Dutch Eredivisie — match round 34 — the climax!

So this was it. Down to the last day of the competition and two possible candidates for the title. FC Twente and Ajax Amsterdam. And it nearly did go down to the wire. All Twente had to do was win, all Ajax could do was win and hope that Twente didn’t.

Flag of the 'royal' club, Willem II

Twente travelled to Breda for the game against NAC and dominated the opening stages, making and missing a good few chances within the first quarter of an hour. Steve McLaren, the Twente manager, had said beforehand that “it was just another game”, refusing to give it too much importance but his players obviously knew better and applied themselves diligently.

Meanwhile, Ajax faced NEC in Nijmegen. The visitors failed to create a single opportunity in the first ten minutes before Pantelic narrowly missed after 12 minutes. This seemed to give Ajax heart and a couple of minutes later top scorer Suárez finished off a smooth move with a sublime, curling finish to make it 1-0 for the Amsterdam outfit.

In Breda there was a development but not of the scoring kind: NAC player Feher was sent off after twenty minutes for a lunging tackle and sure enough, a minute later the ball was in the back of the NAC net as Ruiz punished a defensive error to give Twente the opening goal. McLaren was ripping his hair out after a half an hour as Perez missed an easy chance, after which NAC came close on their first visit to the Ajax goal area. But most of the chances were piling up on the Twente side, just needing a bit better finishing to increase their lead.

In Amsterdam, the crowd had heard that Twente had gone 1-0 up and the atmosphere became a bit hushed. This didn’t seem to deter Ajax though as they created more openings, again without the telling finish until the 35th minute when Demy de Zeeuw rounded off a good dribbling move by lobbing the keeper for 2-0. The home team kept pressing and a few minutes before half time it was 3-0 as Pantelic rammed home a cracker from a tight angle at the near post.

Twente were kept the suspense going by failing to add to their total by half time, despite playing now against ten men. After the break they could be accused of being too careful but in the 73rd minute it looked all over as Stoch scored a fine goal to make it 2-0. The title was heading to Enschede, surely? But NAC were doing what they could to spoil the party and came close to making it exciting again a couple of times. As time went on, Twente did as expected, taking the tempo out of the game and professionally running down time.

And sure enough, the final whistle went and it was McLaren’s Twente who did what would have seemed impossible this time last year and won the title with their 0-2 victory. McLaren was hoisted on the shoulders of the players as they carried out an emotional thank you to their travelling fans. The team then received the shield-like trophy in confirmation of their fantastic achievement. From nothing to champions in one year, not bad for a ‘small’ provincial team. And there were 10,000 fans at home in the stadium in Twente watching on large screens as their boys put the icing on the cake.

Back in Nijmegen Ajax kept up appearances and Suárez added a fourth for the Amsterdammers. A few minutes from the end NEC had the cheek to peg one back to make the final score 1-4 for Ajax. Suárez scored 35 goals this season but there is no silverware yet for his efforts. Manager Martin Jol was philosophic afterwards, commenting that they had just failed over the whole season, not just over the last, exciting few weeks when both top teams were neck and neck. Still, Ajax could still win the cup, with the second leg of the final against Feyenoord coming up next week as their last game of the season.

There were of course other, less triumphal matters to be settled on this last day of the competition, who would be in the play-offs for the Europa Cup spots next year, for example.

Roda JC were at home in Kerkrade against lowly Willem II and it was Hungarian Bodor who gave the home team the lead before Willem II missed an open goal just before half time. Five minutes after the break, striker Juncker went down in the penalty box under pressure from a Tilburg defender and stood up to stroke the penalty home himself: 2-0 Roda. This was just what Roda needed to come to life and they dominated for a time thereafter. However, Perreira got one back for Willem II on the 70 minute mark which brought some life back into the game. When Boutahar equalised late on the crowd went quiet but a lucky deflection from de Fauw made it 3-2 for Roda a minute or so from time and sees the Kerkrade outfit taking part in the European play-offs after all.

Groningen did not know that Roda would ensure that the Northerners would also be in the play-offs as they started their home match against Sparta Rotterdam. Groningen had the best of the early play and kept the pressure up until van de Laak headed home to make it 1-0 at half time. Club top scorer Matavz from Slovenia added another five minutes after the break as the Greens looked to entertain the home fans. Stenman poked home from close range a couple of minutes later to make it 3-0. Sparta got one back near the end to make the final score 3-1. Manager Ron Jans of Groningen, who is leaving the club after eight years, gave an emotional speech to the public at the end as he received a special thank you for all his efforts.

Feyenoord were out to try and jump a place above AZ Alkmaar into fourth spot. To do this, they needed to beat Heerenveen in Rotterdam. They also needed AZ to drop points against PSV, not an unthinkable scenario. It turned into an old-fashioned goalfest in the Kuip as old hand Roy Makaay played his last league game in the red and white of Feyenoord. He celebrated with a hat-trick, starting off with an equaliser after Grindheim had had the temerity to open the scoring for Heerenveen. Elm restored Heerenveen’s lead after 23 minutes only for de Vrij to equalise for the home team before half time. In the second half it was all Feyenoord as Tomasson made it 3-2 five minutes after the break. Makaay added two more for his hat-trick and Bahia scored the final goal a few minutes before time to make it 6-2 for Feyenoord. A fine send-off for Makaay who never failed to score profusely wherever he played in his long career.

AZ now had to win against PSV or face an extra round of qualifying in the Europa Cup next season. The first half passed into history goalless as a well-organised PSV kept AZ at bay. It looked bad for AZ when Bakkal opened the scoring for PSV on the hour mark but club top scorer El Hamdaoui levelled a few minutes later for AZ who continued to press for the winner as the game wore on to its conclusion: 1-1. Now it will be AZ who have an extra round of games in the Europa Cup next season instead of Feyenoord.

Elsewhere, FC Utrecht and Vitesse Arnhem cancelled each other out in an entertaining 2-2 draw in Utrecht. Already-relegated RKC Waalwijk continued their losing ways as visiting VVV Venlo took all the points in a 1-2 away win. And finally Heracles finished an excellent season for them in sixth place as they demolished lowly ADO from The Hague in Almelo (4-2).

Final Standings

FC Twente are champions 2009-2010 and qualify for the Champions League next season. Ajax finished second (despite scoring an amazing 106 goals in the league) and go into the qualifying rounds for the CL. PSV and Feyenoord are third and fourth and enter the Europa Cup in the third qualifying round. AZ are fifth and enter the Europa Cup in the fourth qualifying round.

Heracles, Utrecht, Groningen (sixth, seventh and eighth) are in line for the EC domestic play-offs (for the final remaining EC spot) with Roda just missing out in ninth spot.

Tenth through fifteenth are free of relegation worries and these teams are, in descending order, NAC, Heerenveen, VVV, NEC, Vitesse and ADO.

Already bookmarked for the relegation play-offs with second and third place of the second division are Sparta and Willem II, with ill-starred RKC in the bottom position which means automatic relegation for the financially challenged Waalwijkers.

Tags: Eredivisie, football

This entry was posted on 2 May 2010 at 20:00 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.