Sander Fischer |

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.

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.

Click the name above to follow Will on Twitter.

TotalDutchFootball.com WorldFootballWeekly.com

SUNDAY 17TH AUGUST 2014

EXCELSIOR 3 – 2 GO AHEAD EAGLES

The newly promoted Excelsior grabbed a late three points in a five goal thriller against Go Ahead Eagles which saw Eagles keeper Eric Cummins get on the scoresheet writes Will Burns.

In front of small crowd of 3,213 inside the Stadion Woudestein, we saw a slow start to quiet an extraordinary game with neither side creating any clear cut chances.

However, the hosts took the lead with some great technique from young attacker Jordan Botaka on 19 minutes. Khalid Karami played a poor ball into the area, but the Eagles’ defence failed to clear and Botaka received the ball with his back to goal and instead of spinning and shooting he cheekily flicked a back heel past Erik Cummings to make it 1-0. It was fantastic technique to pull it off which left Eagles keeper Cummings completely dumbfounded.

As the rain poured down, the hosts did not take their foot off the pedal and went for a second goal and Botaka nearly had his second of the game when he was played in by the lively Daryl van Mieghem from the left wing. This time the winger failed to meet the target from close range, as his effort cannoned off the foot of the post.

The visitors should have been level before half-time when Deniz Türüç saw his low drive from the edge of the area booted off the line by Kevin van Diermen. The second half began as the first-half finished with the Eagles searching for the equaliser and came close soon after the interval through Marnix Kolder, however the striker dragged his effort wide.

Excelsior on the counter attack found a second goal just prior to the hour mark through Tom van Weert, although the striker did not much about the goal. Van Miegham shot towards goal but it was going wide until Van Weert stuck his knee out and diverted it past Cummins to make it 2-0.

The hosts were in the ascendancy and their tails were up but an extraordinary goal got Go Ahead back in the game. Goalkeeper Erik Cummins planted a long kick out of his hands up the field, and the ball bounced high just outside of Excelsior’s penalty area and over Jordy Deckers into the net.

Six minutes later, the game was level through defender Sven Nieuwpoort. Jop van der Linden whipped a free-kick into the box and the right-back escaped marker Van Weert to head home.

Five minutes from the end, lightning nearly struck twice when a long kick from Eagles keeper Cummins nearly caught out Deckers again, but the Excelsior stopped grabbed the ball much to the home crowd’s delight.

Four minutes into stoppage time, the home side clinched all three points after referee Jeroen Manschot awarded Excelsior a spot-kick after Turuc had deemed to foul Van der Linden in the area while tussling from a free-kick. Captain Sander Fischer coverted the penalty to clinch Excelsior their first win of the season.

TEAMS

EXCELSIOR: Deckers, Karami, Fischer, Van Diermen, Brito, Kruijs, Auassar, Stans (Vermeulen 84), Botaka, Van Weert (Maletic 76), Van Mieghem (Gouriye 62).

SUBS NOT USED: Mattheij, Damen, Hutten, Bovenberg.

GOALS: Botaka 19, van Weert 59, Fischer 90+4P.

BOOKINGS: Karami 84.

GO AHEAD: Cummins, Nieuwpoort, Vriends, Van der Linden, Schenk, Overgoor, Türüç, Van Ooijen (Rijsdjjk 66), De Sa (Reimerink 82), Kolder, Schalk (Lewis 76).

SUBS NOT USED: Van der Hart, De Bondt, Van der Meer, Ten Den.

GOALS: Cummins 69, Nieuwpoort 75.

BOOKINGS: Lewis 85, Vriends 89, Turuc 90+3.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Tom van Weert (Excelsior)