Let’s go tie and defeat our own 31 match undefeated streak club record!
By: Firezen |
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With the current club atmosphere high, the players truly enjoying themselves in practice, it’s really not a surprise why. Since the 21st of March 2009, we have been undefeated. Yup, that’s right, undefeated nationally and internationally.
Our last defeat was against Feyenoord on March 15th on a scoreline of 1-0. Since then, we have won 24 matches, drawing 6 matches. If we win or draw our next game against Heracles Almelo on Sunday, then we would tie our own club record of 31 matches undefeated streak.
What’s nice to know is if we win, then we would essentially beat our own club record that was set between 1974 and 1975. Why is that you say? Well, our club record at the moment is 24 wins… but 7 draws. So 25 wins would see the current crop of players claim a new record.
This certainly gets my blood boiling, until I realise we’re still in UEFA cup Europa League, not even in the Champions League. Oh well, the record still makes a point about PSV’s consistency. And if we win or draw Heracles Almelo, we can solidy our record even more with the following match against Sparta Rotterdam. Sorry Sparta, you just aren’t that good technically compared to us.
Another interesting statistic is that we have scored 64 goals within these 30 games (shoot man, around 2 goals / game). I think currently we have a great mix between young and old, and if we bring a 32 undefeated game record to match 5 of the group stages in the Europa League, it would certainly help us seal off qualifications in style.
Category: PSV Team News
Another PSV player in the Oranje?
By: Firezen | Add Comments
After Danny Koevermans in 2008, another player was called up to the Oranje for their performances in PSV (Engelaar and Ooijer don’t count, they were nationals before joining us). Who is it you say? Yeah, your right, Otman Bakkal.
I’m back Huub Stevens you sucka!
Otman Bakkal has gone through one heck of a transformation since the beginning of the season. A itty bit part person who made the constant substitutions under Huub Stevens’s one season. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t have talent. He played an integral part in PSV’s starting XI the season before Stevens came, and also played for Netherlands U-21 team that won the Euro in 2007 and the Olympics team in 2008 Beijing. Once again, he has proven to the world how important he can be.
The 24 year old has scored 7 goals in his first 12 Eredivisie games (his best goals record in one season was 8 goals with 31 games two seasons ago), and he is leading the scoring charts for PSV. Interestingly enough, his position is not even striker, so that just shows his goalscoring prowess.
Why the change all of a sudden? Well it helps to have games of course, and I think being kept away from starting a match under Stevens has actually helped him grow. Speaking from experience, growing from a sub player to a first team regular is hard, but reverting the process while you show no sign of slowing down in growing is very very hard. I was captain of my volleyball team, but was relegated to the bench just because the setters on court for my position was “better” than me in my coach’s eyes. It’s very frustrating when you know your better than the players on court, but are still not being able to play a full match. This helps contribute to the extra hunger and drive to perform your best whenever you have the chance, cause you appreciate it more than words can describe.
And he has been doing that. Running around like a mad man (literally), and showing up in the most dangerous spots all the time. You’ve never seen someone as motivated as he is, and his morale boost and confidence is just oozing out of him whenever you see him play.
Which is very good news, and I really think he deserves it. And despite no one at the moment is nailing a spot in the starting XI for Oranje from PSV, I’m not too worried. What I’m more worried about is the Jong Orange team for PSV.
Jong Oranje just beat their Spanish counterparts 2-1, leaving them the undisputed undefeated leaders of their qualifying group. Now, out of the 21 players who are in the U-21 group at the moment, there is only (!) 1 player from PSV. And that is Erik Pieters. And well Rens van Eijden is ex-PSV, but that only makes less than 1/10 of the group if we include him too. That just shows how pathetic the PSV youth development of Dutch players is right now! Feyenoord (man their youth generation is nasty… in a spectacular way) and Ajax are by far still leading the charts in terms of providing the youngsters (9 players in between them), while we have 2 Premier League club representativies too (Arsenal – Barazite, Chelsea – Bruma).
At the moment, the person I can think of that will one day no doubt represent Netherlands U-21 level in the near near future is Jereon Zoet our goalkeeper. He’s just very talented, and he’s only 18 years old. But except for that, is there anyone else emerging from our youth set up?
Did someone just say my name?
But that being said, we always let other clubs develop the youngsters, then we just buy em over. Philip Cocu, Ruud van Nistelroij, Mark van Bommel, Arjen Robben are just some of the notable examples… I guess we don’t have to worry that much then?
Category: PSV Team NewsHow sad… the “poor” people get to play in a friendly.
By: Firezen | Add Comments
For the players who were (un)fortunate to stay behind in Eindhoven, they invited Valenciennes over to De Herdgang training facilities to play a game of footy. For all of those who are wondering, Valenciennes are a French club currently 7th in Ligue, and finished 12th last season. Not bad for a club who only came back to the Ligue 1 scene in 2006 after a promotion.
It was a great opportunity for PSV to try out different players against a proper first team opposition, as Valenciennes have not suffered from losing players to international duty.
Rymenants and Labyad from the youth squad showed up to play, while youngsters from senior squad Stef Nijland and Cassio Ramos played too.
Cassio Ramos finally had another go at playing keepy for the club. Despite Isaksson’s hot form prior to Copenhagen, I still find it amusing how the coach just wouldn’t let the Brazilian have a go at beating Isaksson out of the no.1 spot. Rumours behind the decision of still hanging onto the Sweded after his debut season was so that PSV could sell the goalkeeper for a higher price after 2010 if Sweden qualified for World Cup. I guess the betting/investing went wrong, as Sweden have failed to qualify.
Despite the non-concrete substance behind that, it’s sad how the management isn’t giving the Brazilian enough chances. Didn’t Gomes start when he was 22/23 years old? Cassio Ramos is turning 22, and my goalkeeper coach who regular visits the PSV team training reckons Cassio is around the same level as Gomes in terms of technical abilties. But I guess it’s an universal thing for goalkeepers around the world, as clubs are reluctant to hand the duties to youngsters due to their vulnerability and uncertainty. Just think Rob van Dijk from Feyenoord, who’s over Erwin Mulder and Darley Torres despite his ancient age.
For Stef Nijland though… it’s just a matter of too much competition in the forward position, and his abilities still needing to be honed. Nothing he can really do about, although he really needs to get loaned out soon, or else he’ll have to get transferred. He was playing games for FC Groningen prior to coming to the South Side.
Oh, and for being stripped of first team appearanes, our captain in theory Timmy Simons finally played in PSV colours today just to remind the fans.
You are… You don’t know me? I’m the PSV captain Timmy Simons! I thought Afellay was the captain…
But the biggest surprise for me was the addition of Steve Olfers into the starting line up. For all of those who don’t know (me neither until I saw him showing up), he is a 27 year old Dutch defender who lost his job recently after not having his contract renewed after his stint with Danish football club Aab Fodbold. Apparently he’s been training with PSV, so I suppose that’s why Fred Rutten (or maybe Rekers) gave him a chance.
<— Steve Olfers
And the scoreline? 1-0 to PSV, courtesy of a Nijland assist and a Toivonen goal.
Category: PSV Team NewsPSV Eindhoven plans to expand their stadium!
By: Firezen | 1 Comment
With international break going on, and news about respective players playing for their country covered by every single active blog on the worldcupblog.org, I thought it be nice if I just moved away from the congested topic and throw in something thrilling.
It be nice if I gave a brief history of the beloved stadium of ours to start the entry off with.
The Philips Stadion as we know now, has been hanging around the blocks of Eindhoven since 1913. However, despite still being in the same location, the stadium has evolved with the team over the years. There are different numbers offered for the original stadium size up until 1933, ranging from 300 – 3000. But imagine, even if it was 3000, it’s still very very small compared to the current stadium, or even stadiums within the Eredivisie. The stadium subsequently was expanded to 18,000 seats in 1941.
As with most football stadiums across Europe, the bad news was that the majority of them were wrecked during World War II. The good news was that the majority of them had “excuses” to expand in size and renovate. This meant that the stadium expanded to 22,000. Surprisingly, it was only until 2002, did the stadium finally “settle” with it’s “final” seat capacity – 35,119.
So why plans to expand all of a sudden. Well PSV has had plans to expand for quite some time, but the board never really settled to materialise those plans. It was never really an urgent priority anyways, because stadium expansion is expensive. However, with Netherlands and Belgium trying to emulate their experience in hosting the Euro and metamorphosise that into a World Cup for 2018, opportunities open up.
According to FIFA, 44,000 is apparently the number needed for seat capacity if Philips Stadion are to be one of the hosting stadiums for the event. The major of Eindhoven wants the expansion to happen, as… well aren’t the reasons obvious? The money, the fame, the entertainment for the masses. Also, with the government actively providing favourable mortgage terms and all kinds of lovely financial incentives, PSV in return have to contribute more to the community.
“If Ibrahim Afellay went to the poor districts for promotion/participation of social projects, the effect would be much greater than if the mayor himself visited. PSV is in everyone’s mind, so it is logical if we contributed as much as we can through our active involvement with the community” was what Jan Rekers, our PSV general manager said.
It’s great for PSV, because now, the estimate costs of 50 million euros would be expected to be much easier to deal with, since the whole city is behind the plans. Also, the stadium is almost nearly full house every match, so expansions would accomodate all the fans who really want to show up and watch the home team play. Concert sizes can be larger, and the atmosphere would change immensely during home games. Plus, a stadium expansion would probably boost our chances to host another UEFA competition finals after our last UEFA cup final hosted in 2006.
Category: PSV Team NewsLet’s talk about statistics…
By: Firezen | Add Comments
Reading from Jan’s post “Fred Rutten re-invents PSV Eindhoven…”, it got me thinking about providing hard evidence to support his transformation.
You still remember me? Oh you’ve forgotten me already?
Under Huub Stevens, we conceded the same amount of goals Gomes conceded the previous season before the season was half way there… Now? My goalkeeper coach who used to play for the PSV A1 squad, but unfortunately retired very early due to an injury, kept dissing Andreas Isaksson about how crappy he was. My coach claimed he would do a better job than Isaksson anyday if he were to play between the post today (he said that a few months ago). After Isaksson heard my coach diss him, he went on to pull off a 7 game clean sheet streak before halting in Copenhagen…
FIFA claims PSV is 1 game short from breaking our club record (where they get that number from? Gome’s longest individual clean sheet streak is 956 minutes… that’s 10 games right there), but 7 game clean sheet streak is an achievement in itself. And despite his critics, I must say even with my mind influenced by my goalkeeper coache’s “biased” comments, I have been impressed with his performances. Shall we say, he is was in hot form (well not quite so after Copenhagen…).
And don’t get me wrong, cleansheets are rarely an individual efforts, it’s a joint effort. In the days of our successful runs in Europe (stupid AC Milan who barely beat us), the defence has always been our major strength, with Gomes just enjoying his time earning cleansheets 60% of the time.
Last season was such a hard season for us PSV fans to swallow, just because our defence looked so shabby… Fred Rutten came, he shuffled the defence around (where’d Timmy Simons go? Anyone?), and formed the twin towers of Mexico in front of Isaksson. Smart choice, cause afterall, Salcido enjoys playing centre back much more than left back. Also, Maza Rodriguez’s towering height of 1.91m (!) compared to Marcellis’ mere 1.81m, absolutely complements Salcido’s 1.75m body. Salcido and Marcellis are no Vermaelen (dang that boy can jump high), and if Salcido needed help to head a cross out of the box, he just needs to shout “¡auxilio!” (Spanish speakers, excuse my Spanish…) in his native tongue.
Another record that is going on at the moment is our undefeated streak. In my previous article, I said we have been undefeated since the beginning of the season. That statement is still true, but you can extend that statement all the way back until “8 months and 29 matches ago”.
Now, it would be nice if we could pull off an “invincible” season if we keep going on like this. Boeren!
Category: PSV Team News5 goals = 5 star performance? I suppose.
By: Firezen | Add Comments
Considering the fact you have this and this.
You might as well call the scoreline “compulsory” for a team called PSV.
Coming back from the Europa League draw away against FC Kopenhagen from what Fred Rutten deemed a “fair result”, PSV were grinding their teeth in hunger to extend their undefeated season as of yet. They certainly had a point to make, a win.
And they made their intention very clearly when they cracked open the gates of The Hague twice within the first 15 minutes. Arsenal being my second favourite club behind PSV, I leaped out of my seat when I saw PSV pulling off a “walking the ball into the net” style goal.
Danko Lazovic, who was tackled and shirt pulled to the extent of rolling on the floor in the beginning minutes of the game, was seen dashing down the left flank after an indirect PSV free kick. Beating his marker with raw speed, he clicked a floor rolling cross into a box full of around 7 players (!), before Ola Toivonen gracefully just flicked the ball into the net close range. The Swede certainly found himself a happy man after being benched the past few games due to a dip in form.
Category: PSV Team Newsthank you for the great year
By: j | 3 Comments
With the season now complete, I wish to thank everyone who visited over the last ten months when I started writing this blog.
After considerable thought and debate this will serve as my final post on the PSV blog. While I have enjoyed the experience immensely from being a part of The Offside team and interacting with the readers, the time as come to call it a day.
I have spent much of my adult life in this extraordinary sport, coaching and later on as they flecks of gray appeared, written of it. I have had the pleasure to travel far and wide and within the sport and after years of thought, blessed with the true lesson that the beautiful game provides. Locked within this simple round ball, with its curious bounces, twists and turns is a magic that breaks down boundaries and makes us a better people. I am hopeful for each word you have read over my posts that through it all, somehow that message bled through.
If you care to apply for this blog please contact Daryl with The Offside (click here) after reviewing the guidelines at www.theoffside.com/bloggers.
There is a great deal to be said but sadly not enough time to say it. While my words will likely never be sufficient, I wish you all well the very best and as always I leave in faith.
Category: PSV Team Newsa fitting end
By: j | Add Comments
The Dwight Lodeweges era as PSV manager came to a brilliant conclusion as his side defeated Willem II 3-0 in final match of the Eredivisie campaign. The result leaves PSV in fourth place and earns them a berth in the Europa League.
In a match played for pride PSV withstood earlier threats from their hosts to take a lead three minutes before the hour as Swedish international Ola Toivonen found the back of the net after a one-two with Balázs Dzsudzsák. PSV began to assert itself but despite the momentum could not extend the advantage before the break. Continuing to build after the re-start PSV with Balázs Dzsudzsák opportunistically turning in Nordin Amrabat’s cross from the right. Dwight Lodeweges immediately called upon Danny Koevermans and sixteen minutes later the veteran striker struck the final goal of the year for PSV via Erik Pieters and Balázs Dzsudzsák ground work. Time ticked down, the result not in doubt and with five minutes remaining Jason Čulina walked off the pitch for the final time with PSV with seventeen year-old Funso Ojo making his first appearance. It was in many ways a fitting conclusion to the year because like young Mr. Ojo, the promise of the PSV’s future is great.
Category: PSV Team NewsPSV v Willem II preview
By: j | Add Comments
In Dwight Lodeweges swansong as PSV manager, his side faces Willem II as the Eredivisie comes to a conclusion. Through the ups and downs of the campaign, the arrival of Mr. Lodeweges has been a bright light serving the club so very well. With a two point lead over Heerenveen, a victory is important and equally should slip up against Twente, PSV can grab third-place.
Gracious in his press match press conference, the present PSV leader said:
“We will end the season on a high if we leapfrog Ajax. We faced severe problems three months ago but we are happy we’ve got our season back on track. We hope to end the season on a high. Wouldn’t it be a great achievement if we managed to leapfrog Ajax on the last match day? We faced a tall task overtaking sc Heerenveen, Ajax and FC Twente. We have meanwhile climbed into fourth spot and we still have a chance of finishing the season in third place. We’ve come from a long way and I’m happy with the progress we’ve been making the past three months.”
PSV will miss Ibrahim Afellay due to injury along with Edison Méndez and Danko Lazovic to suspension and have doubts of the availability of Otman Bakkal and Ola Toivonen.
Category: PSV Team Newsdisappointing final match-day at Phillips Stadion
By: j | Add Comments
PSV’s farewell day at Phillips Stadion for Dwight Lodeweges, Jason Culina and Jan Wouters ended in disappointment as they played N.E.C. to a 1-1 draw.
Received well by a packed Philips Stadion Dwight Lodeweges, Jason Culina and Jan Wouters were honoured for their service to the club. Sadly the last moments of the match were not befitting of the day and PSV gave away the three points. The opening forty-five minutes was marked with well managed midfield play and whilst PSV had a series of notable scoring chances they could find the back of the net. However the host took the lead before the hour when Milano Koenders was adjudged a penalty after fouling Danko Lazović in the area. The Serbian international stepped-up and pounded the ball into the back of the net giving PSV the 1-0 lead yet in his celebration, took his shirt off and naturally received a booking. The negative turn of events wasn’t limited there as six minutes later he received his second booking for a handball and now PSV was playing a man down. The complexion of the match had definitely changed and with ten minutes remaining, discipline was long forgotten as Edison Méndez received a deserved red-card for a positively dreadful challenge of Lasse Schøne. Try as they may to fend off N.E.C., Tim Janssen found the equalizer deep into added-time.
Category: PSV Team News
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