Dutch Football 2011/2012

There are plenty of other clubs, who are interested in the players mentioned (and might be prepared to outbid us if we are really interested). Eriksen has kind of indicated he wants to stay at Ajax; Vertonghen has said he has 10 clubs on his list.

So there might be some truth to the rumours, but I do not expect us to sign either player.

Heerenveen won 4-2 away at Heracles. Dost scored 2.

Heerenveen are now tied 2nd with 61 points together with AZ and Feyenoord, 6 points behind Ajax. Twente and PSV have 60 points. So it's very very tight for 2nd spot (CL QF).

Tomorrow it's:
Twente v Ajax
Feyenoord v AZ
Roda (8th) v PSV

With minutes to play PSV are 1-3 up v Roda, who just had their goalie sent off. The new goalie stopped Lens' penalty.

To kick off in 15 minutes:
Twente v Ajax
Feyenoord v AZ

Twente - Ajax 1-2
Feyenoord - AZ 1-0

table 2 to go

Ajax 70
Feyenoord 64
PSV 63
AZ 61
Heerenveen 61
Twente 60

Next season PSV will be captained by van Bommel and managed by Advocaat.

I'm in Amsterdam and yesterday was a prelude to today's Queen's birthday party, everyone was celebrating Ajax's title even though they need 1 point to clinch it.

The goal difference is in huge favour of Ajax (+24 with only two games to go). Only in theory they can still lose the title.

Hope you enjoyed it. They don't even need 1 point, the goal difference gap is huge.

Still hoping for a miracle when it comes to 2nd spot.

Fear Feyenoord will have to win twice (PSV have Den Haag at home and bottom club Excelsior away). If it wasn't for injuries the home tie v Heracles was already tricky, because they're playing to make sure PSV finish 2nd. The last match is away v Heerenveen. Strangely for them it could be better that PSV don't finish 2nd, cause if they do the Europa League spot for the Cup winner goes to the losing finalist, Heracles. Meaning 1 less Europa League spot for the others.

JAJAJA!

Great results!

Feyenoord v Heracles 4-1
PSV - Den Haag 5-0
Twente - Heerenveen 3-4

This means Heerenveen HAVE to loose their last home match v Feyenoord to qualify directly for the Europe League, if they don't they have to play qualifiers. Bizarre!

A win for Feyenoord would mean CL qualification for Feyenoord.

Robin must have enjoyed this night in his old stadium.

Turns out Heerenveen either have to win or to loose their last match v Feyenoord; they just aren't allowed to draw.

Pretty insane. Think the Dutch FA has to reconsider playing the Cup final before the League is decided.

I don't understand. Why? What special rules?

Oussama Assaidi looks a good player

This is what the table looks like:
2. Feyenoord 67 +32
3. PSV 66 +38
4. Heerenveen 64 +21
5. AZ 62 +28
6. Twente 60 +38

2nd spot is CL qualifiers
3rd and 4th spot is Europa League
5th - 8th spot is playoffs for Europa League ticket.

PSV won the Cup final v Heracles. The Cup winner gets a Europa League ticket. If the Cup winner qualifies for the CL, the Cup winner's Europa League ticket goes to the losing Cup finalist. If the Cup winner finishes 3rd or 4th, 5th spot also becomes a Europa League ticket and 6th -9th spot will be playoffs for another one.


Last matchday fixtures:
Excelsior v PSV - should be easy for PSV
Heerenveen v Feyenoord
AZ v Groningen - should be easy for AZ

If Heerenveen win, they'll finish in the top 4 and have a Europa League ticket for sure.

If Heerenveen loose, Feyenoord will finish 2nd, 5th spot will become a Europa League ticket and Heerenveen will get a ticket, because they can't finish lower than 5th.

If Heerenveen draw, AZ could still catch them up (they will), so they'll finish 5th. Feyenoord dropping points means PSV can finish 2nd, qualify for the CL, so only 4th spot is a sure Europa League tickket and Heerenveen would have to go in the playoffs lottery for a ticket.

Yesterday Heerenveen's manager remarked that this was a bizarre situation he never faced and will need some time to come up with tactics for a non-draw match.

LOL. Thats amazing. How can something like this happen? Need to review the rules surely.

Actually this can happen in every league, with a few CL and EL spots, where they play the Cup Final before the league is decided. Just a freak coincidence all factors needed were there.

Guess Heerenveen will start very attacking as usual. Expect both PSV and AZ to be in a winning position at HT. If Heerenveen aren't a few goals up at HT, they've a lot to think about. Even 1 goal ahead is a very dangerous situation. What will they do if Feyenoord are a goal ahead? Scoring could be suicidal.

I can smell an Austria vs Germany 1982 Gijon -like game there.

Could well be.

Feyenoord are unlucky that AZ drew 1-1 with NEC. If AZ had won that game, a win for Heerenveen against Feyenoord would not be enough to secure a Europa League spot, so they would have been kind of obliged to lose against Feyenoord.

Incredibly strange situaton, imo it's a stupid rule anyway to reward the cup final runners-up with a Europa League spot if the winner reaches a CL spot.

Would prefer that too.

Since I find it hard to believe Feyenoord are in the position they are - like everybody else I expected far less this season - I'm not convinced at all, we'll get the win. Will make a huge bet on Heerenveen winning. Don't think I'll need a 'cover-bet' on a draw. Hope I'm wrong.

By the way if Excelsior manage another last matchday upset - we all remember what happened to AZ overthere - and Heerenveen win by 6 goals Heernveen qualify for the CL.

There's a new complicating factor. Holland got an additional Europa League ticket, because we finished 3rd in the UEFA Fair Play Ranking. This ticket goes to the club topping the Ducth Fair Play ranking: Heerenveen, closely followed by Twente. So if Heerenveen do not pick up any yellows....

Jajajaja!

CL for Feyenoord.

Twente ****** up big time! =(

Jajajaja!

CL for Feyenoord.

That's absolutely incredible. They have their revenge for the 10-0!

Feyenoord back in the big time! Time for investment and bring this club back to great days!

Time for investment? They just recovered from massive financial problems, I highly doubt that they will spend millions. Feyenoord have already signed a few decent players for free though (Janmaat, Goossens, Vormer). It will be crucial for them whether they can keep Guidetti for one more year or not.

Great achievement to reach 2nd place. But they are not in the Champions League yet, the qualifications will be quite difficult.

They'll be close to impossible. Feyenoord will be 1 of the lowest ranked clubs in the UEFA Club ranking competing in the non-Champions qualification part. So very much odds on to get knocked out. Still it will bring much needed cash. Europa League will bring money too. Hope our fans behave away from home, because UEFA is very triggerhappy when it comes to Feyenoord.

Feyenoord will have close to nothing to invest, but we have 3 more very talented academy years, nearly ready for the 1st team. Most likely we'll sign 0-2 cheap players and try to get some loanees. The TD wants to do more cooperation with Citeh. Their have been talks on that.

Relegated Excelsior Rotterdam might still win a Europa League ticket. FC Twente currently have the Fair Play ticket, but if they win the playoffs, they get a better Europa League ticket (entry in a later qualification round), which means the Fair Play ticket will go to Excelsior.

Schteve's 2nd time in Holland isn't as succesful as the first time. This time he managed to do the impossible an not evenqualify for Europe (when he took over they were ranked better). Today Twente lost at home v tiny club RKC in the playoffs and got KO-ed.

De Graafschap, father and daughter. http://lastangryfan.com/2012/05/dutch-soccer-player-being-consoled-by-his-daughter-following-relegation-is-just-the-sweetest-thing/

Dutch club news: Aston Villa pursuing Feyenoord's Moroccan midfielder Karim El Ahmadi.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1116226/aston-villa-hoping-to-sign-feyenoord-midfielder-karim-el-ahmadi?cc=5901

Dutch nationals news: Hamburg may be interested in Van der Vaart.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1116112/hamburg-yet-to-approach-tottenham-star-rafael-van-der-vaart?cc=5901

That's a brilliant pic indeed.

Villa have already signed him. He played well for Feyenoord last season. Useful player (experienced, but sometimes sloppy) for Villa. Feyenoord will just open another can of young talents. At least we got 3M for him.

VDV already had a period at HSV, did well overthere. His mrs works for German tv, so not a strange rumour. HSV probably want a few dozen players (lots of rumours incl. Bendtner), they need to redo their team.