Editor’s note: I noticed that color coding does not work in the email, which made my standings format look weirdly over-numerical instead of cool. For that reason I recommend reading these posts in your browser or the Substack app (I’m pretty sure that I get the “your email will be truncated” warning for every post… So beware the truncated emails! You might be missing out on more Content®️!).
As much as I love being able to focus on the Dutch national team, the league is where it’s at. Looking back at my predictions, I’m wondering if I got a little rusty during the longest-ever international break; instead of predicting what would happen, perhaps I was predicting what should happen. PSV should have let some points slip to Heerenveen. Ajax should have handily beaten N.E.C.1 But neither happened. And now, after this week’s results, the tapestry that is the 2026-2027 Eredivisie continues to be woven in mysterious ways.
A Look At Each Game
A successful escape. As I thought, this was a trap game for PSV: Heerenveen came out firing. It’s just a shame for the Frisians that their aim was lacking. It was a solid game plan: apply pressure on PSV high up the field, win the ball, and attack. But it relies, of course, on your forward players being able to hit the back of the net. French winger Maxence Rivera (who was excellent in Heerenveen’s previous 4-0 win against Sparta) should have scored at least once; I counted at least three huge chances overall that Heerenveen whiffed on. I thought this would end 2-2, and it arguably should have. For all PSV’s might, they were not comfortable until the second goal (an own goal) in the 68th minute, and Heerenveen were doing such a good job of displaying the passion and intensity that it takes to win a game against the champions: players looked eager, composed, and well-prepared by coach Robin Veldman. This game had all the makings of a tie: Heerenveen actually had five shots on target to PSV’s two. But that’s what happens when you have a team of PSV’s quality—it doesn’t matter if you only have two shots aimed on the goal. Odds are, at least one will go in. And when the opposition misses four out of four big chances? Well, them’s the breaks. Ruben van Bommel, by the way, once again impressed. You usually think that a torn ACL, as Van Bommel suffered last year, will lead to a player struggling to find their top gear—especially their burst—when they’re back. But not this guy. It’s like Van Bommel went on a sabbatical where he lived in the gym. His strength was a clear difference maker in this game, and it’s the kind of thing that would serve him well in the Premier League. Enjoy him while we can; I would be surprised if he doesn’t get scooped up by the end of the season (even though I think that would be an unwise decision; it’s always better for players to leave the Eredivisie only when they’ve come to dominate it, and the 22-year-old is not fully there yet. But he will be.).
Watch full highlights from the game here (6 min). One word summed up the game for Heerenveen: unlucky. Seriously. If only Rivera had done more with this chance, which would’ve put them up 1-0 and made PSV sweat.
Just the goals:
This was a surprise. Another week, another lack of a win for Go Ahead Eagles. Speaking of unlucky, they might just be the unluckiest team in the league considering how many times they’ve given away the win. I thought this would end 3-1—but who could’ve foreseen Sparta trying out a new system with five defenders? Coach Rogier Meijer had almost three weeks to tinker, and tinker he did. While I’m calling Go Ahead unlucky, Sparta arguably were more deserving of the win: they had more Expected Goals (2.4 to 1.3), more shots on goal (eight to six), and more big chances (six to two). It was just a matter of Meijer’s team being more clinical, as they say in soccer terms, when they had the ball. The five-man defense clearly stifled Go Ahead, who had 63% of the ball, almost double the completed passes (446 to 235), and 32 touches in Sparta’s penalty area (compared to Sparta’s 19; for context 32 is a high number), but just could not find their way through. This felt like a breakout game for Sparta’s young attacker Isaac Babadi—something that anyone who saw him play for PSV’s youth team could’ve told you. “Ice-cold Icey,” as he was known to PSV fans, is a player to keep an eye on this season.
Watch full highlights from the game here (6 min).
Just the goals:
Sparta’s 1-0, scored by 6’6” striker Milan Zonneveld 🇳🇱, assisted by Babadi 🇳🇱.
What a kick by Zonneveld.
Go Ahead’s 1-1, scored by winger Mathis Suray 🇧🇪, assisted by left defender Dean James 🇮🇩.
Go Ahead’s 2-1, an own goal by Sparta, but created by winger Thibo Baeten 🇧🇪.
Sparta’s 2-2, scored by right defender Lushendry Martes 🇳🇱, assisted by Babadi.
Go Ahead’s 3-2, scored by winger Søren Tengstedt 🇩🇰, assisted by midfielder Melle Meulensteen 🇳🇱.
Sparta’s 3-3, scored by winger Casper Terho 🇫🇮.
This was clearly a game of giveth and taketh. Zonneveld scoreth a goal, he concedeth an own goal. Baeten createth a goal, he misseth a chance to kick the ball away, leading to the 3-3.
Feyenoord look unstoppable. Yes, they were at home, and there was already talk about the Rotterdammers being the most entertaining team in the league, but this scoreline doesn’t really do justice to how much Feyenoord dominated this game. The game I thought would be a tight battle (I predicted 3-2 Feyenoord) with a pendulum-like swing was not that at all. It’s like the pendulum swung one way and just hung in the air for a bit. Don’t get me wrong, AZ weren’t completely hopeless (they actually had more completed passes than Feyenoord, 418 to 297!), but they only came alive once the second goal had already been scored. I had warned that this game would be fun just to see AZ winger Ro-Zangelo Daal “dazzle” on the wing, but there was no dazzle. Only dull. The winger on the other side of the field, Ayoub Oufkir, showed more promise than Daal. Freshly minted Dutch international Mexx Meerdink was pretty much nowhere to be found. It truly is impressive how Feyenoord completely stifled a team that, for most of this season so far, has looked unstoppable themselves. But step aside, Alkmaar, you have been dethroned. It’s almost crazy to think that Feyenoord look this good while having attacking midfielder Sem Steijn—who it wouldn’t have been crazy to call the best player in the league at one point—wasting away on the bench. Feyenoord fans are going to be feeling good: finally, the chaos that followed the departure of Arne Slot is over/voorbij. In Giovanni van Bronckhorst (who spent time as Slot’s assistant last season!) they trust; their third championship in the past decade seems within reach. AZ, on the other hand, must be sullen. They are still just a single point off of Feyenoord at the top of the standings, but psychologically, they’re going to have to discount this as an off-game and still believe in the fight for a title. They won’t face a true league test until Halloween, when a juicy matchup with Ajax awaits.
Watch full highlights from the game here (2 min). Feyenoord always post such short highlights, despite the many comments under each video clamoring for a more in-depth review of the game. It almost feels silly to link to the goals, but hey, I do it because maybe you just want to click the link, watch ten seconds of a goal, and come back. That’s what I would want.
Just the goals:
Feyenoord’s 1-0, scored by striker Nacho Ferri 🇪🇸.
Lucky? Sure. But Ferri still had to outrun the defender, keep him at bay, and finish past the goalie. Feyenoord fans have no qualms about previous top scorer Ayase Ueda 🇯🇵 leaving for French club Lille.
Feyenoord’s 2-0, scored by left defender Javi López 🇪🇸, assisted by midfielder Charles Vanhoutte 🇧🇪.
It’s not so much that Feyenoord were continuously peppering the AZ goal, but more so that AZ never really looked dangerous.
There was a slight bit of controversy in this game: referee Danny Makkelie (arguably the best Dutch referee, who you may remember from the U.S. World Cup game against Paraguay), initially called a penalty kick for AZ before taking quite a long time at the VAR monitor and overruling his decision. What do you think: was this a penalty? See a longer replay on the last slide here. Personally, I don’t think so. Yes, you can see the goalie’s foot reverberate from Meerdink’s foot hitting into it, but not only did that clearly not obstruct the striker all that much, he also just was not going to be able to get to the ball before it went out of play. Part of the controversy was the fact that Makkelie reversed his decision—which, according to the rulebook, should only occur at a “clear and obvious error.” But I think it’s not within the spirit of the sport to stick to the rulebook at the expense of common sense. I applaud Makkelie for having the guts to make such a decision, because a penalty being given for that would have been a travesty, and it would have been a huge momentum swing just before halftime.
Fortuna… fortuitous? Even though the team from Sittard had more shots, it’s almost laugh-inducing to look at the game’s momentum chart and feel like they got away with another one. They can’t keep getting away with this! I say that, but if Danny Buijs’s team is able to avoid injuries, they just might. The assist for their goal came from the feet of none other than Mohammed Ihattaren. Because who else? I don’t know what kind of deal with the devil Buijs may have made, but in case you missed my preview of this week: based on statistics, Fortuna should have entered this week as the last-placed team. Instead, they escaped a visit from one of the most high-flying teams in the league with a commendable point, and now they sit in 7th place, occupying the last European playoff spot. If the season ended today, this would be the first playoff game to see who gets the privilege of attempting to enter the UEFA Conference League—and boy, would I not want to face Fortuna. Twente, on the other hand, I think will be fine with this game. I thought they’d win 3-1 because of the quality in their team—but a point in an away game against the league’s most indecipherable team? Yeah, that’s fine.
Watch full highlights from the game here (6 min).
Just the goals:
Fortuna’s 1-0, scored by winger Anthony Descotte 🇧🇪, assisted by winger Mohammed Ihattaren 🇲🇦.
Twente’s 1-1, scored by defender Robin Pröpper 🇳🇱, assisted by striker Wout Weghorst 🇳🇱.
This looked like something that came right from the practice field. Pröpper was very emotional after scoring, something that neither he nor coach John van den Brom would elaborate on; the 33-year-old is a bit of a legend around these parts (these parts being the city of Enschede), and I hope he’s okay.
Alarm bells in Amsterdam. This season is really not going to plan for Ajax. I didn’t devote too much time in my preview to the country’s most famous team, thinking that this would be such a routine win for them (at home, against a floundering team). I thought they’d sweep N.E.C. aside by 4-1, but not scoring the three extra goals I thought they would is what happens when you miss four huge chances. And so the question is raised, with pressure placed on the heels of Ajax coach Míchel Sánchez: what is going on? You would’ve thought that this international break was the time when he would iron out the kinks in his team, so that we would finally see the results that you’d think would come with having such an absurdly talented squad. The feeling was that Sánchez just needed more time for his team to gel, which was understandable considering they were basically constructed from scratch over the summer. But what a terrible way to come out of the break. The home crowd were certainly expecting more goals, more cheers, and more highlights than they got. The team still looks like a collection of individuals; this was the kind of game where they really missed former star player (and Paris Saint-Germain player as of August) Mika Godts. Godts was adept at bailing Ajax out in games like this, with a moment of magic and an overall incessant desire to attack a defender with his quick feet. Alas. The sad reality for Ajax fans is that they should have won this game, plain and simple. Not just because of the star-studded squad (what do they have to show for that so far?) but because they created two Expected Goals from 18 shots and five on target. After the first goal, the feeling was, “ah, the engines are revving, here they go.” But what followed was just chance after missed chance. I can’t help but think how much Ajax misses former coach Francesco Farioli. I would lose a limb to be able to see what Farioli would’ve done with this team, where he has Simon Adingra coming off the bench to play winger instead of Christian Rasmussen (respectfully). Reports about why Farioli left Ajax included an alleged disagreement about player acquisition: Farioli wanted stronger, faster, more physically imposing players, while the Ajax board wanted more creative, technically-gifted players. Well, Farioli left, Ajax splurged on Oscar Gloukh, and lo and behold, now there’s criticism that Gloukh isn’t strong or fast enough. I need to commission one of those Trump-style hats that says “Farioli was right about everything.” Summer record transfer Marcos Leonardo once again earned himself no new fans with this performance, and I’d caution against judging him until next season, but that’s going to be a long time for Ajax fans if the team continues to show that they’re not yet ready to challenge for the title (which, by the way, was Ajax GM Jordi Cruijff’s main goal with the accumulation of such players). Leonardo’s clear nervousness on the field makes me wonder if part of the appeal of playing in Saudi Arabia is not just the buckets of money, but the opportunity to be away from the spotlight—and away from the critics. It could be that Leonardo is getting used to being on the European stage again, and the pressure/visibility that comes with it. But who knows. Even Abdellah Ouazane, who has been lauded as a soon-to-be star, has not looked that impressive considering the praise and playing time the 17-year-old gets. He had a moment in the 75th minute where he had Adingra wide open for a counter-attack, and then just… didn’t make the pass. Maybe he didn’t clock his teammate being open, or maybe he chose to be selfish; I’m not sure which would be worse. Yes, Ouazane had an impressive run at the goal just a few minutes later, but for all I hear about him, I’d like to be treated to more than just occasional flashes of talent. N.E.C. seriously could’ve won this game—and maybe they would’ve, if Dušan Tadić weren’t so clearly trying to not score against his former beloved team. There were multiple moments where Tadić received the ball in a position where he could shoot (which any Ajax fan from 2019 could tell you he’s capable of), and he wasn’t even looking at the goal, instead being more focused on setting up one of his teammates. It was disappointing from a player who usually is a role model and a professional—although it will further annoy N.E.C. fans (and players!) after the Serbian made comments where he pretty much said the standard of quality at N.E.C. was beneath him. I won’t indulge any gossip around the player’s comments, but either way: not a good look. Aside from Tadić, there was a noticeable Amsterdam-tint to the Nijmegen team: defenders Perr Schuurs, Ahmetcan Kaplan, and Mitchel Bakker all used to wear the Ajax shirt. Maybe, if they all were at Tadić’s level, N.E.C. would’ve won. I kid. This gives N.E.C. a huge boost before an important European game in the midweek, so that’s good at least (we root for all Dutch teams in Europe in this house, no matter your team preference domestically).
Watch full highlights from the game here (6 min).
Just the goals:
Ajax’s 1-0, scored by striker Tolu Arokodare 🇳🇬, assisted by midfielder Jorthy Mokio 🇨🇩.
You can see why Excelsior coach Ruben den Uil called Tolu a “cheat code.”
N.E.C.’s 1-1, a penalty kick scored by attacker Tjaronn Chery 🇸🇷.
I linked a few seconds before the penalty itself, so you can see what led to it. It was honestly a really great build-up, and would’ve been a certain goal if Mokio had not pulled back the N.E.C. player. It’s a penalty I think you give up 10/10 times; you prevent a 100% chance at a goal and replace it with a 75% chance at a goal. It’s good math.
Finally! A Utrecht win! Wow, what a treat. Savor it, Utrecht fans; I’m not sure if this is necessarily a sign of better things to come. Utrecht coach Anthony Correia has taken extraordinary measures to try to improve his team: both the players and the coaches went through an intense, military-style endurance test and team building exercise. Unfortunately, I’m not sure I detected a difference in this game against the bottom team in the standings. Utrecht still looked more like eleven nervy players than they did a composed team acting cohesively. It’s telling that the first two goals came from the individual talents of one of their wingers; at few moments did you see the kind of teamwork and build-up play that made Correia’s Telstar such an exciting team last season. I thought this would be 2-0 Utrecht, but I know they’ll be disappointed to have let in a goal—Utrecht have conceded a league-most 25 goals through eight games, and have yet to keep an opponent to zero goals. I’m really not sure, though, how much of the blame should be cast on the players. It is such a huge downgrade at left defender to go from Souffian El Karouani, who once led the Eredivisie in assists, to Arthur Zagré, respectfully; I would love to see how Correia does when he’s not dealing with so many injuries. Midfielder Kevin Paredes (an American), attacker Noah Ohio, and midfielder Victor Jensen all have something to add to this team when healthy. Willem II didn’t look bad here, though, and you got the sense that they were just let down by their lack of talent comparatively.
Watch full highlights from the game here (6 min).
Just the goals:
Utrecht’s 1-0, scored by winger Yoann Cathline 🇫🇷, assisted by midfielder (but who lined up this game as a striker, technically) Dani de Wit 🇳🇱.
Not a great look for Willem II’s defense, who refuse to take the risk of closing down Cathline—easily Utrecht’s most dangerous dribbler, to be fair.
Willem II’s 1-1, scored by winger Jaden Slory 🇳🇱, assisted by opposite winger Vito van Crooij 🇳🇱.
What a fantastic finish by Slory, who is on loan from Feyenoord and who holds a lot of promise. One to watch this season.
Utrecht’s 2-1, scored again by Cathline, assisted by midfielder Oualid Agougil 🇲🇦.
Cathline is such a frustrating player at times. He’s scored two stunning goals, one with each foot, but there were moments during this game where he just so clearly made either the wrong decision or the selfish decision. At least he showed us all why he thinks he deserves to be selfish.
Utrecht’s 3-1, scored by attacker Ángel Alarcon 🇪🇸, assisted by winger Adrian Blake 🏴.
Unlucky for both teams. ADO received a red card in the 13th minute—preventing them from truly putting up a fight, and meaning their only goal for the rest of the game was survival. All things considered, ADO will be happy with a point from a visit to the BUKO Stadium. On the flip side of the coin, Telstar will be furious that they couldn’t get three points at home with a man advantage for 85% of the game. They fully deserved the win, too: they had about 70% of the ball, took 30 shots to ADO’s three, and had 46 touches in the opposition penalty box compared to ADO’s 10. So why didn’t they win? Well, of their 30 shots, only four were on target. This shot map would frustrate any Telstar fan, as would this momentum chart. I wouldn’t bet on either of their positions in the standings changing soon: next week, Telstar faces Feyenoord, and ADO takes on PSV. Yikes. Almost forgot: I correctly predicted 2-2 here, even though it took some odd circumstances to get there! I’ll treat myself to a stroopwafel.
Watch full highlights from the game here (7 min).
Just the goals:
Telstar’s 1-0, scored by midfielder Tyrone Owusu 🇳🇱 on a free kick given after the red card foul on the ADO player.
ADO’s 1-1, scored just two minutes later by striker Yannick Eduardo 🇨🇿, assisted by striker Evan Rottier 🇳🇱.
ADO’s 2-1, scored by Rottier.
Telstar’s 2-2, scored by Owusu, assisted by midfielder Noach Shenkman 🇳🇱.
A lovely shot.
Poor, poor PEC. This was supposed to be the winnable game! A newly promoted team at home! I say that, but I also predicted Cambuur to win 2-1. Although I imagine the home team would’ve preferred that scoreline, since it at least would’ve involved the celebration of a goal—which would’ve been their first goal since September 4th. Alas, the wait continues. PEC weren’t absolutely hopeless in this game, and I’d chalk the loss up more so to bad luck, but the fans weren’t having it. They were calling for the head of coach Henry van der Vegt; this morning, they got their wish. Van der Vegt has officially been relieved of his duties. I mean, what can you even argue? That over the last three games, in which they’ve scored zero goals and conceded 11, they created 2.7 Expected Goals? At some point, you just need to accept that this is a casualty of being in a business where thousands of people are carefully watching your every move and judging the quality of your work at all times. It’ll be interesting to see how a new PEC coach will do with this team; I mean, who will they hire, first of all, but also would anyone outside of Arne Slot be able to do significantly better? I’m sure we’ll see the usual “new manager’s bounce,” a term used to describe how the hiring of a new coach usually leads to a temporary honeymoon period of better results. It makes sense: the players feel like the slate has been wiped clean, they each feel motivated to prove themselves to the new boss, and said boss is going to focus on simple tactics in the first few games (the kind of tactics that benefit from having a group of players who feel focused and motivated to give their 110% on the field). Cambuur, though, have to be feeling phenomenal. They now sit in 12th place after a huge three points. In the past few years, staying in the Eredivisie and avoiding relegation has usually meant getting around 30-40 points total. Cambuur now have eight, with eight games played—they’re on course for 34 points if that streak continues, which would likely keep them in the top league for another year. That would be a huge feat for a club that just got promoted after three years in the second division. I mean, who would’ve thought that they—at any point in the season—would be above Sparta and Utrecht?
Watch full highlights from the game here (7 min).
Just the goal:
Cambuur’s 1-0, scored by striker Nicolas Binder 🇦🇹.
Are you for real? That’s the question I want to ask both of these teams. This felt like one of the games with the biggest implications: both teams are trying to prove that they belong in the upper echelon of the league. But there’s reason to believe that this was just an off day for Excelsior. As you’ll see in the goals below, this was an uncharacteristically bad performance from the Rotterdam team’s goalkeeper, Stijn van Gassel, and just from the team in general, honestly. Of Groningen’s five goals, one was an own goal, one was a penalty kick, one came from a terrible defensive mistake, and one came in the final minute of the game, when things were already decided at 4-1. It definitely stings to lose with this score when you’re playing at home—a game I thought would end 2-2, mind you—but Excelsior have other games coming up where they can show they belong: against Heerenveen next week, and then against Fortuna the week after. If Excelsior come out of those games with at least four points (a win and a tie), it’ll help paper over the disappointment felt here. As for Groningen? It’s a party in the north of the Netherlands. This was ideal motivation for a huge, huge game next week: they welcome visitors Ajax to the Euroborg. What a treat that’ll be.
Watch full highlights from the game here (7.5 min).
Just the goals:
Groningen’s 1-0, scored by defender Marco Rente 🇩🇪.
Excelsior’s 1-1, a penalty kick scored by attacker Irakli Yegoian 🇬🇪.
Talk about a light penalty.
Groningen’s 2-1, an own goal by Excelsior.
Groningen’s 3-1, a penalty kick scored by striker Thom van Bergen 🇳🇱.
Groningen’s 4-1, scored by striker Brynjólfur Willumsson 🇮🇸, assisted by midfielder Pelle Clement 🇳🇱.
Great movement by Willumsson, #9.
Groningen’s 5-1, scored by Rente.
The Standings After Week 8
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)
The Standings
Feyenoord — 20 points — 6-2-0
PSV — 19 points — 6-1-1
AZ — 19 points — 6-1-1
Twente — 17 points — 5-2-1
Ajax — 15 points — 4-3-1
Groningen — 14 points — 4-2-2
Fortuna — 14 points — 4-2-2
Go Ahead — 11 points — 2-5-1
Excelsior — 11 points — 3-2-3
Heerenveen — 9 points — 2-3-3
N.E.C. — 9 points — 2-3-3
Cambuur — 8 points — 2-2-4
Utrecht — 8 points — 2-2-4
Sparta — 6 points — 1-3-4
Telstar — 6 points — 1-3-4
PEC — 4 points — 1-1-6
ADO — 3 points — 0-3-5
Willem II — 2 points — 0-2-6
After eight weeks, the standings are taking shape.
Most importantly, ladies and gentlemen, we have a title race on our hands. Although I bet you never would’ve guessed at the start of the season that Ajax would not be a part of the four teams currently realistically vying for it. The Amsterdam team needs to go on a win streak, stat.
I know it’s likely going to be PSV or Feyenoord, but I’m really rooting for AZ and Twente to keep up in the championship horse race. You never know!
I wonder: if coach Henk Brugge is able to keep Telstar in the Eredivisie for another year, does that affect Anthony Correia’s reputation, which is largely based on that Telstar accomplishment?
Utrecht will probably be fine, I tell myself.
European Corner
Club soccer is back—and so are the European competitions. This is the first week where all three competitions (Champions League, Europa League, Conference League) are on, meaning we get to see all of the Dutch teams in action.
Champions League: PSV against RB Leipzig 🇩🇪
Tuesday 10/13 at 3:00pm ET on CBS Sports Network/Paramount+
PSV coach Peter Bosz has already admitted that he’s not going to adjust to Leipzig’s similar attacking style: “fire against fire,” Bosz said. Leipzig are not the same stacked team from years past, but they are an opponent against whom PSV will want to prove their mettle. This is a borderline must-win for the Eindhoven team after tying 1-1 last month against Shakhtar Donetsk, a home game where they really should’ve taken all three points.
Leipzig are 5th in the German Bundesliga; they’re no slouches. As much as I want a PSV win, I have a feeling it’ll be a tie—but maybe that’s being hopeful in itself. 2-2.
Champions League: Feyenoord against Como 🇮🇹
Wednesday 10/14 at 12:45pm ET on CBS Sports Network/Paramount+
How nice of CBS Sports Network to be airing both Dutch teams. Like PSV’s, this is a solid Goliath-v-Goliath test for Feyenoord. The Rotterdammers’ first game against Barcelona was a 5-1 thrashing, but that has more to do with Barcelona having literally the best players in the world than it does with Feyenoord being a bad team. Como have continued to look really, really good under coach Cesc Fàbregas, and we have to hope that they were the primary focus of Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s international break.
This could go either way. You have to imagine that being at home gives Feyenoord an advantage, but I’m worried for them. I hope I’m wrong, but 2-1 Como.
Europa League: AZ against Hapoel Be’er Sheva 🇮🇱
Thursday 10/15 at 12:45pm ET on Paramount+
With all respect to the Israeli Premier League, AZ on paper should have little trouble against their 4th-placed team. If AZ can play at home the same way they played in England against Sunderland in their first game (a close 1-0 loss), they’ll be fine. AZ will be lamenting the absence of star midfielder Kees Smit, who is out with an injury until the end of the month, but they should have enough juice to take care of the team from Israel’s eighth most-populous city.
Cautiously, I think AZ have this one in the bag. 3-1 AZ.
Europa League: N.E.C. against Levski Sofia 🇧🇬
Thursday 10/15 at 3:00pm ET on Paramount+
N.E.C. are going to want to tell Europe they’re no pushovers after getting very much pushed over against Juventus in their first game, 5-0. This is the perfect opportunity to build on the momentum of a result against Ajax in Amsterdam: N.E.C. are now at home in Nijmegen and facing off against a team from Bulgaria. That sounds like I’m saying that with a little disrespect, but it shouldn’t. This is one of Bulgaria’s most successful teams, the only club to have never been relegated from their top division, and they sit atop the Bulgarian league standings. It’s easy to underestimate a club you’ve never heard of, from a league you’re barely familiar with, but I’m only a little worried.
N.E.C. keeping a clean sheet would be a minor miracle based on how their defense has looked this season. Here’s to hoping they show us that this Europa League season won’t just be doom and gloom. I’m almost sure that I’ll be wrong here. 3-1 N.E.C.
Conference League: Ajax against Hajduk Split 🇭🇷
Thursday 10/15 at 12:45pm ET on Paramount+
I’m way less confident now than I was a week ago about Ajax in Europe. Despite Ajax being in the Conference League, the teams they’re facing are of a Europa League quality, and we haven’t really seen much proof that Ajax are at that level yet. This is a test for coach Míchel Sánchez: to see how well he can rally his team after a disappointing weekend to take on Croatia’s best-performing team this season. It’s not like Ajax didn’t create positions to score against N.E.C., it’s just that they didn’t finish off those chances.
It’ll definitely be a tough crowd in the city of Split. But I just think that Ajax have too much talent to not win here—the same thing I thought before this weekend against the Nijmegen team. Welp. You can count on there being goals, that’s for sure. 3-2 Ajax.
Conference League: Twente against Thun 🇨🇭
Thursday 10/15 at 3:00pm ET on Paramount+
On paper, Twente should be winning this game. It’s at home in Enschede against a team that has lost six of their 10 games so far in the Swiss League. Despite winning the Swiss championship last year for the first time in their history, the team from the town of less than 50,000 people aren’t showing many signs that they will be much trouble for a Twente team that has only looked better and better as the season has progressed.
Knock on wood, but this is the game I’m feeling the most confident about out of all the European participants. 3-0 Twente.
Oranje Corner
An update on my first post about the Oranje Leeuwinnen (Lionesses) and their quest for 2027 World Cup participation: they play their second leg of the first qualification round today against Hungary at 2:45pm ET. The first leg, as I pretty much laid out in the post, was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. It looked like women against girls; the Oranje won 7-0. Now back in the Netherlands in Tilburg, there are expectations of a potential largest-ever victory, which would eclipse the previous record set two years ago in a 15-0 friendly-game win over Indonesia. I don’t think it’ll reach those heights, but we can probably comfortably project a win by at least four goals. I mean, how intensely are you really going to play when you’re 7-0 up on aggregate? I imagine the goal will be to not pick up any injuries. The Dutch will be looking forward to either Turkey or Slovenia next month to hopefully (probably) qualify for the World Cup.
One note from the first game against Hungary: I was impressed by 21-year-old attacker Lotte Keukelaar, who came on as a substitute. She’s one to keep an eye on—it was clear why she was picked up by Real Madrid for an (undisclosed) record-setting transfer fee from Ajax.
This team looks good, and the vibes are great. I’m not going to set any expectations of winning the World Cup next year (pending qualification), but it’s not an impossible scenario. My hot take, which I’m sure I’ll expand on later, is that the Dutch women will win a World Cup before the Dutch men.
Stray Thoughts
Which was your goal of the week? See ESPN’s top three contenders here.
Wow, no other stray thoughts? I guess that must be why my looks-at-each-games are getting longer and longer.
Moment of Nature
If you noticed the referees getting flowers from the players before each game this weekend, that’s because it was the Week of the Referee. This is a yearly celebration of referees, to thank them for doing their job and to highlight the importance of it. It’s not an easy task, that’s for sure: if you do your job well, you’re invisible, but mess up and you’ll come under fire from thousands of fans. If you saw the hashtag #scheidsbedankt, that translates into #thanksref.
And so it was nice to see that respect getting passed on to the next generation: ESPN posted a video of a child asking well-known referee Sander van der Eijk for his signature before the PEC-Cambuur game. It’s really sweet to see. I mean, can you imagine an American kid asking for an NFL referee’s signature? I don’t think anyone is requesting NBA ref Tony Brothers’ signature for genuine reasons. It shows the difference in respect for the rules in both countries—no disrespect to the U.S., but I think most people here view referees as enforcers of the rules rather than facilitators of fairness. That exists in the Netherlands, but less so. And having an annual appreciation of the referee throughout the country helps keep that spirit alive. Referees are people too!
I really hate ending a sentence on an abbreviation. The Eredivisie website says “N.E.C.” and I’ll go off of that, but just like ending a sentence with “U.S.”, I hate it. It reads awkwardly. If you see me avoiding this in the future, now you know why.