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

Heerenveen hosted PSV and although both teams are not considered glamorous in its football, it didn’t take long to realize that this game was going to be a showstopper. The first chance for PSV came after 39 seconds while Heerenveen didn’t get a proper shot in till the eighth minute. However, the physical contact and tensions among the team players were already starting to rise early on in the game, and these were tensions that match official Kevin Blom could not control as a referee. After disallowing two borderline insignificant fouls in PSV’s penalty box, which lead to permanent premature balding for Heerenveen fans, Heerenveen suffered a red card after 33 minutes when a bad free kick send PSV’s striker Jozefzoon off to the races and hitting the deck in a breakthrough. Red card for Heerenveen because of what the announcer of the game at the time called “ you can barely call that a foul”.

But, Heereveen was more hungry for the win than PSV, so much so that the Eindhoven side did not impress anyone, not even themselves. They showed the lack of motivation and power, which has lead to a lot of internal anger in the team. They get even more outraged when PSV suffered a red card after an “idiotic” foul send a PSV defender of the field in the 69^th minute. Now level in men, it didn’t take long for Heerenveen to show that they wanted it more. In the 78^th minute, a perfect attack between three Heereveen players send the ball past the goal of PSV. It took a 1-0 lead for Heerenveen for PSV to start attacking more than it did.

But it was pointless as after 95 minutes, Heerenveen took the three points and claimed 14 points after they’ve really stuck their necks out there and came up as winners. The mixed feelings of the coaches were logical: Lodeweges (Heereveen) was “really happy” for “being the boss” on the pitch, while Cocu was “angry”, stating, “there is no excuse” for the weak performance that they showed. Heereveen keeps climbing up while PSV is showing troubles early in the season.

Excelsior and Cambuur met for the first time in Eredivisie history and both displayed good forms against each other. Excelsior gained a 1-0 lead in the 22th minute by Van Weert, who was having trouble scoring in general but used a little help from Nienhuis’ unfortunate rebound to claim his goal. Cambuur had the majority of the possession, but Excelsior had the majority of shots in the first half. In the second half, after a turned down goal by Excelsior, Ogbeche evens the game at 1-1 in the 62th minute, showing a small improvement in Cambuur’s ability to finish their shots on goal leading to receiving one point from the ordeal. Coach De Jong (Cambuur) said “it wouldn’t have been fair if we would’ve won. I am content with this score”, while Excelsior was unsatisfied after their goal was unrightfully called offside, to which the referee said: “I wish I would’ve seen these images then because I can now see that the goal was legitimate”. Cambuur barely scratches one point from the surface while Excelsior continues to face problems regarding the ability to collect points.

Twente and FC Utrecht matched up in the seventh round of the Eredivisie. Twente showed its imminent frustration this season by expressing their disorganization via the lack of coordination in the attacks. However, this overall gameplay by Twente occurred only after the first 15 minutes, because after the first 10 minutes of the game, a goal was produced out of the three early attacks that Twente had on Groningen. The first goal arrived in the fifth minute through a beautiful free kick by Ebecillio and Twente took the lead. Although having the majority of the ball, Mark Diemers was the first one who got a shot off for Utrecht, and that didn’t happen until the 32^nd minute. However, they display better coordination than Twente but also had horrible misfortune: an own goal by Kum in the 64^th minute seemed to seal the deal. However, Utrecht kept its head cool and started playing even more dominant than they already were playing. In the 71^st minute, youngling Ayoub scored the 2-1 for Utrecht out of a beautiful volley. The hope for Utrecht that was rebuilt after that goal diminished as quick as it came. After a second yellow card given to Ayoub, the ten-manned Utrecht failed to control the mediocre play by Twente and the game ended in 3-1 after Castagnos strongly finished a shot on goal. Twente won its third game in a row, although Utrecht definitely deserved at least a tie. Schreuder (FC Twente) seems to acknowledge this: “We cannot be happy with our victory. Yes, we got three points but the way of playing was just bad”. Twente lacks leading qualities as Utrecht struggles to place the ball in the net. Final Score: 3-1.

FC Groningen & Willem II displayed unusual events as the referee became the highlight of the match. Groningen started strong and after 2 free kicks in just 1 minute, a handball by Botteghin caused a penalty, which was masterfully shot in the back of the net by De Leeuw. Afterwards, the referee did not call two very harsh-fouls, which lead the commentator, among others, to describe the events as “unbelievable”. A hands-ball in the opposite penalty box and a hard foul on a player from Willem II lead to serious confusion by the players from Tilburg.

In the second half, Groningen put even more pressure on Willem II but completely slacked off in defense as the clock dwindled down. The score stayed 1-0 but all in all, a bad game from both parties. FC Groningen luckily grabbed three points while Willem II cannot get themselves together to score any other goals.  Willem II coach Streppel had the following to say: “If the referee sees the replays of those two incidents, I’m sure he will feel bad about it”, while Van De Looi (Groningen) seemed unknowing about the subject: “I didn’t see it so the two moments in the box were unsure to me”.

In other games, Ajax annihilated NAC Breda 5-2, which marked a hat-trick by Sigthorsson, a goal by last week’s match winner Van Rhijn and defender Joel Veltman. NAC made it interesting around the 60^th minute scoring the 1-3 and brought a moment of hesitation to Ajax, but was forced to accept its defeat. Frank de Boer stated to have “claimed revenge” due to last week’s “very, very bad” performance.

PEC Zwolle faced Heracles and produced a match containing 6 goals and a red card. The final score was 4-2 for PEC Zwolle, adding on to the problems at Heracles in regards to a severe lack of points.

ADO Den Haag met with AZ and through a beautiful goal in the 45^th minute by AZ’s Poulsen, the score became 1-1 and the tide turned. AZ claimed victory with 2 goals to 3 in The Hague.

Go Ahead Eagles faced Feyenoord and was unmatched to the pressure and tempo created by Feyenoord. Feyenoord played well and made sure to acknowledge their coach Fred Rutten, who had been facing criticism in the last couple of weeks. Feyenoord silenced the critics with a 0-4 victory. Rutte: “I’m satisfied about the match and the team got their victory that they were waiting for”.

Lastly, Dordrecht and Vitesse put up a scoring frenzy as the dominant Vitesse won with 4 goals. Final score: 2-6.

After the seventh round in the Eredivisie, PEC Zwolle, Ajax, and PSV share first place while Heerenveen and Twente shortly follow in second and third place. AZ, Cambuur, and Groningen share fourth place, making the race for the top already as exciting as can be. Next week’s match to look for is Ajax-PEC Zwolle who will face each other at 16:45 local time in the ArenA on Saturday October 5^th, 2014.

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