Dutch Eredivisie

Eredivisie Round 17 Results: PSV, Ajax & Feyenoord record victories as table toppers AZ lose

The Alkmaar side were beaten by NAC on Sunday, while all their title rivals except Twente bagged the full three points

De Graafschap 1-3 RKC

The hosts started the match with attacking intentions and were rewarded with the opener after 16 minutes of play. RKC goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet failed to hold on to Nenad Sreckovic's shot and Michael de Leeuw tapped home the rebound from close range.

RKC weren't impressed too much though and equalised in the closing stages of the first half when Frank van Mosselveld headed home a free kick.

The away side even grabbed the lead after the interval when Ard van Peppen found the net after being set up by Mitchell Schet, before Jochem Jansen beat his own goalkeeper in the 87th minute to make it three for the away side.

Heracles 0-1 Vitesse

Heracles dominated play on Saturday evening and created a number of chances to open the scoring. Nevertheless, they were unable to beat Vitesse shot stopper Piet Velthuizen, and were made to pay for it after the break.

Jan-Arie van der Heijden found Guram Kashia with a pinpoint corner kick and the Georgian defender beat his opponent to the ball before heading the winner past the helpless Heracles goalkeeper.

Roda 7-0 Excelsior

Roda were determined to pick up the full three points after last week's loss against VVV and got the early opener they were after when Jagos Vukovic added his name to the score sheet in the fifth minute after good work from Mads Junker.

Davy De Beule made things even worse for Excelsior at the half-hour mark, before Ruud Vormer made it three in the closing stages of the opening 45 minutes.

Excelsior then managed to keep the Roda attack quiet for quite a while, but Arnaud Sutchuin poured even more salt in the Rotterdam side's wounds in the 78th minute.

Mitchell Donald netted Roda's fifth of the evening shortly after, before again Sutchuin and finally Mikolaj Lebedynski made it seven for the Limburgers.

NEC 2-0 VVV

NEC were the better side of the two early on and deservedly opened the scoring in the 25th minute. Attacking midfielder John Goossens stepped up to take a free kick and surprised the VVV glovesman with a superb long range strike.

The hosts were then reduced to 10 man when Bram Nuytinck received his marching orders shortly after the break after a professional foul.

Nevertheless, NEC continued to dominate and again Goossens put the match to bed in the 78th minute with a powerful free kick.

Groningen 1-0 Utrecht

Groningen created numerous chances to open the scoring before the break, but Petter Andersson, Dusan Tadic and David Texeira all failed to find the net in the opening 45 minutes.

They kept on dominating though and were eventually rewarded for their positive attitude when Texeira broke the deadlock at the hour mark to with a calm finish to help Groningen to the full three points.

Ajax 4-0 ADO Den Haag

ADO Den Haag were dealt a huge blow when Ramon Leeuwin was shown a red card after only 10 minutes of play following a reckless challenge on Christian Eriksen.

Eriksen gave Ajax the lead shortly after when he found the net with a superb shot after being set up by Nicolas Lodeiro.

Ajax continued to dominate after the interval and Theo Janssen doubled the Amsterdam side's lead with a low shot in the far corner.

Eriksen then set up Dmitri Bulykin to make it 3-0, before the towering attacking provided the assist for Ajax's fourth via Miralem Sulejmani in the 85th minute.

Feyenoord 3-2 Twente

Feyenoord started the match with attacking intentions and went 1-0 up after only seven minutes. Otman Bakkal found John Guidetti with a low cross from the right and the Manchester City loanee tapped home from inside the area.

The young Swede caused the Twente defence all kinds of trouble and Guidetti got his second goal of the afternoon in the 43rd minute after a superb counterattack, before once more Guidetti made it three hardly one minute later.

Twente then fought back after the break and Nacer Chadli pegged one back after the Feyenoord backline failed to clear a corner kick. 

Luuk de Jong even made it 3-2 after a good individual action, but Twente were unable to net a third and left De Kuip empty handed.

NAC 2-1 AZ

AZ started the match the better side and came close to opening the scoring via Rasmus Elm, only to see the Swede's powerful shot come back off the upright.

Sloppy defending from Etienne Reijnen then allowed Anthony Lurling to break the deadlock and the veteran didn't fail from close range. Nevertheless, Brett Holman equalised before the half-time whistle to help AZ back in the game.

The table toppers got a number of chances to grab the lead in the second half, but NAC goalkeeper Jelle ten Rouwelaar proved to be too much of an obstacle, and Milano Koenders eventually even helped the home side to the full three points with a late strike after yet again sloppy defending from AZ.

Heerenveen 1-5 PSV

Heerenveen were somewhat surprisingly unable to trouble PSV as the guests needed only 18 minutes to break the deadlock. Zakaria Labyad sent in a superb cross from the right and Ola Toivonen headed home from five yards out.

A similar attack two minutes later resulted in a 2-0 lead as Stanislav Manolev found Tim Matavz with an excellent cross and the Slovenia international found the net with a superb header in the far corner.

Toivonen made it three in the 24th minute with a calm finish after a good combination with Matavz. 

Georginio Wijnaldum then made it four with a good header after a cross from Dries Mertens, before Marcelo headed home a corner kick to pour even more misery on Heerenveen.

The Friezen pegged one back via substitute Rajiv van La Parra late in the second half, but it was nothing more than a consolation goal.

Source: goal.com

Dutch Eredivisie

Ajax 4 - 1 Excelsior Rotterdam

Ajax strengthened their grip on fourth place in the Eredivisie with a one-sided 4-1 win over 10-man Excelsior.

Jan Vertonghen opened the scoring for the hosts after 10 minutes, before adding his second of the night just moments after the 37th-minute dismissal of Excelsior's Samuel Scheimann.

Despite being a man light Excelsior dredged up a goal just before the break when Darren Maatsen fired home, but Ajax secured the points thanks to Miralem Sulejmani's 63rd-minute penalty and Nicolas Lodeiro's strike four minutes later.

The win sees Ajax pull level on 27 points with third-placed FC Twente, who play on Sunday, while the Amsterdammers are seven points behind leaders AZ Alkmaar having played two games more.

David Texeira's first hat-trick for FC Groningen was only sufficient to secure a 3-3 draw with NEC Nijmegen in an action-packed clash at the Euroborg.

Texeira opened the scoring for the home side in the 28th minute only for Abdisalam Ibrahim to equalise two minutes later. However, the Groningen striker added his second after the break to regain the lead.

Melvin Platje levelled the score at 2-2 in the 83rd minute with a great strike as NEC thought they had secured a point, but Texeira scored his third almost immediately.

Platje had the final word, however, scoring his second in the dying seconds to pull NEC level for the third time.

ADO Den Haag earned their first win in five games with a 3-0 victory over NAC Breda.

Charlton Vicento opened the scoring 11 minutes before half-time and second-half strikes from Jens Toornstra and Marc Hocher made the game safe.

Adil Ramzi and Sanharib Malki earned Roda JC their second away win of the season with a goal apiece in their 2-1 victory over De Graafschap.

Malki opened the scoring just after the break before Ramzi doubled the visitors' lead in the 65th minute. Yuri Rose headed a late consolation for the home side.

Source: espn

Feyenoord 2 - 0 PSV 

Feyenoord beat PSV Eindhoven 2-0 in their Eredivisie match at the Stadion Feijenoord in Rotterdam.

Feyenoord's goals were scored by Cissé (41') and Schaken (50').

Feyenoord's starting line-up was Mulder, Leerdam, Vlaar, Miquel, Martins Indi, El Ahmadi, Bakkal, Clasie, Schaken, Cissé and Guidetti while PSV Eindhoven lined up with Isaksson, Bouma, Derijck, Manolev, Willems, Wijnaldum, Strootman, Labyad, Mertens, Matavz and Toivonen.

Source: eurorivals.net

FC Utrecht 2 - 6 FC Twente

FC Twente in the Galgenwaard put there by a good game with 2-6 win at FC Utrecht. There was more in the game than many goals, Nacer Chadli injured again in the second half the game was halted for 10 minutes because of fireworks.
The Tukkers were soon held the race despite Utrecht tried to attack. Twente was too soon to start as early as the 8th minute headed Wisgerhof 0-1 after a free kick out of John Ola. Ola scored the 0-2 John himself, John shot from the left side of the ball at the near post by the defenders around. The team from Enschede appeared so soon to put stamp on the game. But lost in the first half of Twente also very valuable for the team: Nacer Chadli got injured on his knee and had to leave the field. William Janssen was his replacement.
The second half began with an early goal in the 47th minute substitute headed home a corner from Janssen, the ball (0-3). Twente hielt the pace well filled and remained so even with the most ball. Janssen won his good turn raid with half goal in the 58th minute. Through a good shot of turning the ball disappeared into the far corner (0-4). Not only this match Janssen scored two goals, but the left winger John. The 16-he cut with his man and then neatly rounded off (0-5).
After starting 0-5, the match was stopped by referee Wiedemeijer. The reason was throwing fireworks, the turmoil in the stands and outside the stadium. The strike has lasted more than ten minutes.
After the brief interruption of Utrecht had more to see. There was more pressure put on Twente and that produced a quick goal on. Frank Demouge was a well planned attack gracefully. A few minutes later came the 2-5, Dave Bulthuis took a volley, which eventually bounced over goalkeeper Michaylov. Finally scored the same sunken Steven Berghuis for the Twente 2-6 and the match was so deserved to win by FC Twente.

Source: Voetbalcentraal

SC Heerenveen 5 - 1 AZ Alkmaar

Heerenveen crushes leader AZ Abe Lenstra Stadium

AZ tonight in Friesland leave an excellent opportunity to continue to walk away from closest challenger PSV. Following the Brabant team (2-0 at Feyenoord), was also undermine the leader in Alkmaar. The formation of coach Gertjan Verbeek was beaten up at SC Heerenveen 5-1.

Source: ad.nl

Johan Cruyff made racial comment towards Edgar Davids, claims Ajax supervisory board member

Steven ten Have has stated that the Dutch legend has indeed made discriminatory comments against the former Juventus and Barcelona player

Johan Cruyff

Ajax supervisory board member Steven ten Have has confirmed that club icon Johan Cruyff made racial comments towards fellow commissioner Edgar Davids.

Davids revealed on Sunday afternoon that he had been on the receiving end of derogatory comments during board meetings, but refused to mention any names.

"Sometimes people cross the line within the supervisory board. There have even been racist comments. I don't want to go into details, but it's not easy to hold this position," he explained.

Nevertheless, Studio Voetbal stressed later on Sunday that Cruyff was the one who insulted Davids.

"You are only on the supervisory board because you're black," Cruyff allegedly said, a statement that was later claimed to be true by Ten Have.

"Unfortunately, that statement is true. Edgar has been insulted and has received shocking treatment," Ten Have revealed.

Cruyff has had a troublesome relationship with the other four members of the supervisory board right from the start, but things spiralled out of control last week with the appointment of Louis van Gaal as the club's new CEO behind the legendary No.14's back.

Edgard Davis

Source: goal.com

Decision!

Hello everyone,
First of all thanks to all my followers and subscribers.
I've been publishing almost every day articles, but as football is a very complex and huge sport in our planet, I've decided to focus and concentrate only in the European Football, and not all of them.
I'll be publishing only about 5 countries and the most important Championships.

Here they are:

• Spain  -  La Liga
• England   -  Premier League
• Netherlands  -  Eredivisie
• Germany   -  Bundesliga
• Italy  -  Serie A

And the Championships:

• Champions League
• Europa League
• Euro 2012
• International Friendlies
• World Cup 2014

Thanks again and please SUBSCRIBE to get updates from your favorite country or club.

More updates coming soon.

Louis van Gaal & Johan Cruyff - Clash of personalities spells disaster for Ajax

With the imminent return of Champions League-winning coach as the Amsterdam side's CEO, the legendary No.14 could decide to throw in the towel and leave the ArenA again

Only days after Guus Hiddink stated that he was not interested in the position of CEO at Ajax due to the ongoing unrest at the Amsterdam ArenA, the former Turkey coach was proven right by the club's supervisory board. 

Four out of five members opted to appoint Louis van Gaal as the club's new chief executive, but they did so behind the back of the fifth, and most influential, associate - Johan Cruyff. Understandably, he was not impressed and the decision has led to uproar.

Cruyff returned to Ajax earlier this year when he took a place on the club's supervisory board in an attempt to turn things around at the club and help them back to the European top table. However, the club legend had difficult relationships with fellow commissioners Edgar Davids, Steven ten Have, Paul Romer and Marjan Olfers right from the start and his planned revolution is going a lot less smoothly than the 64-year-old was hoping for.

His plan to appoint former Ajax winger Tscheu La Ling as the club's new CEO was vetoed by the rest of the supervisory board some four months ago and the club had since been looking for a suitable candidate. All five members seemed to agree on Marco van Basten in October, but the former AC Milan striker's appointment fell through after Cruyff insisted on additional conditions that would limit Van Basten's freedom.

Cruyff continued to bring up La Ling as his ideal candidate and his stubbornness didn't go down too well with his colleagues who had had enough and felt it was time to get an appointment in place. 

So when Cruyff boarded a plane back to his home in Barcelona on Tuesday evening, the remaining four members of the supervisory board called together a meeting without him and decided to name Van Gaal their new CEO on Davids' initiative.

"We have tried to use Cruyff's expertise to find a new director, but he still insisted on La Ling after all this time. We feel that La Ling is not the right man for the job, so that's why we decided to take action," Ten Have was quoted as saying.

The decision to go behind his back was bad enough, but the fact that they appointed one of Cruyff's biggest rivals in the game only further infuriated the former Ballon d'Or winner.

Very little is known about the exact reasons behind the hostilities between Van Gaal and Cruyff, but one things is very clear; the two are sworn enemies. 

The former Bayern Munich boss has hinted more than once that the problems between the two started after an incident during Christmas 1989. However, this has always been denied by Cruyff. Another possible explanation behind their feud is that Van Gaal's successes with Ajax in the 1990s were met with a certain jealousy by Cruyff. Unlike the Barcelona advisor, Van Gaal did manage to win major European trophies with the Amsterdam giants and this allegedly hurt the proud Cruyff.

Either way, with Van Gaal and Cruyff not on speaking terms, a successful collaboration between the two seems very unlikely, regardless of the cause of their feud, especially considering Cruyff's latest comments on the issue.

"One thing's for sure, though, Cruyff and Van Gaal don't go together after everything that's happened"

Johan Cruyff

"I initially thought it was a joke, but that turned out to be not the case. A lot of people have been made a fool of with this decision, including myself. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though, and wait for what the club really want. One thing's for sure though, Cruyff and Van Gaal don't go together after everything that's happened," Cruyff stated on Wednesday.

Nevertheless, despite basically ruling out collaborating with Van Gaal, Cruyff also stressed that he has no intention of stepping down as member of the supervisory board as of yet, resulting in a rather remarkable situation.

Van Gaal is due to start his new job in June 2012 as he is still bound by his contract with Bayern for seven more months. However, the 1995 Champions League winner already knows that the most influential person at the club does not want to work with him and there does not seem to be a foundation for him to do his job properly.

When Cruyff returned to Ajax earlier this year, he expressed his desire to help the club back to the top. Nevertheless, the Amsterdam giants appear to be heading in the exact opposite direction following the latest developments. L

The Eredivisie champions' faithful can only hope that the duo somehow manage to resolve their problems. If not, Ajax seem be on their way to a disaster, despite the presence of two club icons.

Source: goal.com