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Eredivisie Team Of The Week – Round 1

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Welcome to week one of our Eredivisie Team of the Week which leads into our 2016/17 Eredivisie ‘Player of the Season’ competition.  All players have performed so well this weekend that Will Burns has selected them in the team of the week.  Each player in the eleven receives one point and whichever player is declared ‘Player of the Week’, he receives an extra point.

TeamOfTheWeek-1

GOALKEEPER

ELOY ROOM – VITESSE: A Fran Sol goal was the only thing that spoiled the fantastic outing for Eloy Room in his side’s 4-1 away win to Edwin van de Looi’s Willem II.

DEFENDERS

GIOVANNI TROUPEE – FC UTRECHT: At only 18, on his first start for Utrecht, the attacking Troupee was very impressive, defending well and forcing Jetro Willems into some difficult decisions.

ERIC BOTTEGHIN – FEYENOORD: FC Groningen rarely threatened due to Botteghin’s defensive play and great reading of the game.

DANIEL SCHWAAB – PSV: A solid performance from the experienced German that may force PSV fans to ask ‘Jeffrey who?’

LUCAS WOUDENBERG – FEYENOORD: Another youngster that impressed and deserving of claiming the left-back spot in the TOTW.

MIDFIELDERS

DAVY PROPPER – PSV: Lead the midfield to inspire a PSV comeback against a plucky FC Utrecht side in the 2-1 win.

TONNY VILHENA – FEYENOORD: Dominant performance in midfield and bagged himself a goal in the 5-0 demolition of FC Groningen.

DALEY SINKGRAVEN – AJAX: Finally looked settled in the Amsterdammers line-up and provided a great goal to give Ajax the lead in the 3-1 away win against newly promoted Sparta.

ATTACKERS

MITCHELL VAN BERGEN – VITESSE: Did anyone forget this kid is only 16 years old when watching him on Saturday?

NICOLAI JORGENSEN – FEYENOORD: A great performance for the Danish international in his league debut since his move from FC Copenhagen. Capped off with a goal.

ELJERO ELIA – FEYENOORD: The former Southampton winger notched a hat-trick and deserves the PLAYER OF THE WEEK award. Not even a dislocated finger could stop him on Sunday.

Click here to see the ‘Player of the Season’ standings.

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PSV capture first silverware of the season

Reigning Eredivisie champions, PSV Eindhoven secured the first silverware of the 2016/17 campaign with a narrow 1-0 victory over KNVB Beker winners, Feyenoord to lift the Johan Cruijff Schaal on Sunday 31st July at the Amsterdam ArenA reports Steven Davies.

An, at times, tempestuous first half began with Andres Guardado striking new signing Par Hansson’s crossbar with the Swedish stopper beaten after just five minutes and the reigning Eredivisie champions found plenty of joy from swift counter attacks throughout the first stanza.

Mexican international, Guardado edged ahead of his playmaking counterpart, Tonny Vilhena as Feyenoord were progressively forced to resort to long, hopeful balls into the PSV area as the half wore on.

It came as little surprise when, with 29 minutes on the clock and PSV enjoying the majority of possession, Jorrit Hendrix forced his way into the Feyenoord box and was brought down by El Ahmadi. Yet, despite 32 goals in all competitions last term, Luuk de Jong surprising sent his penalty attempt wayward – the ball shaving the bar on its way into orbit.

Tempers flared thereafter as an innocuous coming together between Isimat-Mirin and Toornstra resulted in handbags being thrown and yellow cards dished out to Toornstra and Jetro Willems respectively.

PSV were now well and truly in the ascendancy and minutes after a Pereiro shot had been screwed narrowly wide from a ball from the right a similar ball into the Feyenoord box saw an attempted clearance scuffed and Davy Propper flash a daisy cutter through a cluster of legs and into the far corner of Hansson’s net with the keeper rooted to the spot to give PSV a deserved 38th minute lead.

Cup winners, Feyenoord came out for the second half with purpose and, in a frenetic few minutes just after the restart, Vilhena drew a point blank save from PSV stopper, Jeroen Zoet before Toornstra fired over from close range.

Feyenoord chased the game throughout but looked increasingly unlikely to break PSV’s stranglehold on the game. New signing, Nicolai Jorgensen cut an increasingly frustrated figure up front, as did the rest of Feyenoord’s attacking trio and the Danish marksman was replaced by Michiel Kramer with a quarter of an hour left on the clock – their best opportunity falling to a defender, as a Botteghin header was cleared off the line after 57 minutes.

Despite having the majority of possession in the second period, Feyenoord found clean cut chances hard to come by and it was PSV who instead threatened to add to their lead: first, through Locadia who curled the ball just wide of Hansson’s left hand post after 54 minutes and then, with just a minute of normal time remaining, Jetro Willems was denied from point blank range by the Dane after being put through one-on-one with the keeper.

However, these missed opportunities did not come back to haunt the reigning Eredivisie champions who retained the Johan Cruijff Schaal for the second year in succession following their 3-0 victory over Groningen in the same fixture last season.

Man of the Match: Andres Guardado (PSV Eindhoven)

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Eredivisie Team Of The Week – Round 4

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Welcome to week four of our Eredivisie Team of the Week which leads into our Eredivisie ‘Player of the Season’ competition.  All players have performed so well this weekend that Martijn Hilhorst and Will Burns have decided they should be in our team of the week.  Each player in the eleven receives one point and whichever player is declared ‘Player of the Week’, he receives an extra point.

TeamOfTheWeek-4

GOALKEEPER

JEROEN ZOET – PSV: Another commanding performance from arguably the best keeper in the league right now.

DEFENDERS

SANTIAGO ARIAS – PSV: Solid performance defending for PSV keeping Dirk Kuyt at bay and a great attacking display that resulted in a good goal.

TIMO LETSCHERT – FC UTRECHT: The Utrecht man seems to realising his potential. Letschert was indispensable at the back in Utrecht’s 2-0 win over FC Groningen.

SANDER FISCHER – EXCELSIOR:  Sander is always a real handful to strikers but against De Graafschap he halted everything fired in his way.

GURAM KASHIA – VITESSE: The big Georgian notched a goal to cap off an excellent show that kept Bart Ogbeche out of trouble.

MIDFIELDERS

DAVY KLAASSEN – AJAX: The man-of-the-match in Ajax’s 4-0 thumping of ADO Den Haag. The Amsterdam captain provided a goal and two assists which makes him our PLAYER OF THE WEEK.

DAVY PRÖPPER – PSV: A wonderful assist and winner of a dubious penalty in the big clash against Feyenoord. Looks to be finding his feet in Eindhoven.

ILIASS BEL HASSANI – HERACLES: Bel Hassani snatched the limelight back from last week’s star Oussama Tannane in Almelo. Lead the way scoring the opening goal as Heracles heaped more misery on Twente fans in the 2-0 victory over the Enschede side.

ATTACKERS

ANWAR EL GHAZI – AJAX: The Eredivisie top scorer notched another two goals and also provided an assist for Klaassen.

LUUK DE JONG – PSV: The big striker won the majority of his aerial duels against Eric Botteghin and Jan-Arie van der Heijden and continuously held the ball up in the Eindhoven side’s 3-1 win over Feyenoord.

MAXIME LESTIENNE – PSV: A goal and the completely bossing of Sven van Beek that resulted in some good crosses in PSV’s 3-1 win over Feyenoord. Could have more than the one goal.

Click here to see the ‘Player of the Season’ standings.

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Two Dutch Talents in Arnhem

There are two midfield talents in the Vitesse Arnhem team that could become Dutch internationals in the very near future, Davy Propper and Marko Vejinovic.  Davy has already been called-up to the national team in the past and Marko could very well be just a few months away from his first call.

This Vitesse team has utilised a very sensible 4-3-3 formation for the first half of the season and frankly they should have achieved much more than they actually did. The team has some talented, skilful players who pass the ball very well and two of the most impressive of the lot are Davy and Marko says Rion Rodgers.

Marko Veijnovic, 24

Let me start by saying that I think Marko Veijnovic is the “real deal”. This man has everything to play at a much higher level than Vitesse. He is physically strong, has good technique and delivers very accurate set pieces. I particularly love to see his rampaging direct runs through the centre of the park towards the edge of the eighteen yard box. These runs usual culminate with a fierce shot at goal or a deft final pass to a teammate. Eight league goals and five assists so far this season says there is certainly some potential in this guy.

In fact, I see him as Ronald Koeman’s eventual successor for Morgan Schneiderlin. Am I crazy? Why Veijnovic? Why not Clasie? Well, I truly see this guy as having great potential as a strong, quick, smart and technically sound central midfielder. He has been the fulcrum of the Arnhem team’s midfield this season. Marko loves to break up plays in the middle of the field and constantly harasses oppositions using his tall strong frame, much like Morgan does for Southampton. Add his ability to keep the ball quite well to his impressive array of passing and one can see why I think he is made for the Premier League.

It is also worth noting that Marko is a multi-functional player who is very adept at numerous positions. During his Heracles days we saw him played all three midfield positions as well as centre back, full-back and striker.

If there is one flaw in this man’s game, it is that he isn’t the most agile of players. This is potentially due to his physical size. However, it has decidedly not posed too many limitations to his effectiveness.

Davy Propper, 24

Davy Propper is another midfielder with great qualities. He is physically strong, very intelligent, can score great goals and technically sound. This boy was seen as a huge talent in Arnhem before Marco Van Ginkel even broke into a regular first team spot. However, persistent injuries curtailed his rate of progression, while Van Ginkel was making serious strides. Today Van Ginkel is playing at a huge European club, while Davy still plies his trade in the modest confines of Arnhem. Nevertheless, he is on an upward trajectory and will quite possibly make it into one of Europe’s bigger leagues at the end of this Eredivisie season.

There is some amount of debate about what is Davy’s best position. Some people say he is best at the number 10 position, but having watched him since his debut for Vitesse, I am convinced he is more of a box-to-box midfielder. He can certainly do a decent job as a number 10, but his physicality, work rate and passing range makes him quite suitable to play just a little bit ahead of the holding midfielder. I however, believe that If he were a little faster and had better dribbling skills, then he could be a great number 10.

In conclusion, these two blokes will most likely be quite useful for the Dutch National team in the future. To what extent, is hard to say now. The road of a footballer is one made up of a myriad of dips and bends, and sadly some young players do not negotiate their way ahead with the kind of dexterity and determination that is required. One thing is for sure, we should all keep the proverbial eye on these two for the next season or two.

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EREDIVISIE: Vitesse 1-1 Heerenveen

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SATURDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER 2014

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VITESSE 1-1 HEERENVEEN

Heerenveen held Vitesse to a great 1-1 draw on Saturday evening however, they could have left Arnhem with more writes Will Burns.

The hosts started the better of the two sides with Davy Pröpper, Marko Vejinovic and Zakaria Labyad forcing early stops from Kristoffer Nordfeldt, however all efforts from long range.

After some great awareness from Morten Thorsby, Mark Uth grabbed the first goal of the game on 22 minutes in empathic fashion. Thorsby held the ball up, while Uth sneaked behind him down the left side of the area. The German striker then smashed a first time shot into the roof of the net at Piet Velthuizen’s near post to shock the home fans.

De Superfriezen were not in the lead for long after Davy Pröpper scored the equaliser after the ball was carried forward by Denys Olinyk. The ball fell perfectly at the edge of the area for Pröpper to side foot home.

Heerenveen looked more likely to take all three points with Velthuizen keeping the Arnhem side in the game while the Gelredome crowd became restless.

Peter Bosz’s Vitesse sit second bottom with just five points so far with their season is still to yet get going, Heerenveen sit in fourth claiming 11 points in the first six games so far.

TEAMS

VITESSE: Velthuizen, Wallace, Van der Heijden, Kruiswijk, Achenteh, Vejinovic, Pröpper, Leerdam, Labyad (Ibarra 46), Dauda (Qazaishvili 71), Olinyk (Traoré 76).

SUBS NOT USED: Room, Mori, McEachran, Diks.

GOALS: Pröpper 29.

BOOKINGS: Vejinovic 45, Pröpper 88, Wallace 90+1.

HEERENVEEN: Nordfeldt, Marzo, Buijs, Van Aken, Van Anholt, De Roon, Sinkgraven, Van den Berg, Slagveer (Schmidt 89), Uth (Dalgaard 81), Thorsby (Van Amersfoort 66).

SUBS NOT USED: De Fockert, Raitala, Otigba, Varga.

GOALS: Uth 23.

BOOKINGS: Van den Berg 45, Uth 70, van Aken 86, De Room 90+4.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Davy Pröpper (Vitesse)

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EREDIVISIE: PEC Zwolle 2-1 Vitesse

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SUNDAY 24TH AUGUST 2014

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PEC ZWOLLE 2 – 1 VITESSE

PEC Zwolle came back from a goal behind to defeat Vitesse Arnhem 2-1 in Sunday’s first game in an exciting but heated encounter reports Will Burns.

Goalscorer from two weeks ago Soufain Moro, a summer free transfer from FC Utrecht, began the game on the left wing in place of Ryan Thomas, who may have been struggling with fitness after midweek exploits in the Europa League. While Peter Bosz made a change in the Vitesse goal as Eloy Room started in place of the injured Piet Velthuizen and 17-year-old left-back Kevin Diks introduced for his debut for the club.

After a good half-an-hour pre-game of lashing down rain, both sides decided to exchange long range shots early on but no decent efforts to trouble either keeper. After the opening ten minutes, the visitors experienced a decent spell and they should have taken the lead when Kelvin Leerdam forced a good save out of Diederik Boer from a corner on 20 minutes.

The good spell paid off when Davy Pröpper opened the scoring on 23 minutes despite the great efforts from Boer to stop the shot. The midfielder found space on the edge of the area and the shot deflected off Joost Broerse, and although Boer got a hand to the ball, the shot skimmed off the wet ground and into the corner of the goal.

Leerdam should have made it after Valeri Kazaishvili put him through on goal, but when Boer close the midfielder down he fluffed his lines and scuffed his shot wide. Vitesse’s new Ukrainian signing Denys Olinyk found more time as a substitute after Chelsea loanee Bertrand Traoré pulled up with an injury on 28 minutes.

On 35 minutes, Zwolle could have been levelled after Arnold Kruiswijk fouled Jody Lukoki and a referee Dennis Higler awarded a free-kick. Lukoki floated the ball in and Vitesse failed to clear when Broerse arrived at the back post to smash a shot that was well saved by Room. After some tempers had flared when Maikel van der Werff and Olinyk clashed, the crowd became louder and at the other end, Boer was tested by Kazaishvili’s effort from outside the area that the goalkeeper parried away.

As the sun shone for the second half, the home side seemed more composed, however they only really bothered Room early on with long range efforts from Broerse and Ben Rienstra. After an hour, Ron Jans decide to mix up his attacking options with Ryan Thomas and Stef Nijland joining the fray replacing Moro and Necid.

Seconds later, Zwolle were level when Van der Werff’s free-kick deflected in off Guram Kashia to make it 1-1. The defender who missed a spot-kick midweek against Sparta Prague made amends with the goal.

Zwolle’s tails were up and Jesper Drost nearly made it 2-1 minutes later with a great header from Lukoki right-wing cross that flashed across Room’s goal. Vitesse had their chances too with Zakaria Labyad and Olinyk proving to be constant headaches with the former forcing an easy save out of Boer with a header on 75 minutes.

The hosts finished the game the better and fitter side, not showing any European hangover as Bosz, visibly aware of this, replaced the active Labyad for former Zwolle defender Ronald Achenteh to try and seal a point, however this move did not help his side.

Substitute Stefan Nijland took advantage of some poor defending from Vitesse with just two minutes remaining. Jan Arie van der Heijden was disposed by Lukoki and Nijland was on hand to finish to send the IJsseldelta into raptures. The former Ajax winger Lukoki could have added a third in stoppage time forcing a stop from Room.

Zwolle’s great run continues and the way they fought back in the second half will deter any doubters in thinking this cannot be a successful season and they will head to the Czech Republic this Thursday full of confidence knowing that only a win will do against Sparta Prague. Vitesse on the other hand lack a lot up front and recruiting a striker is must this week before the transfer window slams shut.

TEAMS

PEC ZWOLLE: Boer, Lam, Van der Werff, Broerse (Sainsbury 80), Van Polen, Rienstra, Saymak, Lukoki, Drost, Moro (Thomas 64), Necid (Nijland 64).

SUBS NOT USED: De Jong, Dekker, Pereira, Ioannidis.

GOALS: Van der Werff 64, Nijland 88.

BOOKINGS: Van Polen 41, Rienstra 58.

VITESSE: Room, Diks, Kashia, Van der Heijden, Kruiswijk, Vejinovic (McEachran 74), Leerdam, Pröpper, Labyad (Achenteh 84), Kazaishvili, Traoré (Olinyk 28).

SUBS NOT USED: Houwen, Mori, Djurdjevic, Bosz.

GOALS: Pröpper 23.

BOOKINGS: Kashia 40, Pröpper 41.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Maikel van der Werff (PEC Zwolle)

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VITESSE SEASON PREVIEW

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A mixture of high and low points will greet Vitesse fans when they think back to last season. Highs, such as a six-game winning streak that included wins away at Ajax and an astonishing 6-2 win away at PSV, were balanced out by low points like losing 4 out of the last 10 games of the season before being beaten 5-1 on aggregate by Groningen in the semi-final of the Europa League play-off writes Ryan O’Grady.

Last season’s goal tally of 65 was the 3rd best in the league, behind only Feyenoord and FC Twente, but with this summer’s departures 32 of those 65 goals have departed which is a huge loss and it will be extremely hard if not impossible to replace. This summer like last summer saw the departure of star players such as Lucas Piazon, who was Vitesse’s top scorer with 11 goals, and Christian Atsu who both returned to Chelsea after there loan deals expired. Star striker Mike Havenaar also departed this after scoring 10 goals last season. While he was a free agent his decision to sign for newly-promoted Spanish side Cordoba is somewhat surprising considering he was attracting interest from Napoli of Italy. The situation upfront is certainly worrying. After Havenaar the second top scorer in the strikers department was Kazaishvili with 4 goals and it remains to be seen whether new signing Abiola Dauda, who has a decent record at both Kalmar of Sweden and Red Star Belgrade of Serbia, can deliver the goods when needed. Another miss for Vitesse will be left back Patrick van Aanholt who returned to Chelsea before signing for Sunderland permanently. Van Aanholt made 29 appearances in the Eredivisie last year and also chipped in with four goals.

To try and compensate for the loss of van Aanholt the club have turned to Chelsea again, this time signing Brazilian right-back Wallace on a one-year loan deal. Another loan signing from Chelsea saw the return of Bertrand Traore, who made a great impression last season and was welcomed back with open arms. An important player for Vitesse this year will be right back come defensive midfielder Kelvin Leerdam. He made 28 appearances last year and contributed a brilliant 8 goals making him 3rd top scorer at the club. This summer Vitesse have played six preseason games, they started off with 4 draws against Cercle Brugge (1-1), Sparta Rotterdam (0-0), Osnabrück (2-2) and Hertha Berlin (0-0). The game away at Hertha was followed by a visit to Stamford Bridge to play against Chelsea, who took a 3-0 lead in the game before Vitesse pulled one back at the end. Their last pre-season friendly was against Bolton Wanderers and that resulted in a 1-0 win with a free kick from Vejinovic.

TRANSFERS INS AND OUT

IN: Abiola Dauda (Red Star Belgrade), Arnold Kruiswijk (Heerenveen), Denys Oliynyk (Dnipro), Wallace (Chelsea).

OUT: Christian Atsu (Chelsea), Lucas Piazon (Chelsea), Marko Meerits (FC Emmen), Mike Havanaar (Cordoba), Patrick van Aanholt (Sunderland).

MANAGER – PETER BOSZ

The former Vitesse and Feyenoord midfielder was appointed last summer after previous manager Fred Rutten stepped down after leading the club to an impressive 4th placed finish. The former Netherlands midfielder has also played at a number of other clubs including RKC Waalwijk and even as far away as JEF United Ichihara in Japan. After retiring from professional football he became head coach of amateur side AGOVV Apeldoorn before moving to De Graafschap and then Heracles Almelo where he won the Eerste Divisie in 2005. In 2006 he became Technical Director at his old club Feyenoord, but he left his position in January 2009 due to his opposition of the sacking of then manager Gertjan Verbeek. In 2010 he replaced Verbeek as manager of Heracles, returning for a second spell as manager before joining Vitesse in the summer of 2013.

KEY PLAYER – BERTRAND TRAORE

Great things are almost certainly to come from this youngster. It seems that Jose Mourinho believes he is good enough for the Chelsea first team but he is unable to play in the Premier League due to work permit problems. This led to the Vitesse management to take advantage of the two clubs controversial partnership and sign him on loan for another season. The club are quite clearly delighted to have him back; Vitesse Technical Director Mohammed Allach has been quoted as saying “he made a strong personal impression on us” and that “we are thrilled that Bertrand is joining us again”. He will probably get more than the 15 appearances he attained last season and will gain more valuable first team experience.

PREDICTION – 8TH

BET VICTOR EREDIVISIE TITLE ODDS: 20/1

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In a 33 man squad, RVP & Huntelaar return for France clash

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Oranje coach Louis van Gaal has named a huge 33-man provisional squad for the Netherlands’ friendly match with France on March 5th in Paris. The friendly with France is the first of four warm-up games for the Dutch ahead of this summer’s World Cup in Brazil.

Dutch captain Robin van Persie returns after having missed his country’s last two friendlies through injury.

Also recalled is Schalke striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who has only recently made his comeback after a knee injury. The 30-year-old striker had spent five months on the sidelines but has scored two goals in four league appearances for the Bundesliga side since returning to action after the winter break.

Van Gaal has also announced six players to his squad who could win their first cap including dangerous winger Jean-Paul Boëtius, who has been in great form over the past few months for Feyenoord and could receive his first cap in Paris. Other possible debutants in the squad include PSV pair Karim Rekik and goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet, FC Twente’s Quincy Promes, Vitesse’s Davy Pröpper and Ajax’s Davy Klaassen.

SQUAD

GOALKEEPERS: Jasper CILLESSEN (Ajax), Tim KRUL (Newcastle United), Maarten STEKELENBURG (Fulham), Kenneth VERMEER (Ajax), Michel VORM (Swansea City), Jeroen ZOET (PSV).

DEFENDERS: Daley BLIND (Ajax), Jeffrey BRUMA (PSV), Stefan DE VRIJ (Feyenoord), Bruno MARTINS INDI (Feyenoord), Daryl JANMAAT (Feyenoord), Karim REKIK (PSV), Gregory VAN DER WIEL (Paris Saint-Germain), Joel VELTMAN (Ajax), Paul VERHAEGH (FC Augsburg), Ron VLAAR (Aston Villa).

MIDFIELDERS: Jordy CLASIE (Feyenoord), Nigel DE JONG (AC Milan), Siem DE JONG (Ajax), Leroy FER (Norwich City), Davy KLAASSEN (Ajax), Davy PROPPER (Vitesse), Stijn SCHAARS (PSV), Wesley SNEIJDER (Galatasaray), Kevin STROOTMAN (AS Roma).

FORWARDS: Jean-Paul BOETIUS (Feyenoord), Memphis DEPAY (PSV), Klaas-Jan HUNTELAAR (Schalke), Dirk KUYT (Fenerbahçe), Luciano NARSINGH (PSV), Quincy PROMES (FC Twente), Arjen ROBBEN (Bayern Munich), Robin VAN PERSIE (Manchester United).

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