two games after playing a total of just 12 minutes of play this season so far.

RKC WAALWIJK 4-2 VITESSE

After crashing out of Europe on Thursday, Vitesse travelled to Waalwijk to turn their attention back to the league where they defeated Heracles 3-1 last Sunday.

Within three minutes, it looked good for them as Kelvin Leerdam headed home at the front post from a Theo Janssen corner. Going forward, it was clear to see that the visitors were pressing a lot better than Thursday’s night’s defeat to FC Petrolul but defensively they looked dodgy. Patrick van Aanholt especially, getting caught out and minutes after the goal, contributing to what could have been an equaliser.

The Chelsea man and Jan-Arie van der Heijden passing around in their own penalty area and Luxembourg international striker Aurélien Joachim caught them out and had a glorious chance to put RKC level, but poorly placed his shot wide.

On 12 minutes, RKC were level. Some tremendous work from Romeo Castelen turning Van Aanholt inside out on the right-wing and crossing for Robert Braber to finish coolly.

Before half-time, Castelen himself got on the scoresheet and put RKC in the lead. Peter Jungschläger dinked a lovely ball over the defence and Castelen ran on to score his first goal in the Eredivisie for six years. The former Feyenoord winger had spells him Russia and Germany since leaving the Rotterdam club.

Vitesse boss Peter Bosz had to turn this around and replaced Van Aanholt and Giorgi Chanturia for Davy Propper and Valeri Qazaishvili. On the 54th minute mark, Qazaishvili scored the equaliser.

At that moment, the Arnhem side may have took the draw but RKC were not and two goals in as many minutes from Sander Duits sent Vitesse and their fans home miserable.