Maikel van der Werff |

Welcome to week three 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.

GOALKEEPER

JEROEN ZOET (PSV): Second week in a row for Zoet after keeping Ajax at bay to clinch a vital 3-1 win for PSV in the title race, even this early on in the season.

DEFENDERS

JOSHUA BRENET (PSV): The young defender held firm against the likes of Lasse Schone and Davy Klaassen on Sunday and made attacking runs with ease.

MAIKEL VAN DER WERFF (PEC Zwolle): The big defender, who missed a penalty in the Europa League midweek, made amends with a great performance capped off with a free-kick goal in the 2-1 win over Vitesse.

LUCAS BIJKER (SC Cambuur): Man of the match in the 1-0 win over Heracles on Friday with a match-saving tackle in the dying seconds of the game.

AARON MEIJERS (ADO Den Haag): Sitting in at left-back, Meijers linked play up well and caused many problems to Groningen in ADO’s 3-0 win on Sunday.

MIDFIELDERS

ALI MESSAOUD (Willem II): An influential performance topped off with a great goal leading Willem II to their first win of the season, 3-0 over AZ Alkmaar.

ROLAND ALBERG (ADO Den Haag): Alberg is playing the best football of his life at the moment and created two excellent goals to dispatch FC Groningen with ease 3-0.

GEORGINIO WIJNALDUM (PSV): Wijnaldum is in the TOTW for the second week in a row and was a constant threat to Frank de Boer’s Ajax on Sunday. Four shots and four successful dribbles earns his another week in our team.

ATTACKERS

ADNANE TIGAHOUDINI (NAC Breda): Young winger Tigahoudini frightened the life out of FC Twente’s defenders and won his side an unlikely point against FC Twente.

LUCIANO NARSINGH (PSV): Narsingh was excellent and looked back to his best so his named our Player Of The Week. With an assist and an excellent goal, Narsingh combined with Depay looks a mouthwatering prospect this season for PSV.

TOMMY OAR (FC Utrecht): The young Australian seems to improve every time he plays and created both goals in Utrecht’s shock win against Feyenoord.

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

Click the name above to follow Will on Twitter.

TotalDutchFootball.com WorldFootballWeekly.com

SUNDAY 24TH AUGUST 2014

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)