The second week of the season: where patterns begin to emerge. Let’s get into what happened this weekend.
Stories of the Games
History written, technically. This was the first time ever that Ajax, Feyenoord, and PSV—the traditional top three in the Netherlands—all failed to win their first home game of the season. Each of their opponents deserved the draw, too. There’s no question that there is more parity in the league now than ever before. This also happened to be the first week in over a decade where every club scored a goal—we’re in for a treat this season in terms of action.
Alarm bells are sounding at Utrecht. Yes, they’ve lost their first two games. Yes, they looked a little lost this week. But here’s the thing: their opening games were against the two teams that currently top the table. Outside of playing PSV/Feyenoord/Ajax, Groningen and AZ are maybe the toughest test you can imagine. But—but—I think we should all have trust and patience in new Utrecht coach Anthony Correia. He’s already said before that there are a lot of steps that the team needs to take, and if you watched this weekend’s game, you can see why. Correia does not like boring games; you probably remember how I’ve referred to Telstar as the most entertaining team in Europe last season. I held great anticipation for how Correia would fare with a better team, thinking that better players = better results. But I didn’t think about how it might be easier to get players to go along with your risky style of soccer when you’re a club legend like Correia was at Telstar (he played his entire professional career with the club; a one-club man). Especially when said players are closer to amateurs, who are happy to be playing in the Eredivisie, compared to players who might have greater aspirations for their career. When you’re a player on a team everyone is expecting to lose, why not try to play this way? The expectations are that you’re going to lose. But Utrecht is a club that wants to be playing in European competitions every season. There’s pressure there; amongst the beautiful canals are a people who want to win. Speaking of people—one thing that further endeared me to Correia (as if that was possible) was him saying that he chose to coach Utrecht because he wanted to be at a “people’s club.”
“[FC Utrecht[ is a true people’s club with a resilient spirit. I think that’s something that suits me well.” — Anthony Correia
He knows his job is to entertain the working class with attractive soccer while bringing them the joys of victory. I have full faith that Correia will get there, if they give him time.
He’s clearly completely overhauling the way the team plays and how the players make decisions while on the field. That takes time. I think back to ADO coach Robin Peter saying in an interview that he would want six months at a club to instill his vision of play style. I hope that the Utrecht GM and Board of Directors give Correia that six months before making a decision on his future.
Ajax are already missing their former star player… but not too much. Mika Godts was electric for Ajax, and he’s the exactly the kind of player who could score the winning goal in a game like this week’s. Too bad he now plays for Paris Saint-Germain, who are surely paying Godts an ungodly amount per week. But the incredible goal from his replacement in the starting 11, Abdellah Ouazane (feel free to skip below to the Ajax game part to watch it, or exhibit patience), definitely helped heal the wounds a bit. He’s no Godts, but the Moroccan is absolutely the future for Ajax in the attack.
Recap of the Action
Suddenly, Sparta look really good. Telstar surprised everyone with their win last week against NEC, but NEC’s minds were elsewhere. Anthony Correia left big shoes to fill, and new coach Henk Brugge is trying his best. But this was a resounding defeat: the Expected Goals (xG) were 1.4-3.1. This one’s scoreline was about right. Regardless of how poor Telstar were in this game, though, Sparta look ready to surprise people this season. Perhaps taking Feyenoord down to the wire last week was a sign of Sparta’s strength.
The lone Telstar goal, which involved a nice little bit o’ footwork:
The boys from Nijmegen bounced back. Which is what we’d expect, given that their game on Tuesday—3pm ET on Paramount+—is the first of the two biggest games in their history. This was a solid win to send them into the Champions League trenches with joyous moods. It’ll also give some extra confidence to NEC’s star players Bryan Linssen and Tjaronn Chery, who both nabbed a goal in this one.
The 4-0 for NEC was a really nice goal, scored by their new striker (and longtime Eredivisie player) Kaj Sierhuis:
AZ are no joke. Obviously we covered Utrecht’s issues above, but let’s not overlook how talented AZ look this season. Ro-Zangelo Daal (who is an incredibly entertaining player) and Weslley Patati (ditto) on the wings, Mexx Meerdink up front, and Kees Smit controlling the midfield. My goodness, that is just hordes of talent. This game was just more proof that AZ are going to mount a serious title challenge this year, which would be their first championship since 2009. They’re usually perennial fourth-placers, but were top of the table when the 2020 season was called off due to the coronavirus. The cancellation of that campaign left a sour taste in AZ mouths, who felt like they had the momentum to finish as champions under promising head coach—maybe you’ve heard of him—Arne Slot. Those wounds won’t be healed until they bring the title to Alkmaar.
This pleasing-on-the-eyes goal is a good microcosm of the kind of soccer AZ are bringing to the table this season:
PSV is just so talented. I don’t think Excelsior played badly—but they’re still one of the Eredivisie bottom feeders as the third biggest club in Rotterdam, and that means a lack of talent in comparison to the three-peat champions. But that being said, anyone who watched the game will tell you that PSV could’ve scored a couple more goals. Perhaps allegations of PSV’s downfall were premature; however, it was reported this weekend that this was star player Joey Veerman’s last game in an Eindhoven shirt. He’s off to Borussia Dortmund. A fun note: at the beginning of ESPN’s stream of this game, in which they show the fans and stadium area, some Excelsior fans had made shirts showing the Eredivisie standings, which had Excelsior on top after Week 1.
The 2-1 for PSV… nicely done, but if I were an Excelsior defender, I’d be grumpy with myself:
Fortuna are going to be tricky this season. For a club like Fortuna—who were only promoted to the Eredivisie in 2018 after 16 years in the 2nd division—this is about as good as you can hope for. Your team plays defensively balanced, aggressive soccer with talented creatives up front. You haven’t lost either of your first two games. Suddenly, I’m looking very silly for thinking they’ll finish as low as 14th. However… I should note that Cambuur could’ve (should’ve?) won this game. They had most of the ball (64%); the xG was 2.5-1.9 in favor of the team from Leeuwarden (Cambuur). This game wasn’t available to watch in America (legally), but from what I’ve seen, Cambuur deserved at least a tie here. I’d delete my first few sentences if “grind out a win in a game you should lose” wasn’t central to the Fortuna ethos.
The one goal from Cambuur was a nice one, though:
Groningen are showing they’re a serious team. Last week’s 2-1 win over Utrecht was seen more as a game that Utrecht lost rather than one that Groningen won. But a 4-1 win over this ADO team—a team that’s well-coached, organized, and is always playing to win—means we ought to take a closer look at their expectations for this season. This writer predicted they’d finish 8th, but if they are able to keep star player Thom van Bergen around (which looks likely), they could give the top four teams a run for their money.
The ADO fans/hooligans showed out with this tifo; the top translates literally to, “by the entire nation feared,” or more accurately to “Feared throughout the country.” RE: the scoreline, well, Groningen are a good team?
The opening goal by Groningen’s star player, Thom van Bergen, came after only 15 minutes. People were making jokes that he was inspired by what he saw when “inspecting the field” before the game. Here’s another look at that below goal, with focus on the work of the Groningen goalkeeper, the Surinamese Etienne Vaessen.
ADO doesn’t like to play defense, and you know what, we’ve got to love that about them. The bravery of playing with a high defensive line (i.e. leaving a lot of open space between your defense and the goal) means that sometimes, you’ll concede goals like this:
As the Dutch say: oei [ooey]. I actually started writing this section around the 70th minute, as Feyenoord were 2-0 up and were bringing on the talented Sem Steijn. Needless to say, it required a rewrite: Go Ahead played some surprisingly direct and entertaining soccer and clawed their way back. Feyenoord had dominated the game for the most part—the xG was 2.8-1.8—but Joseph Oosting’s Go Ahead team kicked into a different gear in those final 30 minutes. There was no better entertainment than the ~14 minutes after the 2-2 was scored. I don’t really think Feyenoord coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst deserves much criticism here, because 1. he’s still new on the job and 2. Oosting is a tough coach to beat. But someone here has learned to not write game summaries until the fat lady sings.
This is how close each team was to winning the game in those final minutes:
Maybe Twente are back on track. Blah blah blah. They did create chances: xG was 2.6-0.8. But I’m just so unconvinced by this Twente team. I have very little faith in Erik ten Hag, to be honest with you. I think he’s a better man manager than a GM, and I think Twente are in trouble until they can inject some super serum into an aging Wout Weghorst, whose name and clout guarantee him a starting spot as their striker/albatross.
Is this a foul? Maybe. But the referee didn’t think so. And so even in the one goal they let in, we find ourselves saying, “Oh, Twente.”
It does seem like Twente got some help, with a beautifully taken own goal if I do say so myself:
Worries are brewing at Ajax. Meh, you know what? No they’re not. I wrote that before really thinking about the game I just saw. Not only do Heerenveen look good/well-coached this season, but I really liked what I saw from Ajax. Say what you want about their new coach Míchel, but Ajax are a guaranteed fun watch. They play direct, attacking soccer; none of that pass-around-the-defenders boring nonsense. And you know they’re going to let a goal in. Not the most ideal start to the season, but players like Marcos Leonardo, Julian Brandt, and Daley Blind haven’t been fully integrated yet into the team. They will only go up from here. And hey, let’s not make this all about Ajax: Heerenveen looked really good. They were also very fun to watch. Not to be all gushing over here, but I’m just supremely happy with the state of the Eredivisie, coefficient points be damned. There are a lot of quality teams led by quality coaches. Heerenveen, under Robin Veldman, are one of them.
It looked like luck was on the home team’s side after this very fortunate own goal:
The 1-1 by Heerenveen was a beauty by the Danish Jacob Trenskow; Ajax fans will want to avoid the fact that it was the result of an error by new star goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
I think the 2-2 by Heerenveen showed that Ajax have work to do on their defense:
Power Rankings
AZ Alkmaar — they look unstoppable.
Groningen — the only other team to have won both of their games.
Ajax — they look good, and they’re only going to get better.
Feyenoord — exact same as Ajax.
PSV — they’d be higher if they weren’t losing the creative feet of Joey Veerman.
Fortuna — it feels like they have every piece of the puzzle under coach Danny Buijs.
Go Ahead — Joseph Oosting is a clear improvement over last season’s Melvin Boel.
Heerenveen — they look really good! They’ll be streamable on September 6 in a tasty game against AZ. Can’t wait to watch them.
NEC — we’ll see how playing in Europe affects their ability to keep momentum up the entire league season. But they’ve got a lot of talent and arguably the best coach in the league in Dick Schreuder.
Sparta — let’s see if they can keep up this early form under Rogier Meijer.
Excelsior — this is maybe supremely high for Rotterdam’s third best club, but I think Ruben den Uil is going to get the absolute most out of his players.
Utrecht — how dare I put them so high despite being on zero points, but I have faith in Correia.
Twente — hoo boy, what a downfall this is. They should be among the top six every week at least.
ADO — they’re only going to get better as they adapt to the level of the Eredivisie, something that I’m sure takes a few weeks for every newly-promoted coach and team.
PEC Zwolle — Twente and Ajax are talented teams; a rough start to the season could’ve been predicted for them.
Telstar — yes, they are higher in the standings than some of these teams, but I just don’t think they’ll be able to keep that up. I really do think Correia performed a minor miracle last year by keeping them in the Eredivisie.
Cambuur — they at least had a nice goal/highlight this week.
Willem II — long gone are the days when yours truly was supporting Willem II in the qualifying rounds of European competition (they lost to Steven Gerrard’s Rangers in 2020; just about 2-3 years ago right?). Avoiding a bottom-three finish to stay in the Eredivisie would be this year’s version of a minor miracle.
European Corner
There are three teams trying to qualify for Europe: NEC, Ajax, Twente. They all play this week.
NEC vs. Bodø/Glimt of Norway (Game 1 of 2). 3pm on Paramount+
Bodø are a very good team with a very good manager (who was in the Netherlands this weekend watching NEC); they consistently outperform the quality of their players. Deep down I’m worried NEC don’t stand a chance against a team that beat Atlético Madrid and Manchester City in the Champions League last year.
Ajax vs. FC Sion of Switzerland (Game 1 of 2)
This is the Conference League, and Ajax have faced favorable teams so far, a streak that continues with a Swiss team that cannot match Ajax on paper. I don’t have too much worry here; I trust Ajax will get it done over the two games.
FC Twente vs. SK Qarabağ (Game 1 of 2)
Now, here… here, I have worry. I have talked about Twente’s struggles, and this Qarabağ team competed in the Champions League last year—making it through to the qualifiers for the playoff stage. I think this will be won or lost by the Azerbaijani team. If anyone knows any Etsy witches, please call them in. Twente need all the help they can get.
Oranje Corner
Nothing new about the Dutch national team lately… except for, well, the first non-Dutch coach in about 50 years. Xavi Hernández, previously of beating-the-Dutch-in-the-World-Cup-fame (and a number of other trophies, I’m told), is the first foreign coach since the legendary Austrian Ernst Happel led the Dutch to the 1978 World Cup final. I plan to do a deeper dive into the selection of Xavi/the Dutch outlook as a whole, so TBD on that. But let me say swiftly: I’m not thrilled. I would’ve rather had the last dance of Louis van Gaal. Xavi has not proven himself as a top coaching mind, apologies to anyone who thinks that winning trophies with a top-2 club in Spain and a top-1 club in Qatar is evidence of such. But hey, I’d love to be proven wrong. The goal is now just to win. I don’t care. Just win, win, win. Win the Nations League to give the players the taste of victory (even though no one really cares about this tournament of glorified friendly games, I think the players need an appetizer of winning before they can finish the full meal at the Euros or a World Cup). The last thing the Dutch men’s team won was during the Bush administration. The first Bush. H.W. It’s been too long.
Stray Thoughts
Mika Godts left Ajax. Why? Well, one has to imagine, money. “Stay another year,” they say. Well, imagine you’re Godts. What if you then tear your ACL in the middle of the season? It can happen. And then you come back a year older and possibly not the same player. And then a team like PSG isn’t looking at you, and therefore isn’t one you can put on your resume. Maybe you’ll get your move to England and play for like, Sunderland. But instead, by taking this opportunity, you’re playing under one of the best coaches in the world (Luis Enrique), one of the most exciting teams in the world (they play attacking soccer), one of the richest clubs in the world (facilities, perks, salary…), with some of the best players in the world/a squad that could win any league in Europe… I get it. Go get that bag, Mr. Godts.
Most mentions of PSG will include the disclaimer that they are owned and funded by the government of Qatar. Pre-Qatari owners, PSG were just another French club. Many disagree, but if you ask me, the Qatari cash severely taints all of their success.
My faith in humanity rises a little after watching an entire stadium observe a minute of silence to honor the dead.
Of the 2010 Dutch World Cup Team that lost in the final, Mark van Bommel’s son Ruben is starring at PSV and Robin van Persie’s son Shaqueel is breaking out at Feyenoord. Might we also see Ruud van Nistelrooij’s son in Oranje some day? This is a really nice finish:
What do you think: is this a penalty?
Moment of Nature
Longtime Eredivisie player Mats Seuntjens and his partner suffered the death of their newborn daughter last week, and fans of Fortuna showed their support (in the video below).
Seuntjens plays for 2nd division club NAC Breda (relegated from the Eredivisie last year), and supporters of his club chanted for him, lit sparklers, and raised a banner with the daughter’s name that says, “De hemel is een sterretje rijker,” which literally translates to “Heaven is one little star richer,” or more accurately, “the sky has gained another little star.” No tears were shed by this here writer. No sir-ee.