EREDIVISIE REPORT: WEEK EIGHT |

Here’s your weekly summary of the Eredivisie by Willem Slor.

ADO Den Haag battled Vitesse away in an eventful game that ended up in favor for Vitesse 6-1. Michiel Kramer added the only goal for The Hague, simultaneously making him the top-scorer of the Eredivisie with six goals in eight matches. However, his efforts were irrelevant as Vitesse’s Kelvin Leerdam finished with two goals, adding two to the five goals that were scored for Vitesse in 40 minutes. Final score: 6-1 in favor of Vitesse.

Vitesse’s coach Peter Bosz about the game: “We’re now playing good football AND we’re scoring”. Overall, the game was surely a spectacle for the home fans.

Due to the international games next weekend, Vitesse will face Tilburg’s Willem II at Tilburg, which shouldn’t be a problem for the Arnhemmers. ADO Den Haag faces NAC Breda away and should be a chance for Kramer to pull away from other competitors regarding total goals.

Ajax played PEC Zwolle at home, a game that was not as predictable as it sounded before kick-off. Why? PEC has eliminated Ajax twice in a row now, and was looking to make it three. Ajax wanted revenge on these games, but both teams ended up not triumphing their counterpart: 0-0. PEC didn’t take advantage of the mess in Ajax’s defense. However, Ajax couldn’t pull away either due to the lack of concentration with shots on goal. They both neglected to play with quality, but in an optimistic view, one can debate that they didn’t have any luck either. Ajax’s Frank de Boer commented on PEC’s performance: “they played up to their capabilities and they did that well, but if there had to be a winner it would be us”. PEC’s Ron Jans commented on his teams’ performance: “We deserved this one point and we even could’ve ended up with more”.

FC Twente vs. Ajax on October 18th should be a really good game, as Twente is the only undefeated team in the Eredivisie and looks to lengthen this streak. Zwolle faces Go Ahead Eagles on October 19th.

AZ went up against FC Twente, which proved to be the match of the week. There were fights, goals, and the winner would end up joining the top 3 with PSV and Ajax. AZ has faced a multitude of problems, as it has gone through 3 coaches in 8 games, sticking with the fourth, Van Der Brom, for now. Although the game ended up in a tie, 2-2, it was anything but boring. Robert Mühren ended his three-game dry spell by scoring AZ’s first goal and Twente remains undefeated as they face Ajax in two weekends from now. Coach Van Der Brom (AZ): “ We’ve seen an AZ who played and fought hard”. They will face PSV on October 18th; a match-up that shouldn’t go unnoticed either.

Cambuur played Dordrecht and ended up taking over the game. The first goal for Cambuur came within the first minute and the second goal for Cambuur came 5 minutes later. Cambuur remained overall dominant for the remainder of the game. Final score: 4–1 Cambuur. Cambuur will face sc Heereveen and Dordrecht will go against FC Utrecht, a team that hasn’t been profoundly dominant in the Eredivisie either.

PSV modestly defeated Excelsior in a 3-0 victory. Although Excelsior hasn’t beaten PSV Eindhoven on their own turf in 43 years, PSV could’ve beaten Excelsior with a significant amount of goals. Henk Dijkuizen from Excelsior said he was hoping” not to end up with 6 or 7 to 0.” while Cocu’s mission was overall clear:”We didn’t give away anything and we were constantly looking for a goal”. A possible reason behind this modest victory was the red card given to PSV’s Bruma in the 60^th minute when he tackled a broken-through Excelsior player. Overall, a fun game to watch and an easy 3 points for PSV to keep their lead.

NAC Breda and Heracles turned out to be quite the spectacle: 6–1 for Heracles. They obtained the lead within the first ten minutes of the game and never gave it away. Things got worse for NAC when a red card in the 29th minute unleashed a scoring frenzy, which is a main reason for the 6-1 victory. Heracles is optimistic though: Coach Stegeman said that “we have a lot of work to do but this is a very fun start”.

Feyenoord, who has been battling to regain their spot had a good game this weekend. They beat FC Groningen 4-0, an exhibition that was joyful to watch. However, both teams were very mediocre throughout the first half. Things flared up in the second half when a Groningen player got sent of, allowing Feyenoord key players like Immers to take control of the game. Feyenoord’s coach Fred Rutten: “This is a very nice reward”. Groningen’s Van De Looi tended to feel the opposite about his team:”We don’t have the players playing on their right positions”.

Utrecht and Go Ahead Eagles both played sloppy in the first half, but after three minutes in the second half Utrecht finds two goals in the back of the Eagles’ goal. However, Go Ahead kept fighting and ended up winning the game in injury time. Final score: 3-2 for Go Ahead Eagles.

Lastly, Willem II defeated Heerenveen by 2 –1, which lead to a humorous comment by Willem II’s coach Streppel: “We have not received 12 points this quickly. Last time we had 12 points we had to wait till Easter. The snow had already melted at that point”.