We are at the halfway mark in the Eredivisie and Willem Slor is on hand to explain what has happened this season so far…

The winter break has arrived in Europe, and the Eredivisie is at a standstill. From what we have seen so far in the league, regularity has been bestowed upon the top three teams; PSV, Ajax, and Feyenoord. The ‘Big Three’ of the Eredivisie have found their respective place, as these three teams together hold more than 50 percent of the total Dutch Championships. They also contend in a variety of rivalries, primarily ‘De Klassieker’, which describes the always-exciting game between Ajax and Feyenoord.  These three teams continue to fight for the first place, and every single point loss can be detrimental to its chances of becoming the champion.

However, these three teams have not only historically maintained greatness, in this year most of the players in the Eredivisie have received the highest rating, including PSV’s Memphis Depay, Feyenoord’s Jordy Clasie, Colin Kazim-Richards, Kenneth Vermeer, Jens Toornstra, and Ajax’s Davy Klaassen, Arka Milik, and Anwar El-Ghazi, who seemed to have drawn international attention with their performances in the Champions League rounds.  Not only that, but the big three are all advancing in the Europa League, a sight to see surely for many Dutch supporters.

In team efforts, Feyenoord has the highest percentage of ball possession, rounding up at 62 percent. The team also has the highest amount of corners (117). Ajax’s Davy Klaassen holds the number one position for most assists (8), Niklas Moisander has the most successful pass rate (1041), while Ajax has the most goals from direct free kicks(3). Memphis Depay has the most shots on goals (59).

PEC Zwolle, a solid fourth place contender, has shown its supporters a kind of ‘voetbal’ that exhibits solid wins, strong finishing skills, but most importantly, beautiful attacks. Its team has had its fair amount of magical combinations and superb executions. A very well deserved spot for PEC Zwolle. Plus, who doesn’t like a joyful Ron Jans in a post-match interview? The guy says the greatest things when the W is in the pocket.

FC Twente has faced one of its trickiest first half of the semester, facing anything from light injuries to white tissues being displayed for Alfred Schreuder. A magnificent comeback last weekend signified its retaliation against its latest criticism, but can they continue to hold up for the second half of the competition? It’s winger, Jesús Manuel Corona, holds the season record for most successful dribbles (42), but does this really mean anything if those dribbles don’t lead to a goal?

AZ is coasting steadily, receiving 28 points in 17 matches, just as much as FC Twente. To its credit, the team has the longest series without suffering a goal (4 games) and its centre-back, Jeffrey Gouweleeuw, holds the most interceptions for the first half of the season(65).

SC Cambuur, FC Groningen and FC Utrecht have been fighting to claim seventh, eighth and ninth places. Cambuur holds on to the seventh; a solid standing for a team that has only recently been promoted to the Eredivisie. Overall, a respectable position for Cambuur, but also a target for Groningen and Utrecht to achieve. Groningen’s keeper Sergio Padt, has the most saves out of all the keepers in the Eredivisie (71). This means that he is a solid goalkeeper, but also that Groningen’s defense isn’t completely up to par with Padt’s level: a goalie wouldn’t have to stop that many shots if the defense did its job.  Tommy Oar, the Australian winger for FC Utrecht, has created the most changes for its attackers (45).

As we start to dwindle down the list, the teams that stand between the number nine and 18 have its individual issues. Vitesse, which was considered a powerhouse last season, has not forgotten to play good football, but seems to have completely forgotten how to score on goal. No goals, no points. In order for Vitesse to claim its righteous spot, goals will have to start dropping left and right.

Heerenveen owns the top scorer of the Eredivisie, Mark Uth (11), but these goals seem to have no significance, as these goals mostly tie up or show retribution to defeat for Heerenveen, but they hardly seem to be decisive in wins.

Willem II, Excelsior, ADO Den Haag, Heracles, and Go Ahead Eagles are all fun teams to watch, as they occasionally give the top teams a hard time and makes these top teams work for their points. However, they mostly lack the power that all the top teams possess, and this usually leads to either a tie or a defeat. When they play each other, it’s really a toss-up which team would win. But they’re always fun to watch.

NAC Breda and FC Dordrecht fight ever so hard to stay away from elimination, but if nothing happens in the second half of the season, it seems that these two teams are doomed. Dordrecht recently received its first point at home since 1995; this is a milestone that does not belong in the Eredivisie.

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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”.

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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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