Anyone who’s ever played soccer knows: the worst time to concede a goal is right before halftime. You walk into the locker room with a sour taste in the mouth, your chin pointed down, and a 15-minute-long itch before you can do something about it.
That phenomenon makes me wonder about this new, nearly-three-weeks-long international break that is now upon us.
How will players handle this extended absence from their jobs? Imagine you have a bad day at work, and your boss is disappointed in you—and then you go on vacation. When you come back, will you feel nervous to quickly show that it was a fluke? Or will you return feeling like the slate has been wiped clean?
I imagine it’s worse for players who aren’t selected for their international teams, right? They might feel like that SpongeBob meme.
This, to me, is the side of sports that gets discussed the least: the mental aspect of the game. I think that people are too quick to forget that these are not players first, they’re humans. And just like you and me, soccer players are sometimes unable to prevent their personal lives from impacting their work. It makes me think back to the 2020 NBA “bubble” during the pandemic, when Los Angeles Clippers star Paul George opened up about the impact of his mental health on his game. We often see a player struggling and think it must be a reflection of their abilities, but in the same way that someone may start a new job and find it to be a poor fit, a player who feels negatively about his superiors (the manager) or his place in the team might find himself in a mental block that’s tough to overcome. I also remember how much Mexican star Edson Álvarez struggled upon arriving in Amsterdam to play for Ajax; how much of that was due to his family not being able to live with him for the first half of his first season? He ended up excelling significantly in his second season, and became a key part of the Ajax team before getting a big-money move to the English Premier League.
I could talk about this for ages—but just know that considering the mental aspect of this game played by humans is an essential part of how the Eredivisie gets digested here at the Orangerie.
PS: last week, I embedded YouTube highlights for each game, with a preference for whichever team had the auto-dub in English, thinking that it would help readers not feel alienated by the Dutch commentary. Upon reflection, though, I think the monotone, emotionless male English Siri-esque voice is unsettling, a little creepy, and makes the viewing experience worse. Even if you can’t understand the Dutch commentary, you can understand the emotion in a commentator’s voice. So, moving forward, I will be using the home team’s YouTube channel where applicable—and if the auto-dub happens to be turned on, I highly recommend turning it off in the video settings.
A Look At Each Game
These two are like the comedy and tragedy masks. Groningen, the smiling mask, have secured their first win since Week 2, when they were two-from-two and wondering if they were the surprise of the season; this will have them hoping that their mixture of ties and losses over the last four weeks was a sign of a tough schedule (PSV, Fortuna, Twente, and Go Ahead) and not a sign of a team floundering. PEC, the frowning mask, have now spent their last two games watching the other team score ten total goals—while they score zero. Need I say more? Safe to say that PEC are meeting this extended break with relief. The club announced that the team will report back to practice on the 28th—meaning they get a full week off—before departing for a training camp in Portugal. This’ll give PEC coach Henry van der Vegt some welcome tinkering-time with his team. Because it’s not like PEC didn’t deserve to lose; they only created 0.53 Expected Goals with only one of their nine shots being on target.
Watch full highlights from the game here.
Want to just see the goals? Shoutout to YouTube’s “start at” function.
Groningen’s 1-0, scored by attacker Thom van Bergen 🇳🇱 and assisted by winger David van der Werff 🇳🇱.
Groningen’s 2-0, scored by defender Jorg Schreuders 🇳🇱.
Groningen’s 3-0, scored by midfielder Tygo Land 🇳🇱 and assisted by, once again, David van der Werff.
In the first and third goals, you can see that Groningen are an intelligent team that plays with cohesion (the second goal was pure talent). They’re so easy to root for. I predicted 2-1 for Groningen in this one, by the way; I was pleasantly surprised for Groningen when I saw the score.
You’ve got to feel for ADO. They absolutely should have won this game. They had 62% of the ball, had 18 shots to Cambuur’s eight, and created 2.1 Expected Goals to Cambuur’s 0.6. Yeah, this one’s going to sting. Even though I correctly predicted a tie game—I thought it would end 2-2—I didn’t expect it to be so one-sided. It’s just an unlucky result for ADO in a season that has, so far, not consisted of much good luck. If you had somehow watched this game (since it was not legally available for viewing here in the U.S.), you would peg ADO as the team in 14th place with five points, not the 17th-place team with two points. Last week’s shock Cambuur win against N.E.C. may become very important as the season progresses and teams start to fear relegation.
Watch full highlights from the game here.
Just the goals:
Cambuur’s 1-0, scored by winger Fabian Kvam 🇳🇴, assisted by striker Sami Bouhoudane 🇲🇦.
ADO’s 1-1, scored by attacker Donat Barany 🇭🇺, assisted by Yannick Eduardo 🇨🇿.
Whaaaaaaat. I thought Sparta would win this one 3-1, and I even said, “oh, this could end in a tie.” I never would’ve expected a 4-0 scoreline for the away team. I really should have known, though, because as I’ve said before, Heerenveen are just impossible to predict. This was easily their best game of the season, too, which in itself is a bit bewildering. You would have thought that would come against Telstar (a game they tied), Willem II (a game they tied), or PEC (a game they lost). Instead, it comes against a Sparta team about which I now don’t know what to think. Sparta had 11 shots—none of them were on target. Meanwhile, Heerenveen had 23 shots with nine on target. Whatever Heerenveen coach Robin Veldman got right must have been what Sparta coach Rogier Meijer got wrong; literally nothing went Sparta’s way in this game. Whether this is down to the players or the coach, we’ll have to wait nearly three weeks to find out. In the crowd at this game was former Go Ahead and (German club) Wolfsburg manager Paul Simonis, who was seriously considered by Sparta in the summer before they went with Meijer. No pressure, Rogier.
Watch full highlights from the game here.
Just the goals:
Heerenveen’s 1-0, scored by defensive midfielder Nolhan Courtens 🇧🇪, assisted by attacking midfielder Levi Smans 🇳🇱.
Heerenveen’s 2-0, scored by winger Jacob Trenskow 🇩🇰, assisted by winger Maxence Rivera 🇫🇷.
It’s incredible that this counts as an assist.
Heerenveen’s 3-0, scored by Maxence Rivera, assisted by Levi Smans.
I can hear the chant already, based on how the Dutch commentator pronounced his name: Rivera, Rivera, Rivera…
Heerenveen’s 4-0, scored by winger Marko Farji 🇮🇶, assisted by attacker Luca Oyen 🇧🇪.
“Today is the perfect day to [bleep]ing show it.” Those were the words of Excelsior’s Swedish captain, Casper Widell, caught by the camera in the team’s huddle right before the game kicked off. And show it, they did. In terms of individual player talent, the Rotterdammers are far below the multi-headed monster that is Ajax—something Excelsior coach Ruben den Uil admitted after the game, in which he agreed that 6’6” Ajax striker Tolu Arokodare was a “cheat code.” But Excelsior never lowered their tenacity, never relented in their focus, and fully deserved to come out of this game with a point. They looked completely locked in the entire game, even after the opening goal from Ajax, after which Ajax looked destined to win this one with a huge scoreline. Looking at the stats of this game will have you believing that Ajax were just incredibly unlucky: 81% of the ball, 33 total shots to Excelsior’s four, and 55 touches in the opposition box to Excelsior’s 11. But that doesn’t give credit to Excelsior’s organization, composed defending, and the performance of their goalkeeper Stijn van Gassel—who I very seriously considered including in my Dutch national team squad when I role-played as Xavi. His six saves were crucial. I had predicted 4-2 Ajax, but you could easily argue that Van Gassel was the reason those two goals never came to be. Excelsior will be on our TVs again in late November for a Rotterdam derby—a little premature, but I highly recommend you watch that game and see this team for yourself.
Watch full highlights from the game here.
Just the goals:
Ajax’s 1-0, scored by attacker Julian Brandt 🇩🇪, assisted by striker Kasper Dolberg 🇩🇰.
Excelsior’s 1-1, scored by midfielder Lennard Hartjes 🇳🇱.
Oh, a goal scored right before halftime, you say?
Yes, it’s fortunate, but that could’ve easily never been a chance if Hartjes had turned off his focus for even a second. Credit to him.
Excelsior’s 2-1, scored by winger Aymen Sliti 🇳🇱🇹🇳, assisted by Irakli Yegoian 🇬🇪.
You have to imagine that if starting left-back Caio Henrique 🇧🇷 had not gone off injured, Excelsior wouldn’t have scored here. Substitute Owen Wijndal 🇳🇱 was caught sleeping here—my guess is that he didn’t try to go for the ball because the left-footed player doesn’t trust himself with his right foot. Wijndal is honestly a bit of a sad story—he came through the AZ youth system and was balling for them until he signed for Ajax, and his decline began. A couple injuries, a (perceived) loss of confidence, and boom: the player I once thought was a future national team starter has faded into oblivion. This is how I described Wijndal last year: a player doing an impression of a soccer player; it’s like he’s always doing what he thinks a soccer player should be doing. Still just 26, there’s time for him to become a quality player—but for that, he would need to leave Ajax. And he’s made clear in recent years that he simply doesn’t want to do so.
Ajax’s 2-2, scored by Tolu Arokodare 🇳🇬, assisted by attacker Oscar Gloukh 🇮🇱.
Gloukh, who also made the pass into the box on the first Ajax goal, deserves a shoutout in this game. He created so many chances, and showed what a menace he can be; this feels like a “breakout game” of sorts, in the way that he completely took over with his talent.
“Tolu’s not actually very good because he didn’t make it in the Premier League, he only scored six goals in 38 games last season for relegated Wolves!”
No one is pretending that the Eredivisie has the same amount of pure talent as the Premier League, but I think there’s more to it. In Tolu’s games for Wolves, it’s not like he started each of those games. In fact, in most of them, he was a substitute. Think about the mental difference of being at a job where you’re not fully trusted by the coach—or where you’re feeling pressure to prove yourself with every touch of the ball—compared to being at one where you’re the main man, you’re a key player, and you’re not being questioned or criticized as much. You can trust that you’re good, even if you make a mistake. Sometimes, people can only become the best versions of themselves when they don’t feel the pressure to be perfect.
Okay, so not a pushover. That was the question I asked in my preview, and I honestly did think that Fortuna would sweep Willem II to the side with ease. But I’m happy to be wrong, and this was actually an incredibly close game. Possession was 47%-53%, Expected Goals were 1.2 to 1.4, total shots were 16 to 17, and shots on target were three to three. I’ll be very curious to see how Willem II coach John Stegeman does against Utrecht, their next game after the break (October 11th feels so far away!). For Fortuna, though, this is delightful. Did they play great? No. Did they deserve all three points? Also no. But they got them. If fans in Sittard are to have hope for a place in a European competition—they currently sit in a playoff place for Conference League qualification—these are the games that they’re going to need to grind out and win. Talk about encouraging.
Watch full highlights from the game here.
Just the goal:
Fortuna’s 1-0, scored by midfielder Philip Brittijn 🇳🇱.
Are we at all surprised that the initial threat on goal came from Mohamed Ihattaren’s left foot? (No).
Such a scrappy goal in such a scrappy win. Fortuna “Scrappy Doo” Sittard.
Utrecht fans, look away. This was an absolutely horrendous performance. This was not a team, but a collection of individuals; or, to put it more accurately, a collection of headless chickens. It could have been 5-0 just at halftime; when the teams went into the locker rooms, Utrecht had 37% of the ball, zero corners, one shot (which was blocked), and zero attempts on target. I have been an unrelenting supporter of Utrecht coach Anthony Correia, and I believe in his abilities, but watching this game… I just tell myself, “six months.” Just like how a TV writer wouldn’t want to be judged by the first five-or-so episodes of the first season, or a blog writer wouldn’t want to be judged on their first few posts (ahem1), I should wait until Correia has had six months. In my preview, I said that this was the game that would tell us if Utrecht are in for a transitional season, or if fans can raise their eyebrows and expect a little more than just not getting relegated. Well… this wasn’t exactly the 3-1 win for Feyenoord that I thought it would be. Feyenoord, in fact, could’ve had three goals within the first 15 minutes (they had two within ten!). I would officially like to raise the white flag regarding my preseason prediction that Utrecht would end in 5th place and win the Dutch Cup. And I mean, look; maybe I’m overreacting. It’s beyond clear that Feyenoord are a very good team, and one of the top stories in the league right now is whether they, not presumed juggernauts Ajax or PSV, are actually playing the best soccer in the league. But for Correia—I’m really at a loss. I wonder: how do you manufacture belief? Imagine having a new boss come in at your job and say, “hey, we’re going to do things in this new, ambitious way,” which doesn’t motivate you but instead puts a pit in your stomach. You think, “oh, I can’t do that.” Or you get scared of making a fool out of yourself, in front of the tens of thousands of people who come to watch you do your job. Sure, you try, but deep down, you’re just waiting for yourself to fail. I’m really starting to think that Correia’s success at Telstar was due to the status he possessed there as a one-club man (he spent his entire playing career with Telstar) and the fact that his squad was more willing to put their faith in their coach, perhaps partially due to the fact that no one playing at Telstar has true ambitions of playing at the top of European soccer. Correia seems like a great guy and a great coach, and I want him to succeed so badly. By the way, you can’t help but feel for Utrecht striker Artem Stepanov, who had to leave the game crying in the 31st minute because of an injury that’s going to prevent him from playing for his home country of Ukraine, after being called up to the senior national team for the very first time. With Stepanov, Utrecht finally have a reliable striker (fans will remember the horrors of watching the game-day incompetence of Dave Min and the ghost of Sébastien Haller), and the man known among fans as “Temu Haaland” is one of the few bright spots of the team. Let’s hope he’s back soon, and gets to put on his nation’s shirt for the next international break in November.
Watch full highlights from the game here. Which, by the way, is only two minutes long, and is pretty much just the goals. Honestly, the entire game was just one long highlight reel for Feyenoord. Nevertheless:
Just the goals:
Feyenoord’s 1-0, scored by winger Anis Hadj Moussa 🇩🇿, assisted by Givairo Read 🇳🇱.
The Utrecht defender, Arthur Zagré (I’m not putting his flag because that would seem an insult to the good people of Burkina Faso)—what in the world are you doing? Just atrocious defending.
Feyenoord’s 2-0, scored by striker Nacho Ferri 🇪🇸, assisted by Mika Mármol 🇪🇸.
Ferri was the Feyenoord replacement for Ayase Ueda, who transferred to French club Lille. But if Ferri can keep this up, fans will be saying: Ueda who?
Feyenoord’s 3-0, scored by Anis Hadj Moussa.
“Déjà vu,” is what the ESPN+ commentator said. Exactly the same as the first goal. See them both top-and-bottom for comparison here.
Feyenoord’s 4-0, scored by Luciano Valente 🇳🇱 (a penalty).
Feyenoord’s 5-0, scored by Gaoussou Diarra 🇲🇱, assisted by Gjivai Zechiël 🇳🇱.
A win’s a win. That’s all AZ will want to say about this one, and it’ll be easy to forget, because they now will be firmly atop the standings for the next few weeks. This was an emotional afternoon for Telstar goalkeeper Ronald Koeman, Jr.; his mother Bartina Koeman (and wife of his father, Ronald Koeman, one of the most legendary Dutch players in history, his coaching career notwithstanding) passed away after a battle with breast cancer. The game was stopped around the 13th minute to allow the crowd to pay tribute to her, and the younger Koeman was visibly emotional. Each player was also wearing a black armband in honor of her. If you’re wondering why Koeman Jr. was playing at all, it was his choice—no one would’ve objected to him taking bereavement leave. Despite the emotion, though, he was the only reason AZ did not win this game by a more comfortable scoreline. He had seven saves, and was named Man of the Match purely because of an outstanding performance. I’m sure he made his mother proud. AZ players looked underwhelmed to have only won 1-0, but I don’t think they knew that they were now top of the standings, since the PSV game was played at the same time as this one. I thought it’d be 3-0 AZ, but hey, I’ll refer you to the bolded first sentence.
Watch full highlights from the game here.
Here’s a shortcut to seeing the crowd honor Mrs. Koeman, including with a banner that essentially translates to “sending you strength.” You can see Telstar coach Henk Brugge showing real emotion on his face in support of his goalkeeper—empathy is such a beautiful thing.
Just the goal:
AZ’s 1-0, scored by striker Mexx Meerdink 🇳🇱, assisted by attacker Valdemar Byskov 🇩🇰.
What a fantastic turn by Meerdink. If you ask me, he should’ve been called up to the Dutch national team initially—but either way, I’m glad he’s there now, replacing the injured Donyell Malen. He’s the Dutch future at the striker position, no question.2
Now THAT’S a Game of the Week. This was everything I hoped it would be, and more. I usually try to take notes on the games—with six hours of Dutch soccer every weekend, it can be easy to be forgetful—but for this game, I didn’t want to take my eyes off the screen for even a second. As I admitted in the preview, I expected Twente to be outclassed by PSV. Far from it! Twente looked electric, and what gave me the most relief was how not everything depended on Wout Weghorst. This whole season so far, I’ve been wondering if Twente were for real; it was clear earlier in the season that they were struggling to make things click. Suddenly, they look very real, with a lot of depth; I am so glad that Twente made a miraculous comeback to qualify for the Conference League—this team deserves to be in Europe. Suddenly, also, PSV look mortal. Yes, they had 60% of the ball, but they only created 0.8 Expected Goals to Twente’s 2.2. They had 11 shots to Twente’s 23. And do you know what this means? We officially have a title race! PSV dropped to 3rd place in the standings, and are now level on points with Twente. More on that below.
Watch full highlights from the game here. If you recognize that song at the beginning, yes: FC Twente are one of the clubs in Europe that sings “You’ll Never Walk Alone” before each game.
Just the goals:
Twente’s 1-0, scored by attacker Younes Taha 🇲🇦.
Right place, right time.
PSV’s 1-1, scored by attacker Guus Til 🇳🇱, assisted by Mauro Júnior 🇧🇷.
What a perfect cross, and a booming header. And that’s Brazilian national team player Mauro Júnior to you.
PSV’s 2-1, scored by Guus Til, assisted by Paul Wanner 🇩🇪.
Such beautiful play from PSV—exactly what they pride themselves on, and what you know to expect from the Eindhovenaars. Ruben van Bommel, who I last week said you’ll find impressive if you watch him play, didn’t have the best game here—but he pretty much made up for it with this cute little move.
Twente’s 2-2, scored by Wout Weghorst 🇳🇱, assisted by Daan Rots 🇳🇱.
Great teamwork by Twente here. You can feel the joy emanating from Weghorst; and I’ve gotta say, this is an example of him being the “big-name” striker when you need a big-name striker. Many other players would’ve hit this right at the keeper or gotten too excited and hit it wide/over the goal. Not Weghorst. I’ve got to give him credit for that, and if he and Twente keep this up, this could end up being a very memorable season; not to jinx anything, but Twente have only won the Eredivisie once in their 60+ year history, in 2010.
Twente fans: you should thank whatever this was. (A comment says it’s something to keep the brain sharp).
Twente’s 3-2, scored by Daouda Weidmann 🇫🇷, assisted by Max Bruns 🇳🇱.
Can you believe that run? Incredible. The speed to cover so much of the field, the strength to hold off the defender, and the situational awareness to keep the ball away from the oncoming defender from behind. Mr. Weidmann, take a bow.
There is nothing better than seeing an entire stadium absolutely ERUPT like that. Such a huge, huge win for Twente. And I thought PSV would win 2-1! Silly me!
I fear that N.E.C. are in for a long season. We have here yet another game that I thought Go Ahead would win—I thought 2-1—that they didn’t win, that they should’ve won. Joseph Oosting’s Eagles flubbed five huge chances that should’ve won them this game; they created 2.9 Expected Goals, and only getting one into the net is such a letdown. Go Ahead should really have 16 points right now, and should be mounting an unexpected title challenge. Instead, their ten points put them in an underwhelming-but-still-decent-for-them 9th place. This may have been the first time this season that winger Søren Tengstedt was the worst Go Ahead player on the field. Anyway, back to N.E.C., who are lucky to nab a point here. They’re one of the teams that are probably desperate for this extended break. I imagine coach Dick Schreuder wants nothing more than to have tinkering time. It’s a shame that a number of players are leaving on international duty, including a surprising Germany U20 selection for arguably their worst player this season, Almugera Kabar. It’s also surprising that Schreuder didn’t bring on Kaj Sierhuis toward the end of the game, since he’s the poacher-type striker who you’d think would be wanted in a situation where you need a goal. I’ll be curious how much playing time Sierhuis gets after the break, as starting striker (and Eredivisie legend) Bryan Linssen has not been performing at his peak.
Watch full highlights from the game here.
Just the goals:
N.E.C.’s 1-0, scored by defender Perr Schuurs 🇳🇱, assisted by Tjaronn Chery 🇸🇷.
We love to see Perr Schuurs score.
Go Ahead’s 1-1, scored by striker Stefán Sigurðarson 🇮🇸.
A little lucky, but hey.
The Standings Going Into The Break
Key:
Purple: Champions; directly into the Champions League
Pink: into the Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round (must beat two teams, or drop to the Europa League)
Blue: Europa League 2nd Qualifying Round (must beat three teams, or drop to the Conference League)
Green: Intra-league playoffs (place four against seven and five against six) for the Conference League 2nd Qualifying Round (must beat three teams)
Orange: Relegation playoffs (must beat the winner of the 2nd division promotion playoffs to stay in the Eredivisie)
Red: Relegated to the 2nd division, known (for sponsorship reasons) as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie (KKD)
Post-Week 7 Standings
AZ — 19
Feyenoord — 17
PSV — 16
Twente — 16
Ajax — 14
Fortuna — 13
Excelsior — 11
Groningen — 11
Go Ahead — 10
Heerenveen — 9
N.E.C. — 8
Sparta — 5
Telstar — 5
Cambuur — 5
Utrecht — 5
PEC — 4
ADO — 2
Willem II — 2
AZ should buy Twente chocolates or something. They’ll be dreaming of their first title since 2009.
Speaking of which… we have a title race!
Instead of PSV running away with it again, we’ve got AZ, Feyenoord, Twente, and Ajax all looking like they can dethrone the champions. And that doesn’t even include whatever surprises Fortuna and Excelsior have in store for us, with Groningen and Go Ahead nipping at their heels, too. This is such a great season so far!
Before the season started, I thought Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s Feyenoord would struggle—but how wrong I was.
Utrecht need another win to take them out of relegation danger. Fans are already having to put up with awful soccer, and the stress of potentially playing in the 2nd tier is too much to handle for such a great club.
I wish the Eredivisie had more European places, because so many of these teams deserve a shot at Europe. That’s why we must root for every Dutch team in Europe, no matter your allegiance domestically, so that more teams will be able to enjoy the fun of continental soccer.
Oranje Corner
And with that, the international break is upon us! These are the games the Dutch will be playing over the next couple of weeks:
versus Germany, Thursday 9/24 at 2:45pm on ViX Premium
Don’t ask me what ViX Premium is. I think you need YouTube TV for it. Why Fox is choosing to air Norway/Denmark on Fox Sports 1, and Portugal/Wales on Fox Soccer Plus, instead of this barnburner matchup between Xavi’s Netherlands and Jürgen Klopp’s Germany, in both coaches’ first game in charge, I do not know. I’m hoping my trusted iPhone app LiveSoccerTV (which tells you where soccer games will be aired; I highly recommend; the app is better than the website) is wrong, but it usually is not.
I’m not sure I’ll be able to get to writing a preview before this game, so just in case: I think the Dutch should win this one. Klopp is still fresh, and even though he’s the better coach, the Dutch have more talent in their squad. I imagine the Oranje will play in attack-mode the whole game (which is Xavi’s entire raison d’être as Dutch coach), and so we’ll see lots of goals for both teams. 4-2 Oranje.
at Serbia, Sunday 9/27 at 12pm on Fox Sports 2
Respectfully, this is the kind of opponent the Dutch should simply outclass. The thought of going all-out attack against a smaller nation like this should be, as the Dutch say, lekker smullen (a feast).
at Greece, Thursday 10/1 at 2:45pm on Fox Soccer Plus
Ditto.
versus Serbia, Sunday 10/4 at 2:45pm on Fox Soccer Plus
Ditto, but at home, so even more so.
Anything less than at least three wins would be a major disappointment. A loss to Jürgen Klopp can be excused, but Serbia and Greece? Should be a cakewalk. I don’t think that’s an arrogant thing to say—as some in the Netherlands accuse pundits of being—because the players at our disposal are just that good.
A consequence of me not looking at social media or Dutch soccer news until I have watched the Eredivisie games (which took place Monday and yesterday for me) is that I miss out on some news. That is, I just saw that Mexx Meerdink and Guus Til were called up to replace the injured Donyell Malen and Justin Kluivert. Those are two players I was excited to see under Xavi, so that’s quite disappointing; I’m also not sure why Til got the nod ahead of a player like Feyenoord’s Luciano Valente or AZ’s Kees Smit. Maybe it’s a sign of how attacking Xavi wants to play—Til is more of a striker than either of those two—but you’d think he’d want to replace the creativity that Kluivert brought to the team. Xavi said during his press conference that Valente was on his radar, so that’s good at least.
Another couple of notes from Xavi’s press conference:
He said that the door is not closed for Memphis Depay or Wout Weghorst. I’m really hoping that this framing is just him being savvy, instead of him actually considering either of those players, who are aged 32 and 34, respectively. It’s time to look toward the future, and I’d rather he bring in literally any Dutch striker under the age of 30 (Ipswich Town’s Zian Flemming?) before taking a look at them again.
He said he’s imagining a big role for Joey Veerman—super excited for that. Veerman is the exact archetype of player who can elevate this team and create chances against a tight defense, especially with Frenkie de Jong’s current absence due to injury.
Moment of Nature
If you go to a soccer game in the U.S.—as I sometimes do—you’ll notice that it’s just like any other major American sport: you’re paying exorbitant prices for some pretty basic food. I went to a Washington Nationals game the other week and paid $8 for a small cup of the worst fries I’ve ever had. Yes, I should know better. Lesson learned until around this time next year, when I forget that I know better.
But this is not the case in Europe. Soccer games—played by clubs, not “franchises”—are community events, not more opportunities for corporations to blast ads in your face and make as much profit off of you as possible. At Sparta Rotterdam’s game against Heerenveen, they were giving away little hats if you bought four drinks. Wait a few seconds to see the king of the hats—a number of drinks that would normally set you back probably $1,000,000 here in America.
I’ll use this moment to mention an Instagram account I’ve been following for a long time: eredivisiebroodje, which catalogues and rates the sandwiches/rolls that you can get at Dutch soccer stadiums (both the Eredivisie and the 2nd tier). In a recent post, he complains about a hot dog costing the equivalent of $6.85. Hah! Imagine coming to the U.S. and seeing that same hot dog cost twice that. The land of the free, bay-bee.
Not to toot my own horn here, but it’s crazy to look back at that Week 1 “recap” and see how far this blog has come in just seven weeks. I’m extremely proud of what we’re (royal we; it’s just me over here) putting together, and even more proud that I have you, dear reader, here with me.
Meticulous readers may read this and think, “Yeah, like Owen Wijndal?” Life is so unpredictable.