Dutch League Super Sunday

kinaldo

Anyone here not interested in Dutch football, now is the time to change that!

check out the current standings with one round of fixtures to go.

Sunday should be fun

Hopefully Germany and Spain will follow suit...

redspider

Yeah, I've been following the Dutch league this year as well as the main leagues in Europe, Spain, Italy, Germany. Yes, I keep an eye on Ireland and Scotland too, and even England! Oh, as well as Brazil, and there's also Portugal.

PSV have messed up in the run-in, they miss Alex hugely and have had a bad couple of results, including getting thrashed at the hands of Ajax. Games they should have won, they didnt, and also the one last week was 2 pts dropped as th equaliser was scored in the 86th min. So they have dropped a lot of points after being in a commanding position. A case of opportunity lost.

PSV are probably the best team in that league, but they just failed to execute and luck has been against them. Now with AZ, Ajax and PSV all on 72 points with just one game left, and with AZ having a +6 goal advantage over Ajax (PSV are far behind I think) its advantage AZ. They are playing away to Exelsior, who are near the bottom, so they should win that which would be enough to secure the title. A real scalp for Van Gaal. When was it that a non-big 3 (Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord) club with the Dutch league?


In terms of the rest of Europe, Lyon's cruise to their 6th title in a row deserves a lot of credit. Surprise to see that it is Houllier, but Lyon are now dominating the French league so much it is probably one of the easier jobs in Europe. The league has a bad press due to a lot of 0-0 and 1-0 and close matches, but the football from what I've seen of it has been entertaining enough, so its not a bad product.

In Germany, things have been a lot closer, and are still up for grabs. The big news of the season is the weakish season by Bayern. Schalke and Bremen have been doing good, and the crowds have been huge, so there is a lot of interest in the sport there and it has leveraged the feelgood factor from the world cup.

Italy, with the scandals, it has been a very one-sided affair with Inter dominating. AC Milan though are entertaining and old-Ronaldo has seen a new lease of life. Roma have been the next consistent after Inter, but the gap is huge. Italian clubs still have money, and will get more if they could transform their crowd base a bit more.

Ireland - looks like St Pats will do it and will fight out most things with Drogheda.

Spain - nearly forgot to mention that. With 7 games left, there are just 2 pts separating 3 teams, Barca, Sevilla and Real. Barca look like they should do it but they have been spluttering at times.


Redspider

redspider

> When was it that a non-big 3 (Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord) club with the Dutch league?

I should have just looked that up. Ironically, it was AZ, back in 1981. The other team before that was DWS back in 1964 (now only an amateur club).

There are a lot of neutrals rooting for AZ and it would be good for the sport in Holland overall I think ......

Redspider

eirebhoy

AZ should definitely do it now and deservedly so. They finished 14 points ahead of Ajax last season but Ajax got the CL spot because of the crazy Dutch playoff system. I look forward to seeing them in the Champions league next season, if they do as they should on Sunday.

Mark

PSV have won the Dutch league by one goal after a 5-1 win against Vitesse Arnhem with the last goal scored by the old warhorse Philip Cocu. AZ lost their game to Excelsior 3-2 with a man sent off for both sides and Ajax could only manage a 2-0 win.

Alfonso Alves, the Brazilian striker for Hereenveen who replaced Klaas Jan Huntelaar, has finished the season with 34 goals in 31 games. Totti should still beat him to the golden boot.

redspider

PSV have amazingly won the league by just one goal - the slightest of margins:

PSV 5-1 Vitesse (Janssen 13)
Alex 8
Farfan 10
Afellay 59
Farfan 65
Cocu 77

Excelsior 3-2 AZ

Willem II 0-2 Ajax
Emanuelson 19
Huntelaar 69


Table:

Team P W D L F A W D L F A GD PTS 
1 PSV 34 15 0 2 53 14 8 6 3 22 11 50 75 
2 Ajax 34 12 3 2 44 12 11 3 3 40 23 49 75 
3 AZ 34 10 6 1 44 13 11 3 3 39 18 52 72 
4 FC Twente 34 13 3 1 47 15 6 6 5 20 22 30 66 

So when Huntelaar scored, Ajax were ahead on goals scored (goal difference the same), but Cocu's goal with 13 mins left means they win it.

As I mentioned before, PSV were the best team there and should have had the league wrapped up before now, so overall, they thoroughly deserve it.

I do feel for AZ though. It would be good for any of the non-3 teams to win it. Many different clubs have got close over the years, and this latest failure by A is a travesty of sorts. I think there are play-offs for the CL berth(s), so that is good news at least and perhaps they will get some consolation in that route.

You cant get much closer than this .....

Redspider

Mushy

The manner in which AZ lost their match today was cruel. A goal in the 3rd minute of 4 in injury time. The players just collapsed. Although a draw wouldnt have been good enough either

Pighead

AZ got a man sent off after 18 mins which put paid to their chances, unfortunately for them.

redspider

True, the sending off must have had an affect. I didnt see it but it sounds like it was a straight red if after only 18 mins.

However, they still had a chance as Excelsior had a player sent off as well on 75 mins, so with 15 mins it was all to play for you would think. Excelsior were up for this game as they were fighting in the relegation battle (I think only 2 go down, but do they now have to play-off against RKC. If so, they shouldnt have been that up for it?!?).

Excelsior 3-2 AZ
Bruins (pen) 21 - Cziommer 25
Drost 60 - Koevermans 71
Guijo-Velasco 90

Sent off:
Van Dieren 75 - Waterman 19

Bateman

Still can't believe AZ bottled it. :eek:

StickyMcGinty

was at the Ajax v Sparta Rotterdam last week and Ajax looked pretty shakey at the back, Davids is really protecting them at the mo

PSV on the other hand are a much better side at the moment, good to see theres still a competitive league on the go in Europe!

smackbunnybaby

Mark wrote:

Alfonso Alves, the Brazilian striker for Hereenveen who replaced Klaas Jan Huntelaar, has finished the season with 34 goals in 31 games. Totti should still beat him to the golden boot.

hereenveen are some team for picking up strikers.
van nistlerooy - the fella who replaced RVN who's name escapes me - huntelaar - alves

cardshark202

smackbunnybaby wrote:

hereenveen are some team for picking up strikers.
van nistlerooy - the fella who replaced RVN who's name escapes me - huntelaar - alves

Lol just responded to give you his name now I've drawn a blank too! Ah got it. Mateja Kezman!

leninbenjamin

cardshark202 wrote:

Lol just responded to give you his name now I've drawn a blank too! Ah got it. Mateja Kezman!

kezman didn't play for Heerenveen.

smackbunnybaby

ha ha thats the one thanks!!

hey Lenin, you could be right, but i thought it was Kezman too.
ill check wiki and report back.

just checked - lenin was right.copy and pasted from a table so ignore some the "flag of netherlands etc" bit

Season Player's name Nationality Goals
1992-1993 Erik Regtop Flag of Netherlands 7
1993-1994 Erik Regtop / Erik Tammer Flag of Netherlands 7
1994-1995 Erik Regtop Flag of Netherlands 10
1995-1996 Jon Dahl Tomasson Flag of Denmark 14
1996-1997 Jon Dahl Tomasson Flag of Denmark 17
1997-1998 Ruud van Nistelrooy Flag of Netherlands 13
1998-1999 Radoslav Samardžić Flag of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 12
1999-2000 Anthony Lurling Flag of Netherlands 18
2000-2001 Anthony Lurling Flag of Netherlands 12
2001-2002 Marcus Allbäck Flag of Sweden 15
2002-2003 Romano Denneboom Flag of Netherlands 10
2003-2004 Gerald Sibon Flag of Netherlands 15
2004-2005 Klaas Jan Huntelaar Flag of Netherlands 17
2005-2006 Klaas Jan Huntelaar Flag of Netherlands 17
2006-2007 Afonso Alves Flag of Brazil 34

Mitch Connor

VinnyL wrote:

was at the Ajax v Sparta Rotterdam last week and Ajax looked pretty shakey at the back, Davids is really protecting them at the mo

PSV on the other hand are a much better side at the moment, good to see theres still a competitive league on the go in Europe!

i dunno - the league in spain is pretty competitive!