The 24th matchday in de Eredivisie starts with Utrecht playing Heracles Almelo at home. PSV and Ajax gear up for their clash next week playing NAC Breda and VVV Venlo at home on Sunday.
Ninth ranked FC Utrecht will play 13th ranked Hercales, but coach Ton du Chatinier warned his team for underestimation of the opponent. Utrecht come from a lucky 3-3 draw against Willem II last week. “They are difficult enough to play against, but we are obliged to win on Friday.” Striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel will be back in the Utrecht squad.
The top three clubs on the table all play at home on Sunday this weekend. Ajax faces VVV-Venlo, PSV meets NAC Breda and FC Twente takes on NEC. Number four FC Groningen play Roda JC in Euroborg Stadium for the match between the two clubs who are based furthest away from each other in the Dutch flight. The distance between Kerkrade en Groningen is 339 kilometers.
FC Utrecht is unbeaten in its last five League matches, but last week they were very close to defeat against bottom ranked Willem II when they only managed to score 3-3 in the 92nd minute. Ton du Chatiniers squad will have to put up another type of game to give Heracles Almelo a hard time. In Almelo Heracles beat Utrecht 2-1 earlier this season.
The home crowd will probably welcome back Ricky van Wolfswinkel on the pitch. The prolific Utrecht striker, who scored 11 goals in 18 matches this season, is recovered from a broken clavicle. Frank Demouge will probably be sidelined due to an ankle injury.
Du Chatinier warned his team for Heracles previewing the match on Thursday. The club comes from a 2-1 defeat at Feyenoord last week, but the Utrecht coach praised the game of his next opponents. “In the second half they put pressure on Feyenoord very well. They are difficult enough to play against, but we are obliged to win on Friday.”
Excelsior needs firepower. The Rotterdam squad only scored three goals in four matches after the winter break and after their 2-0 loss at NEC on Monday they presented a new striker. He may make his Eredivisie debut at home against bottom ranked Willem II on Saturday.
András Simon signed a deal until this summer at Woudestein. The 20-year-old Hungarian was with Liverpool FC for the past three years, but never played at Anfield Road and had his contract terminated in December.
Although Willem II grabbed a point against eighth ranked FC Utrecht last week (3-3) the bottom team had every reason to be disappointed. After being up twice and leading 3-2 into injury time, Willem II’s second season win was taken away by a 92th minute equalizer. To avoid a club record streak of 25 away matches without victory Willem II has to beat Excelsior. To keep their chances of staying in the Dutch top flight this season, they’ll have to grab the three points in Rotterdam.
Coach Gertjan Verbeek will not be on the bench when AZ visits his former employer sc Heerenveen in Friesland on Saturday. The trainer is suspended for one match because he offended the referee in the 4-0 home loss against PSV last Saturday. Verbeek coached Heerenveen four seasons in the past and led them to a remarkable fifth place finish three times.
Without Verbeek AZ will have to regroup from their heavy home defeat against the league leaders last week. A different approach to the game will not be needed, but the team desperately does need a striker who converts scoring opportunities. If AZ would have scored half of its chances against PSV, the match would have at least ended up in a draw. Brett Holman, Kolbeinn Sigthórsson and Maarten Martens either shot wide or found the excelling goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson on their way.
Heerenveen comes from a 2-0. Away win at NAC Breda. Michel Breuer did not play because of a knee injury and although he has recovered well, the captain will start on the bench against AZ. Coach Ron Jans was happy with the performance of his central defense couple Milan Kopic and Igor Djuric and did not want to tear them apart.
Apart from the fact that this match is important in the race for Europa League tickets, it’s also a match between two brothers. Swedish Rasmus Elm (AZ) will be on the pitch versus his brother Viktor, who plays at Heerenveen.
Roda JC handed FC Groningen the opportunity to retake the third place on the table last week, when the drew 2-2 against Ajax, but the northerners did take it and drew 1-1 at De Graafschap. Pieter Huistra’s team are of a different level when they play at home however. Taking only home matches into account Groningen is top of the table winning 33 points from 12 matches and being the only club to have already won ten home matches this season.
The 339 kilometer journey from Kerkrade to Groningen the longest in the Eredivisie and Roda JC will have to recover well from the trip to face their northern opponent. Harm van Veldhoven’s squad lost its last three away games and the Limburg club did not lose four times in a row since setting a club record streak of seven away losses in the 2008-2009 season.
At home Roda defeated FC Groningen 1-0 this season. Arnaud Sutchuin Djoum scored the only goal of the match. The 21-year-old Belgian midfielder recently extended his contract at Roda until 2014.
ADO Den Haag is the clear favorite for Sunday’s home match against Feyenoord, although ADO did not manage to beat the Rotterdam club in the last seven previous encounters. This season Feyenoord defeated ADO 2-1 in Rotterdam.Last season Feyenoord won 2-0 in The Hague thanks to Ron Vlaar and Andwélé Slory goals.
ADO is the only Eredivisieclub to have a perfect record in 2011 winning four of four league matches. Feyenoord grabbed its first league win of the year when they defeated Heracles Almelo 2-1 last week. Vlaar was absent due to a thigh injury, but he’ll be back on Sunday. Leroy Fer, who fully recovered from a knee injury and played as a substitute last week, will be available for the starting linup.
Mario Been has fond memories of ADO. In his playing years the Feyenoord trainer scored a hattrick against the club from The Hague in 1987.
Ajax lost two points in the title race when they drew 2-2 at Roda JC last week, but the three ranked Amsterdam club recovered well with a 3-0 away win in the first leg of their Europa League encounter with Belgian Anderlecht on Thursday. On Sunday Ajax will play at home against VVV-Venlo, who only grabbed one point from 17 previous League matches in Amsterdam. This one and only point dates back to 5 May 1957, when the match ended up in a 1-1 draw.
Frank the Boer looked back on the Anderlecht match on Friday. “In the first half they had the better chances, not because they were better, but because we were sloppy.” De Boer fielded Siem de Jong instead of Demy de Zeeuw on the midfield and played Mounir El Hamdaoui as a centre forward. Although he was satisfied with El Hamdaoui’s performance De Boer did not want to reveal who will be centre forward against VVV on Sunday. De Jong played on that position as well.
VVV will only struggle for life in Amsterdam. The second from bottom club only won one away match this season and lost nine. Only Willem II and Hercales Almelo lost more away matches (10). If they manage to score, VVV will see a milestone 800th club goal in the Eredivisie.
FC Twente must feel like they play in the tropics when they enter their own pitch for the League match against NEC in the Grolsch Veste on Sunday. The Dutch title holders come from the Russian winter and defeated Rubin Kazan 2-0 playing at a temperature of minus 15 degrees centigrade in Moscow on Thursday.
Striker Luuk de Jong and defender Peter Wisgerhof scored the goals in Russia, while injured Marc Janko was absent. The Austrian forward will be recovered for the match against NEC. Theo Janssen and Oguchi Onyewu got slightly injured in Moscow, but they’ll probably available on Sunday.
NEC count on Björn Vleminckx in Enschede. The current top scorer in the Eredivisie scored a total of four goals in his three previous matches against FC Twente. Last week Niki Zimling scored both NEC goals when the red-black-green brigade grabbed its first win in 2011 beating Excelsior 2-0 in Nijmegen.
The Arnhem crowd may get a first chance to see newly attracted Wilfried Bony in the Eredivisie match against De Graafschap on Sunday. Vitesse paid four million euro’s for the Ivorian striker, who came from Sparta Praag and arrived with an injury at the Gelredome. On Friday he had his first training session with his new club, but Spanish coach Albert Ferrer stays cautious.
De Graafschap will miss Rydell Poepon, when they visit Arnhem. The club top scorer with nine goals from 22 matches is suspended after his yellow card last week. He handed De Graafschap a 1-1 draw against FC Groningen scoring the equalizer in the 51st minute.
In Doetinchem De Graafschap and Vitesse drew 1-1 this season. Youssouf Hersi, who also played for Vitesse in the past, scored the home goal and Wiljan Pluim hit the target for the visitors.
PSV are still top of the league in the Eredivisie. Their results improved last week, but their game is still very poor. Last week Fred Rutten’s team defeated AZ 4-0 in Alkmaar, but taking AZ’s goal scoring opportunities into account it could have been 4-4 easily. If PSV does not improve their defensive performance and accurate NAC striker could lead to trouble in Eindhoven.
In the Europa League PSV got very lucky with a bizarre comeback at Lille on Thursday. The Dutch were 2-0 down and the match seemed to be over when out of the blue Wilfred Bouma scored from a corner in the 83rd minute. Only one minute later Ola Toivonen turned in the 2-2n and PSV were level. “Let’s be realistic”, Bouma said afterwards. “We could have lost bog time here.”
NAC defeated PSV 4-2 in Breda earlier this season, but the last time they won in Eindhoven dates back to 28 May 1995. The Breda have not yet won a single match in 2011, being the only winless team after the winter break.
The top three clubs on the table all play at home on Sunday this weekend. Ajax faces VVV-Venlo, PSV meets NAC Breda and FC Twente takes on NEC. Number four FC Groningen play Roda JC in Euroborg Stadium for the match between the two clubs who are based furthest away from each other in the Dutch flight. The distance between Kerkrade en Groningen is 339 kilometers.
FC Utrecht is unbeaten in its last five League matches, but last week they were very close to defeat against bottom ranked Willem II when they only managed to score 3-3 in the 92nd minute. Ton du Chatiniers squad will have to put up another type of game to give Heracles Almelo a hard time. In Almelo Heracles beat Utrecht 2-1 earlier this season.
The home crowd will probably welcome back Ricky van Wolfswinkel on the pitch. The prolific Utrecht striker, who scored 11 goals in 18 matches this season, is recovered from a broken clavicle. Frank Demouge will probably be sidelined due to an ankle injury.
Du Chatinier warned his team for Heracles previewing the match on Thursday. The club comes from a 2-1 defeat at Feyenoord last week, but the Utrecht coach praised the game of his next opponents. “In the second half they put pressure on Feyenoord very well. They are difficult enough to play against, but we are obliged to win on Friday.”
Excelsior needs firepower. The Rotterdam squad only scored three goals in four matches after the winter break and after their 2-0 loss at NEC on Monday they presented a new striker. He may make his Eredivisie debut at home against bottom ranked Willem II on Saturday.
András Simon signed a deal until this summer at Woudestein. The 20-year-old Hungarian was with Liverpool FC for the past three years, but never played at Anfield Road and had his contract terminated in December.
Although Willem II grabbed a point against eighth ranked FC Utrecht last week (3-3) the bottom team had every reason to be disappointed. After being up twice and leading 3-2 into injury time, Willem II’s second season win was taken away by a 92th minute equalizer. To avoid a club record streak of 25 away matches without victory Willem II has to beat Excelsior. To keep their chances of staying in the Dutch top flight this season, they’ll have to grab the three points in Rotterdam.
Coach Gertjan Verbeek will not be on the bench when AZ visits his former employer sc Heerenveen in Friesland on Saturday. The trainer is suspended for one match because he offended the referee in the 4-0 home loss against PSV last Saturday. Verbeek coached Heerenveen four seasons in the past and led them to a remarkable fifth place finish three times.
Without Verbeek AZ will have to regroup from their heavy home defeat against the league leaders last week. A different approach to the game will not be needed, but the team desperately does need a striker who converts scoring opportunities. If AZ would have scored half of its chances against PSV, the match would have at least ended up in a draw. Brett Holman, Kolbeinn Sigthórsson and Maarten Martens either shot wide or found the excelling goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson on their way.
Heerenveen comes from a 2-0. Away win at NAC Breda. Michel Breuer did not play because of a knee injury and although he has recovered well, the captain will start on the bench against AZ. Coach Ron Jans was happy with the performance of his central defense couple Milan Kopic and Igor Djuric and did not want to tear them apart.
Apart from the fact that this match is important in the race for Europa League tickets, it’s also a match between two brothers. Swedish Rasmus Elm (AZ) will be on the pitch versus his brother Viktor, who plays at Heerenveen.
Roda JC handed FC Groningen the opportunity to retake the third place on the table last week, when the drew 2-2 against Ajax, but the northerners did take it and drew 1-1 at De Graafschap. Pieter Huistra’s team are of a different level when they play at home however. Taking only home matches into account Groningen is top of the table winning 33 points from 12 matches and being the only club to have already won ten home matches this season.
The 339 kilometer journey from Kerkrade to Groningen the longest in the Eredivisie and Roda JC will have to recover well from the trip to face their northern opponent. Harm van Veldhoven’s squad lost its last three away games and the Limburg club did not lose four times in a row since setting a club record streak of seven away losses in the 2008-2009 season.
At home Roda defeated FC Groningen 1-0 this season. Arnaud Sutchuin Djoum scored the only goal of the match. The 21-year-old Belgian midfielder recently extended his contract at Roda until 2014.
ADO Den Haag is the clear favorite for Sunday’s home match against Feyenoord, although ADO did not manage to beat the Rotterdam club in the last seven previous encounters. This season Feyenoord defeated ADO 2-1 in Rotterdam.Last season Feyenoord won 2-0 in The Hague thanks to Ron Vlaar and Andwélé Slory goals.
ADO is the only Eredivisieclub to have a perfect record in 2011 winning four of four league matches. Feyenoord grabbed its first league win of the year when they defeated Heracles Almelo 2-1 last week. Vlaar was absent due to a thigh injury, but he’ll be back on Sunday. Leroy Fer, who fully recovered from a knee injury and played as a substitute last week, will be available for the starting linup.
Mario Been has fond memories of ADO. In his playing years the Feyenoord trainer scored a hattrick against the club from The Hague in 1987.
Ajax lost two points in the title race when they drew 2-2 at Roda JC last week, but the three ranked Amsterdam club recovered well with a 3-0 away win in the first leg of their Europa League encounter with Belgian Anderlecht on Thursday. On Sunday Ajax will play at home against VVV-Venlo, who only grabbed one point from 17 previous League matches in Amsterdam. This one and only point dates back to 5 May 1957, when the match ended up in a 1-1 draw.
Frank the Boer looked back on the Anderlecht match on Friday. “In the first half they had the better chances, not because they were better, but because we were sloppy.” De Boer fielded Siem de Jong instead of Demy de Zeeuw on the midfield and played Mounir El Hamdaoui as a centre forward. Although he was satisfied with El Hamdaoui’s performance De Boer did not want to reveal who will be centre forward against VVV on Sunday. De Jong played on that position as well.
VVV will only struggle for life in Amsterdam. The second from bottom club only won one away match this season and lost nine. Only Willem II and Hercales Almelo lost more away matches (10). If they manage to score, VVV will see a milestone 800th club goal in the Eredivisie.
FC Twente must feel like they play in the tropics when they enter their own pitch for the League match against NEC in the Grolsch Veste on Sunday. The Dutch title holders come from the Russian winter and defeated Rubin Kazan 2-0 playing at a temperature of minus 15 degrees centigrade in Moscow on Thursday.
Striker Luuk de Jong and defender Peter Wisgerhof scored the goals in Russia, while injured Marc Janko was absent. The Austrian forward will be recovered for the match against NEC. Theo Janssen and Oguchi Onyewu got slightly injured in Moscow, but they’ll probably available on Sunday.
NEC count on Björn Vleminckx in Enschede. The current top scorer in the Eredivisie scored a total of four goals in his three previous matches against FC Twente. Last week Niki Zimling scored both NEC goals when the red-black-green brigade grabbed its first win in 2011 beating Excelsior 2-0 in Nijmegen.
The Arnhem crowd may get a first chance to see newly attracted Wilfried Bony in the Eredivisie match against De Graafschap on Sunday. Vitesse paid four million euro’s for the Ivorian striker, who came from Sparta Praag and arrived with an injury at the Gelredome. On Friday he had his first training session with his new club, but Spanish coach Albert Ferrer stays cautious.
De Graafschap will miss Rydell Poepon, when they visit Arnhem. The club top scorer with nine goals from 22 matches is suspended after his yellow card last week. He handed De Graafschap a 1-1 draw against FC Groningen scoring the equalizer in the 51st minute.
In Doetinchem De Graafschap and Vitesse drew 1-1 this season. Youssouf Hersi, who also played for Vitesse in the past, scored the home goal and Wiljan Pluim hit the target for the visitors.
PSV are still top of the league in the Eredivisie. Their results improved last week, but their game is still very poor. Last week Fred Rutten’s team defeated AZ 4-0 in Alkmaar, but taking AZ’s goal scoring opportunities into account it could have been 4-4 easily. If PSV does not improve their defensive performance and accurate NAC striker could lead to trouble in Eindhoven.
In the Europa League PSV got very lucky with a bizarre comeback at Lille on Thursday. The Dutch were 2-0 down and the match seemed to be over when out of the blue Wilfred Bouma scored from a corner in the 83rd minute. Only one minute later Ola Toivonen turned in the 2-2n and PSV were level. “Let’s be realistic”, Bouma said afterwards. “We could have lost bog time here.”
NAC defeated PSV 4-2 in Breda earlier this season, but the last time they won in Eindhoven dates back to 28 May 1995. The Breda have not yet won a single match in 2011, being the only winless team after the winter break.
