PSV Eindhoven
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This blog needs a new blogger. If you think you’ve got what it takes to write an Offside blog about PSV, then read this and then email Daryl.
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So what do you do when your club’s budget is heading towards a negative 3 million euro deficit due to lack of Champions League action, your hot in form super sub striker is dismissed for doping, and your star man refuses to sign a contract extension?
Nothing… I mean what can you do?
Fred Rutten had contemplated about bringing in a short term solution striker for quite some time after Jonathan Reis bailed out of the team, but refusal of a budget upgrade and lack of transfer/loan options in the market has meant PSV is looking towards finishing off the season without 2 strikers (Stefan Nijland on loan).
So what did PSV do? Well they signed a new kid called Marcel Ritzmaier, a 16 year old Austrian U-18 striker. I really don’t know the details on the deal but that he’s been labelled as “promising”, as with every other young striker who gets signed by anyone in the world. I hope he turns out right, and I’ll have to keep tabs on him. But for now, it would be hilarious if he was the one to fill the void, right now. We’re talking about someone who’s as young and good as Romelo Lukaku (the 16 year old real deal in Anderlecht who’s actually scoring goals for fun in top flight football). I really hope I’m proven wrong, but certainly we are still 2 strikers short.
And Afellay leaving? That’s bad news. It was bound to come one day, we all knew it due to PSV’s financial capacity and Afellay’s age. He’s 24, isn’t he? A little older and he might not have another chance of showing off to the world of being the next real deal for Oranje on a bigger stage. But PSV without Afellay… is there anyone else who can step up to the plate? Come to think of it, we did, but Aissati did leave us for Ajax by the end of the day. PSV also doesn’t have the money to buy a replacement… We’ll see, hope Reimond Manco or someone else from the youth squad fill up into Afellay’s void.
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If ball possession ever won you games, then I think I would have gone to sleep happily knowing that my favourite team had an extra 3 points to cushion their lead.
By end of the story, it felt like Feyenoord version 2. The Boerens dominated but lacked finishing touch all the time, and it was frustrating to watch, because even though Fred Rutten said “I think my team responded well but we didn’t have a good result in Arnhem. We can live with that.”, well for fans, “No, we can’t really live with that, cause the performance is very worrying!”
PSV’s comeback season would crash to a disaster if we were to stumble near the finishing line after pacing ourselves so great for a completely undefeated season as of yet! Thankfully (and luckily), the opponents were Vitesse, so it was relatively easier to keep a clean sheet against the inspired Feyenoord side with their youngsters.
Let’s talk about the three major chances to score in the first half. I jumped out of my chair grabbing my hair (note, I don’t have much hair, I shave my head once a month, so you get the idea) when Afellay’s beautiful cross from the right wing was begging for the finishing package, just for Manolev to head it wide. Maybe because he’s right back that he doesn’t get to train his headers, but really no excuse. The other two I can live with though, because Ooijer’s long range shot, despite being pleasing to the eye, was from a centre back (when was the last time you saw Ooijer score from long range?) and Toivonen’s shot being saved from the Dutch goalkeeping prospect Piet Velthuizen.
Second half was utterly boring. I thought by subbing Amrabat on for Koevermans on the 54th minute, would we see some sparks of creativity from a winger type player. I might as well be pardoned for not even noticing he was on the pitch.
Though, the boredom of the game meant I had more energy to focus on the more humorous side of football… Here’s a few (when I really started losing my attention):
Around 70th minute – Side referee drops his (!) flag?? Picks it up with players looking O_o?
Lazovic hugs the side referee on the 80th minute, I think it’s his thing to hug everyone
I have to say the only flash point in terms of football side was the goal score around 75th minute when Vitesse’ freekick came soaring into the goal, and arrived on the feet of a Vitesse player, who slammed the shot right into the goal, just to be saved by a goal line clearance by one of the PSV players. Things were happening so fast I couldn’t even tell who was who, but a very big alarm bell to PSV as the referee called offside straight after.
Maybe I’ve been too harsh, but I expected much more from PSV than that. Right now we are on top just because we have a better goal difference than Umbrella man’s FC Twente.
Next up we have FC Utretcht.
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*Picture is from the lovely ED people, no pun inteded*
So here it is. We are finally back in step 1 with a fresh new start on the record books. Was a great run for club, players, management and fans to see the club ride through undefeated for so long, but we also still have another record to go for. Undefeated league season.
That would only work if we win against Vitesse though. Vitesse might be one of the sides who have been consistently around 10th place since 2002, but their current form is pretty good after they bounced back from a 5-1 defeat against Ajax back in November 29th to win 3 out of 4 possible league games.
PSV might have the mega upper hand in head to head records (7 wins, 1 draw in last 8 encounters), but records are always for reference, and with PSV crashed out of KNVB cup in dramatic fashion (when was the last time we even went to the finals of the KNVB cup?), while the team plays away from home, Vitesse might actually manage to snatch a point, or even three points!
Dzsudzsák is suspended, while Engelaar and Manolev are both still injured, but except for that, Fred Rutten has a virtually full squad to pick from. That being said, PSV is rather short on strikers at the moment after loaning Stefan Nijland out to Willem II and the dismissal of doping Jonathan Reis. Might be good news for Ola Toivonen though, cause he’ll have a much better chance of actually not repeating the bench warming experience in the beginning of the season.
But bad news for Ola Toivonen is… well, even though chairman Jan Reker said no transfer funds will be available for new signings, Fred Rutten is still looking for “creative” short term solution in bringing in a central striker to fill the void. Now why the heck didn’t PSV sign Ruud van Nistelrooij this winter in the first place?
Anyways, I’m very looking forward to watching the match, and I hope you are too. Fingers crossed that Feyenoord game was a blip, and we’ll hit back on top form and win the league this season!
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Oh boy… I don’t know how to start. Was absolutely devastated by the end of the match, and I still am unable to bring myself up to really write about this loss.
This weeks tough for us PSV fans, especially with news of Jonathan Reis doping, and getting fired by PSV… And I actually thought that lad had some talent in his bag…
Only good news is probably that ex PSV man Ruud van Nistelrooij finally found a new club at HSV… Bad news is, we are playing HSV next round… guess it is a very very bad week eh?
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My deepest apologies for those who actually read this blog. I’ve had difficulties with internet connections for quite some time, and been troubled with personal problems. I’ll be back in short notice though, so stay tuned for news on PSV! Boeren!!
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It was short lived, and even worse than Sun Xiang’s spell in PSV in terms of appearances. At least the Sunny Boy got a few appearances (even in the UEFA Champions League!)… Zhou got none.
Um… why am I here? – Impersonation of Zhou Haibin
So what’s the story? Zhou joined us at PSV on Feb 7th 2009 on a loan spell. Different to Sunny Boy’s arrival, the Chinese “heat” was much waded. This time around, the PSV website did NOT make a Chinese version of the website, the Chinese media did NOT give a dang, and there has been no significant increase of Chinese fans (Zhou Haibin? Who’s that?).
Now his loan spell was going to expire in December, and PSV didn’t exercise the option to extend the loan spell. I have yet to find a rational explanation to the reason why PSV even loaned the guy in the first place! PSV’s reason was “too much competition”, but it’s more like he didn’t really have the ability and talent to make it in the first place. I mean yeah, he’s decent, but never really PSV level.
Think it was another Jan Reker’s idea of promoting PSV’s popularity in China, and potentially Asia. But with a half hearted attempt, it was probably never going to work. Well Jan Reker’s leaving, so why extend the lad’s deal?
Thankfully, it’s a player less on the wage bill.
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The very short list of PSV players loaned out has been increased “dramatically” percentage wise with the addition of Reimond Manco and Stef Nijland onto the 4 man list!
For the two youngsters, they still lack in ability to really nail down a spot in the first team. But these two promising youths would certainly rot to death in the A1 squad playing in the Jong PSV team, not fulfilling their full potential. So the club has decided (and the players themselves, I’m certain of) that both would be joining top flight sides.
For Stef Nijland, a loan to no.15 team in the Eredivisie would certainly “benefit all parties”. PSV still wants Nijland for his potential, Nijland wants and needs to play top flight football, and Willem II need firepower for goals on away games (5 goals in 9 games). Everyone’s happy.
Same story for Reimond Manco For those who don’t know, Juan Aurich are the current Peru Champions. They beat Manco’s (and Jefferson Farfán’s) previous team by 4 points Copa Libertadores contenders. However, with the South American cycle of successful clubs forced to sell their top players going on, Juan Aurich might see a spree of players leaving for bigger clubs. So Manco would be the plug for the hole in the dyke while the club from Peru finds permanent solutions during Manco’s loan spell. Manco on the other hands, gets to play football in his native country!
Other than the fact we are still undefeated in all competitions, I guess that’s add a little bit more flavour to the Christmas cake.
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For those who don’t know, the heavens have caused a mega spoil party over at Europe (and North America) by bombarding snow.
Now naturally, weather phenomenons hardly build up any connection with football. But seeing how we humans are very easily affected by the weather, loads of fixtures have been called off or fixed.
Yikes! No football this weekend! :S None of the macho football players can show off their toughness by playing in the snow as all football pitches are deemed to dangerous to play in.
Our game against Roda JC has been rescheduled to Jan 19th, which has bumped into our friendly against Austria Wien, forcing us to cancel it. And then our SC Heerenveen KNVB cup fixture has been called off too, rescheduling for Jan 19th instead.
The only thing that has happened are seemingly unimportant manager and director departures. Our commercial Director Marcel van den Bunder is going to leave us, alright, but general manager Jan Reker is also leaving this summer, after rejecting a contract extension.
Personally I feel happy about Reker leaving, because it was this man that caused the whole public disruption between the board and Gomes, forcing Gomes to leave. He’s done a heck lot of mistakes along the way, but at least he knew who to hire after Stevens. But now that Jan Reker is gone, we might actually see Gomes come back as a possibility to end his career!
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The draw
At Nyon, PSV had the chance to draw either the UEFA Champions League paratroopers Liverpool, Rubin Kazan, Standard Liege and Atlético Madrid; or the UEFA Europa League 2nd placers Lille, Hamburger SV, Hertha BSC, Fullham, Panathinaikos, Villareal, Everton, Club Brugge and Athletic Bilbao.
Being at the first knock out round meant teams couldn’t draw with teams from the same national footbal association or same group, so no Ajax, FC Twente or FC Copenhagen.
At the end of the draw, we knew it was HSV, Bundesliga dinasours.
The reactions
Ex FC-Shalke 04 manager Fred Rutten expects a hard battle. “We have a tough task ahead. HSV have a fantastic history and have gained a great reputation as a very good team. They are one of the best teams in the German Bundesliga, who are known for their technical ability and physical strength. When I was in charge at Schalke last season, we met them twice and we will scout them thoroughly. I am looking forward to two great top-level matches. HSV are one of the top teams in the German Bundesliga and we are one of the top teams in the Dutch Eredivisie. HSV play in a stronger league, though, and are consequently slight favourites. We have a tough task ahead”, said Rutten.
That being said, Fred Rutten seems to have the edge in terms of coaching, as he has a vast experience of dealing German teams during his time in the Bundesliga.
However, advantages might be seen to cancel out during this draw, because HSV themselves boast three Dutchmen in the form of Eljero Elia, Joris Mathjisen and the long forgotten Romeo Castelen. Now in terms of intelligence, Castelen and Mathjisen seem to lack the edge, as they have played in Germany for so long, but Elia was just transferred this season, so the insides and outs of PSV should be spilled out by the player to the coach prior to their encounter.
And what does Bruno Labbadia (HSV coach on the right side) think of the draw? Apparently he’s pleased. “This is a very attractive draw. Eindhoven is an absolute top European team. With Fred Rutten, they have a coach who knows perfectly everything regarding the Bundesliga. There are certainly two hot and exciting games awaiting.”
Results last season?
PSV
Eredivisie: 4th
UEFA: UEFA Champions League group stage – last place
HSV
Bundesliga: 5th
UEFA: UEFA Cup semi finalists
Dang, that doesn’t look too good…
Current positions
PSV
Eredivisie: 2nd
HSV
Bundesliga: 4th
Form
PSV
Eredivisie: undefeated
UEFA: undefeated
HSV
Bundesliga: 4 game undefeated streak
UEFA: 1 game losing streak
Potential opponents next round
Winners between Athletic Bilbao or Anderlecht, both are realistic opponents.
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