FC Volendam defeated championship rivals Helmond Sport 3-0 on Friday night to pull away by three points at the top, as Sparta could fail to capitalise and had a goal-less draw at home to Fortuna to stay in third position.
Volendam celebrate Brandley Kuwas’ opener
Even though it was built to be one of the most important games of the season, Helmond Sport left their game on the team bus as Volendam easily brushed past the visitors to head to the summit of the Jupiler League. The goals started flowing on 19 minutes with winger Brandley Kuwas grabbing with a great effort from the edge of the penalty area. League top scorer Jack Tuyp notched another goal to double the margin on 57 minutes and Michiel Kramer (second in the top scorer stakes) made the points certain, if they were not already, two minutes to go.
The league went goal crazy, as there was a seven-goal thriller in Maastricht as Dordrecht defeated MVV by five goals to two. Five goals were seen in Eindhoven as FC Eindhoven pulled out a 4-1 win against FC Emmen.
PEC Zwolle condemned VVV Venlo further into relegation trouble with a 2-0 away win in Friday night’s live televised game. At the same time, Zwolle seemed to have cemented the fact that they will be playing top flight league football next season.
Ghanaian-born striker Fred Benson had an impressive game, collecting two goals to take his tally to five this season in 28 games. The first came about with Zwolle’s first chance just under 12 minutes, after some nice work from Youness Mokhtar then ball fell to Benson who finished the play with a hard shot that gave VVV goalkeeper Niki Mäenpää no chance.
The second goal came from route one football. A long ball sent over from Wiljan Plume and Benson found himself in some space to lash the ball home and confirm the three points. It was a poor lacklustre display by VVV Venlo with only Bryan Linssen looking threatening out of the eleven. Zwolle move up to twelfth and VVV stay situated in the relegation playoff spot.
PSV technical director Marcel Brands presents Willems with the no.15 shirt
Left-back Jetro Willems signed a new deal with PSV Eindhoven on Tuesday afternoon to keep him at the Philips Stadion until summer 2017.
Willems joined PSV from Sparta Rotterdam in 2011 and the 19-year-old has rapidly established himself as a first-team regular. At 18 years and 71 days, while representing the Dutch national side, he became the youngest ever player at the 2012 European Championship in Poland and Ukraine.
Willems put pen to paper on the contract extension in the presence of his family, agent and PSV technical director Marcel Brands. Willems made twenty league appearances for PSV in his first season in Eindhoven and is also a key player in the current campaign.
“Things have gone really well very quickly” states Willems. “When I joined PSV from Sparta, my career really started and now I’ve played for my country at the 2012 Euro” said the left-back, beaming with pride, when speaking in an exclusive interview with the official PSV website.
The defender has scored one goal for PSV far, netting an equaliser in the 2-1 win over N.E.C. last season. He has not found the back of the net this season yet, but that does not worry Willems in the least. “I am a defender whose first duty is to defend.” Having signed a new deal, Willems says that winning the title with PSV is his next aim. “We want to be crowned champions and therefore we need a win over Ajax on Sunday” said Willems.
Just the one extra game played on Monday tonight featured Dordrecht hosting Cambuur. The visitors hit three times to move up to fourth in the Divisie and just two points off first place.
Cambuur ‘keeper Leonard Neinhuis was barely tested
SC Cambuur grabbed maximum points for the third game in a row and now settle in joint third place alongside Sparta Rotterdam, although Henk ten Cate’s side has a better goal difference.
Cambuur took the lead just after eight minutes with Martijn Barto scoring the opening goal. With two goals from Erik Bakker, the team eventually coasted to a comfortable 3-0 victory. Bakker’s last was an injury time penalty. Dordrecht drop to eleven in the league table.
Frank de Boer’s Ajax resumed their place at the top of the pile at home to Heracles and Marco van Basten’s Heerenveen was defeated by Groningen to end a four-game winning streak.
Jens Toornstra scores against his former club ADO
FC Utrecht 1 (Toornstra 71)
ADO Den Haag 0
The sun was shining in Utrecht this afternoon, the match between Utrecht and ADO did not. It was a poor contest narrowly won by a 71st minute Jens Toornstra strike, against his old club. Both goalkeepers were hardly tested throughout, but unfortunately for Utrecht stopper Robbin Ruiter went down with a groin injury that looked serious and he may be absent for some time.
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Bacuna hits home the penalty in Groningen’s 3-1 win
FC Groningen 3 (Raitala 3OG, Bacuna 42P, de Leeuw 87)
Heerenveen 1 (Mareček 70)
Marco van Basten’s Heerenveen side made the worst possible start when Finnish defender Jukka Raitala put through his own net after three minutes, before a Leandro Bacuna spot-kick three minutes before the break extended their advantage. Substitute Lukas Mareček pulled a goal back in the 70th minute but midfielder Michael De Leeuw overhead kick in the penalty area cemented the win for Groningen with three minutes left.
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NEC Nijmegen 1 (Conboy 19)
AZ Alkmaar 1 (Maher 17)
After four straight losses for NEC a well deserved draw at home to relegation threatened AZ was a welcome result. Hot property Adam Maher, rumoured to leave AZ in the summer, scored a lovely solo effort on 17 minutes from outside the box to fire past Gabor Babos in goal. Two minutes later, NEC were level with Kevin Conboy hit a wonderful curling free-kick straight home. NEC got themselves in trouble on the hour when Nick van der Velden stupidaly kicked out at Giliano Wijnaldum. AZ had a golden opportunity spurned to take all three points in injury time when Aron Jóhannsson hit his shot straight into the arms of Babos.
League leaders Ajax are now back to three points ahead of PSV and Vitesse has they turned over Heracles Almelo 4-0 although having just ten men for the majority of the game. Ajax’s Danish midfielder Lasse Schöne gave them an early lead after 13 minutes after a one-two with Kolbeinn Sigþórsson.
Heracles did come back into the game without scoring a goal but forced enough pressure on Kenneth Vermeer, so much so that he found himself having an early bath. The pacey Geoffrey Castillion outpaced Toby Alderweireld and was through on goal but Vermeer rushed out and brought the striker down on the edge of the box. On 48 minutes, Vermeer was sent off immediately and he will now miss Ajax’s crunch title clash with PSV next weekend.
Ajax did not panic and found themselves two goals to the good four minutes later. Icelandic striker Sigþórsson smashed a close range shot against the crossbar and latched on the rebound for 2-0. On 75 minutes, Ryan Babel smashed home a Schöne cross and Christian Eriksen finished the rout six minutes from time.
PSV and Vitesse have temporarily joined Ajax on sixty points with wins today and both are now joint top in a very close title race in the Eredivisie. Ajax play Heracles tomorrow knowing that they have no room for error for the remainder of the season with Feyenoord also snapping at their heels.
Wilfried Bony heads Vitesse ahead with his 28th goal of the season
Vitesse 3 (Bony 28, 59, Ibarra 50)
NAC Breda 0
The on-fire Ivorian striker Wilfried ‘Daddy Cool’ Bony added his 28th and 29th goals of the season this evening in a 3-0 win over NAC Breda that fired Vitesse on sixty points to join PSV and Ajax at the top.
It was a really poor start to the game until on 28 minutes when Bony scored his 28th of the season in just 26 games. It was also the eighth Eredivisie game in a row in which he has scored a goal. Vitesse went from first gear to fifth gear as soon as Bony hit the net. Frenchman Gael Kakuta (on loan from Chelsea) nearly finished off a brilliant solo effort after crashing his shot off the crossbar just a minute later.
Renato Ibarra virtually sealed the game for Vitesse on 50 minutes with a wonderful solo goal after an error from NAC goalkeeper Jelle ten Rouwelaar. Bony was on the scoresheet again and killed the game off on 59 minutes for his 29th league goal of the season.
HIGHLIGHTS
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Castaignos smashes home for his tenth goal of the season
FC Twente 2 (Castaignos 44, Chadli 56)
Roda JC 0
FC Twente fianlly clinched their first win in 2013 in a home win over relegation worried Roda JC.
Luc Castaignos and Nacer Chadli were the goalscorers at the Grolsch Veste. Twente dominated but once again had great difficulty to find the net. Once there had been opportunities for Tim Hölscher, Chadli, the chances fell the way of Castaignos. The youngster smashed the ball home past goalkeeper Filip Kurto after a nice through ball from Leroy Fer.
Shortly after the break, Chadli made it 2-0 after he used great technique to curl the ball inside the post. Roda unfortunately could not break Twente down or get themselves back in the game and looking good contenders for the drop.
HIGHLIGHTS
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Zwolle and RKC still linger above the relegation places
PEC Zwolle 1 (Mokhtar 21)
RKC Waalwijk 1 (Jozefzoon 7)
PEC Zwolle and RKC are also in relagation toruble and could not help their causes by sharing the points on Saturday evening. Florian Jozefzoon gave RKC an excellent start after just 7 minutes. The home team recovered, however, and Youness Mokhtar equaliser midway through the first half. After the break, both teams spurned chances to take the maximum points. Both RKC and Zwolle are on thirty points after 29 games, the teams are respectively thirteenth and fourteenth.
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PSV captain Marc van Bommel celebrates his 50th PSV league goal
In a bland first half, it was the basement club Willem II that looked more likely to score with 19-year-old left-winger Virgil Misidjan, became a real thorn in PSV’s side throughout. But it was an old face that opened the scoring. Thirty-five year-old stalwart Marc Van Bommel hit a 25-yard low drive past Belgian goalkeeper David Meul in the Willem goal in first-half stoppage time. This was his 50th Eredivisie goal for PSV.
Willem grabbed an unlikely equalizer on 54 minutes through Jordens Peters with an accurate header past PSV ‘keeper Boy Waterman after Peters got on the end of a lovely whipped cross from Marc Höcher. PSV regained the lead and got their title challenge back on track fifteen minutes from the end with the reliant Swede striker Ola Toivonen. Toivonen finishing a wonderful move from the hardworking Memphis Depay. The points were settled minutes later with a rare Timothy Derijck goal. A exquistie backheeled flick by Kevin Strootman from a Atiba Hutchinson cross setup the big Belgian defender Derjick perfectly to head home.
In the Eredivisie promotion race, the new leaders are Helmond Sport even though they did not have a game this week. Of course, this was because the bankrupted SC Veendam were dissolved this week and all results were deleted from the league. MVV were the worst victims of this dropping to fourth from second.
Sparta celebrate Danny Buijs goal against Dordrecht on Friday night
Sparta Rotterdam got back to winning ways under new manager Henk ten Cate with a 2-1 win away to Dordrecht. They went a goal down just before half-time with a Josimar Lima strike but Sparta came back out and turn the game around with goals from Iliass Bel Hassani and Danny Buijs. Ten Cate’s new side now sit in third, three points ahead of MVV, which failed to score against Go Ahead Eagles in a bore draw.
FC Volendam kept the pressure on the top with a good 2-0 away win to ten-man FC Emmen. Jack Tuyp scored for the thiord game in a row with a 78 minute penalty after Ludcinio Marengo had given Volendam a early sixth minute lead. Volendam, although the victory, drop to second due to the deletion of Veendam’s results.
Cambuur, in sixth, are looking strong as they smashed four goals past FC Oss in a 4-1 home win.
Feyenoord added a little pressure on the Eredivisie leaders Ajax with a close 1-0 win over VVV Venlo on Friday evening.
Feyenoord headed into tonight’s game in fourth place, four points adrift of leader Ajax and one behind both PSV and Vitesse, but with the one goal win Feyenoord have now jumped to second place with the victory, although the surrounding teams are obviously still to play this weekend.
Feyenoord were forced to work hard for the three points, especially with scores being locked at 0-0 heading into the final twenty minutes. It took a 71st-minute strike from Italian striker Graziano Pelle after a whipping cross from defender Joris Mathijsen to break the deadlock and send Feyenoord second.
Van de Looi recieves his first managerial job at Groningen next season
FC Groningen today announced that Erwin van de Looi will replace Robert Maaskant as head coach at the end of the season, he has signed a two-year contract. It was also stated that Dick Lukkein would be his assistant.
Van de Looi has worked his way up the ranks at Groningen after started as youth team coach in 2008 until 2010 when he became then head coach Peter Huistra’s assistant. After Huistra’s departure he then moved on to Maaskant’s assistant but after last month’s contract negoications, Maaskant has decided to leave.
As a player, Van de Looi was a player and started at the youth academy of Vitesse Arnhem, and went on to make his professional debut at Den Bosch in 1991. Then followed five years at Vitesse, three season at NAC Breda, a yearover in Germany for the Stuttgarter Kickers and finished at FC Groningen. He retired at 30 after sustained injuries.
Henk ten Cate returns to Sparta until the end of the season
Today, Sparta Rotterdam replaced Michel Vonk as head coach with experienced head Henk ten Cate in his second term in a managerial role with the club. Ten Cate lead Sparta to sixth in the Eredivisie back in 1996, in a season where the Rotterdam side were defeated by PSV in the KNVB Cup final.
After sixteen years Ten Cate now returns at Sparta as successor of Vonk, who was fired on Tuesday, after three defeats in a row Sparta dropped to the fourth position in the Jupiler League. The club’ s aim is to secure the championship and direct promotion to the Eredivisie this year, the year of the club’ s 125th anniversary. Although, Ten Cate’s reign may be short after it was announced he has only signed a contract until the end of this season.
The 58-year-old Dutchman has been out of work since he quit as coach of Chinese club Shandong Luneng Taishan in September last year, following disappointing results in the Chinese Super League. Among other clubs Ten Cate had previously been manager of Ajax and Greek side Panathinaikos as well as assistant at Barcelona and Chelsea.
Dutch international goalkeeper Tim Krul, 25 today, is set for a late birthday present on Thursday as he prepares to make his Newcastle United return at the Estadio da Luz to face Benfica in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League.
Krul has been sidelined since suffering an ankle injury in the closing stages of the round of 32 win against Metalist Kharkiv in February. He made a string of saves in the Ukraine as the Magpies won 1-0 but his replacement, Englishman Rob Elliot, has more than stepped up to the plate over the last few weeks.
Krul, however, is set to return against in Lisbon and he knows that he could have a crucial role to play against the Portuguese league leaders. “They’ve got great players,” the Den Haag-born shot-stopper said. “We’ve had a video analysis this afternoon so we’ve seen the quality of the players and I’m really impressed with the quality. Their attacking qualities are really good so we need to be a solid team tomorrow. Hopefully we can keep a clean sheet – that would be fantastic. I know the left-winger, Ola John, from the national team – he’s a great player – and as we’ve seen this afternoon, they’ve got a few more good players.”
In light of Elliot’s solid displays, Alan Pardew faced a tough call when deciding who would start in goal against Benfica. At the pre-match press conference held at the magnificent stadium, the Newcastle manager hinted that Krul would get the nod.
“I think it would be terrible of me to say on his birthday that he’s definitely not playing,” Pardew smiled. “He’s sitting up here so I think it’s a good indication that Tim will play tomorrow. He’s trained very, very well. I personally think he’s one of the top goalkeepers in the world and therefore this is a great opportunity for him to come back as the number one for Sunday. I don’t mind putting that pressure on him tomorrow. He accepts at this level that if he wants to play in the Dutch national side, that’s the pressure he’s under and I have no doubt that he’ll respond to that.”
Sparta Rotterdam, celebrating their 125th birthday today, were defeated 1-0 at home against mid-table Emmen and after starting the day top of the division now find themselves fourth due to results of others.
This morning Sparta Rotterdam woke up as leaders and ready to enjoy a celebration for the ages, tomorrow morning they will wake up inside a nightmare. Wins for Helmond Sport, Volendam and MVV slip Sparta down to fourth and two points adrift from top spot.
It was Elson Almeida after 25 minutes that got Emmen’s goal as he sneaked around Donovan Slijngard as if he was not there. Helmond picked up a great 2-1 away win to ninth placed Den Bosch thanks to goals from Emrullah Güvenç and Davy Brouwers.
Volendam find themselves top of the division by goal difference after a 2-0 win away to lowly FC Eindhoven. Jack Tuyp and Michiel Kramer, like Friday night at home to Fortuna Sittard, were on the scoresheet. Finally, MVV sit in second after a 2-1 away win at Telstar with strikers from Mark Vledmate and Tom van Hyfte.
The title looks to be heading to Amsterdam once again as Ajax take pole position with a thumping 4-1 win at home to NEC Nijmegen. Second placed PSV Eindhoven were held to a 2-2 draw away to relegation threatened Roda JC. Also, Ivorian hitman Wilfried ‘Daddy Cool’ Bony was on the scoresheet yet again as Vitesse climbed to third position with a win over PEC Zwolle.
Despair – PSV dropped two precious points on Sunday
Roda JC 2 (Demouge 13, Malki 87)
PSV Eindhoven 2 (Toivonen 19, 33)
PSV dropped a precious two points in the title race after a 2-2 draw with Roda JC in Kerkrade on Sunday afternoon. Swedish forward Ola Toivonen hit a first-half double as PSV came from behind after on-loan striker Frank Demouge’s (from League One side Bournemouth) early opener. With three minutes remaining, Syrian international Senharib Malki scored a dramatic equaliser to salvage a point for the hosts.
PSV were the better team in the first 45 minutes, but against the run of play, conceded a goal in the 13th minute. Demouge rose high above his marker to produce a glancing header from Mark-Jan Fledderus’ corner, scoring the opener for Ruud Brood’s team from their first meaningful chance. However, it was a short-lived lead for Roda, just six minutes later PSV drew level, when Toivonen headed home at the far post. PSV enjoyed most possession of the ball and attacking pair Memphis Depay and Jermain Lens had chances to put PSV ahead. Dick Advocaat’s team deservedly took the lead in the 33rd minute, after veteran Mark van Bommel delivered a fine cross from the right. Jeremain Lens just could not connect but Toivonen was on hand to tap home from close range for his second goal.
Roda keeper Kurto quickly left his line to deny Tim Matavz and minutes later the Slovenian striker, with only the keeper to beat, sent an effort just wide of the post. Disaster struck for PSV late in the goal, when Malki scored the dramatic leveller, putting away Mikołaj Lebedyński’s flick on.
HIGHLIGHTS (in Dutch)
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Daddy Cool – Wilfried Bony celebrating his 27th goal of the Eredivisie
Vitesse Arnhem 2 (Bony 9, Havenaar 35)
PEC Zwolle 1 (Valpoort 78)
PSV’s slip allowed Vitesse Arnhem to draw level in second place as they extended their winning run to six games with a 2-1 win over PEC Zwolle at the Gelredome. Hot property Wilfried Bony and Mike Havenaar fired them 2-0 by the break with Zwolle’s sole reply coming via Arsenio Valpoort with 12 minutes left. Bony opened the scoring after after good work by Ecuadorean Renato Ibarra just nine minutes capitalising on a mistake from Zwolle defence. It was shortly 2-0 in the 35th minute, Theo Janssen swung in a flawless free-kick to find the rising Havenaar to double the lead. Zwolle got a late consolation from young loanee winger Valpoort (from Heerenveen) and Theo Janssen gained a 93rd minute yellow card for jawjacking with the referee. He is now suspended for the next weekend’s game, at home against NAC Breda.
Erwin Koeman’s was delighed as his RKC Waalwijk side grabbed three much needed points completely outplaying ADO Den Haag to win 4-0, and to edge away from the relegation places. All four goals were a comedy of errors for team from The Hague but the result was no laughing matter. Mart Lieder got the ball rolling on ten minutes before a Vito Wormgoor own goal and Robert Braber’s goal shortly before half-time all but settled the match. Henrico Drost put the icing on the cake two minutes before time.
“Today, we had an aggressive attacking forward play and finished our chances,” Koeman told Eredivisie Live . “We were passionate and we deserved to win. We came in at half-time at 3-0, which was of course was delightful. I think we have done well. “
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He’s off – Thomas Lam shown his marching orders
Heracles 1 (te Wierik 43)
AZ Alkmaar 2 (Henriksen 22, te Wierik 24OG)
AZ Alkmaar grabbed a much-needed win 2-1 at Heracles Almelo despite playing with ten men for almost an hour. Markus Henriksen’s 22nd-minute opener was followed by a Mike te Wierik own goal two minutes later to give AZ a 2-0 lead. Thomas Lam saw red on the hour but Heracles were only able to pull a single goal back when Te Wierik made up for his earlier blunder with a 43rd-minute goal.
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Delight – Fischer feels the Amsterdam Arena’s appreciation after scoring Ajax’s third
Ajax 4 (Fischer 21, 77, van Ejiden 25OG, Babel 81)
NEC 1 (van der Velden 78)
Ajax moved three points clear at the top of the table with a 4-1 win over NEC Nijmegen, Sunday evening at the Amsterdam Arena. Viktor Fischer scoring his first goal since February, made it 1-0 on 21 minutes before a Rens Van Eijden own goal gave Ajax full control. Fischer’s second on 77 minutes was quickly nullified by a Nick Van der Velden goal but substitute Ryan Babel scored nine minutes from the end to ensure a wide-margin win.
Ajax dominating from the kick-off, opened the scoring with Danish youngster Fischer coolly finishing past NEC’s Hungarian goalkeeper Gábor Babos after impressive build up play by Lasse Schone and Siem de Jong. The lead was doubled just four minutes later thanks to an own goal from van Eijden trying to clear a Christian Eriksen cross-cum-shot.
The exciting Fischer extended Ajax’s lead further on 77 minutes with a delightful chip from the edge of the box. After recieving the ball from Eriksen, he spotted Babos off his line and the Dane delicately slipped his foot under the ball and glided it home into the top corner to get the crowd on their feet. NEC hit back right after play resumed with Nick van der Velden scoring after a fine pass from Victor Palsson to reduce the defecit. It only lasted three minutes as Ajax regained their three-goal advantage when substitute Ryan Babel added the fourth on 81 minutes.
Ajax now lay three points clear at the top of the pile but Frank de Boer knows that just one slip up could let PSV or Vitesse over take them.
PSV and Vitesse have temporarily joined Ajax on sixty points with wins today and both are now joint top in a very close title race in the Eredivisie. Ajax play Heracles tomorrow knowing that they have no room for error for the remainder of the season with Feyenoord also snapping at their heels.
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