Dutch Eredivisie — match round 5

In the match-up between last week’s top two, Feyenoord and FC Twente cancelled each other out in a 1-1 draw which gave AZ Alkmaar the chance to go top this week. At home in the ‘Kuip’ stadium in Rotterdam, Feyenoord started brightly enough but seemed to tire near the end, Twente scoring fifteen minutes from time. The Rotterdammers equaliser was down to a Roy Makaay penalty deep into injury time.

"Het Rat Verlegh", the stadium of NAC in Breda

As intimated above, AZ Alkmaar are the new leaders after a competent 2-1 home victory over Willem II from Tilburg. For AZ manager Ronald Koeman the closing of the transfer window can’t come quick enough, worried as he is about losing one of his two top strikers, El Hamdaoui and Dembele. Meanwhile, PSV Eindhoven did a professional job on stragglers FC Groningen with a fine 0-2 away win, both goals coming from ex-AZ striker Koevermans.

Heracles Almelo’s plucky start to the campaign came off the rails as visiting Ajax plundered them for three points with three goals in the last third of the game but the scoreline flattered the Amsterdammers, who only came to life once a Heracles player had received a red card.

NAC Breda moved up to joint fifth place with a comfortable 2-0 home victory over Heereveen who continue to disappoint thus far. In the interestingly named NAC Stadium ‘het Rat Verlegh’, both teams looked tired after their European adventures.

FC Utrecht carried on their recent fine form as goals from Lensky and van Dijk ensured a deserved home win against struggling Sparta Rotterdam and moved to within two points of table leaders AZ – with a game in hand too! Perennial strugglers ADO from the Hague leapt into the top half of the table with a fine 0-2 away at RKC Waalwijk who have yet to pick up their first point this season.

Elsewhere, NEC Nijmegen shared a 1-1 home draw with VVV Venlo, both sides remaining in the lower half of the table, and last but certainly not least there was a pulsating goalfest in Kerkrade where home side Roda JC lost 3-4 to visiting Vitesse from Arnhem, Kolk grabbing the winner in the 89th minute.

So AZ lead the pack with 12 points from 5 games, followed by Feyenoord, PSV and Twente all a point behind. Utrecht, Ajax and NAC are one point further behind. At the bottom, dismal pointless RKC are a couple of points behind Groningen, and three behind Willem II.

In two weeks: Next week is set aside for international games, so in a couple of weeks’ time AZ travel to the Hague to meet ADO, Feyenoord visit Willem II in a game the Rotterdammers should win and PSV host Roda. On paper, the most attractive contest should be in Enschede, where FC Twente face visiting Utrecht; fourth place plays fifth.

Tags: Eredivisie, football

This entry was posted on 30 Aug 2009 at 23:07 and is filed under Orange Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.