5 goals = 5 star performance? I suppose.

By: Firezen | November 11th, 2009

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.

With a team name called ADO (Alles Door Oefening – means everything through practice) Den Haag, they certainly continued to demonstrate their “strong” efforts in practice by following up with the previous event of everyone staring at the ball rolling in the box. After the goal, Ricky van den Bergh ploughed / rammed into Ola Toivonen like he was a vertical cushion mattress. Referee didn’t seem to have any problems immediately reaching for a red card.

That’s pretty much the beginning of the ending of the story. With one man less, PSV found themselves with even more space to play around with the team represents one of the three largest cities in Netherlands. It was Lazovic once more, who was cutting in from the right flank into the front of the box, passing a slick pass to Balázs Dzsudzsák (inside the box on the left hand side), who subsequently rolled the ball to Ola Toivonen (unmarked in a box crowded with around 7 people, again), who once again gracefully poked the ball into the back of the net.

Third goal came in a courtesy of a corner kick into an even more crammed box, where the ball kept swinging around inside the box, before a short high flick that landed in pretty much the same exact position where Toivonen previously scored. Well, guess what, he did it again, this time with his head. Oh, and it was Lazovic who made the pass to the head, another assist from the fellow striker/winger.

An interception in the opponents half after the second half whistle began meant that Lazovic had a chance to create another assist, this time all the way on the right flank. A beautiful lob that connected with Bakkal’s head (where’s the marker?) Meant 4-0 for PSV.

The dramatic part of the game followed after Lex Immers from the home side was substituted onto the pitch for a tactical change around 55th minute. Before the man was even able to fully operate the manager’s tactical plans, he slide tackled into Danko Lazovic. Feel sorry for the fellow, as his only had a few minutes of cameo appearance before earning himself a ban preventing him from finishing the game or participating the next game.

Drama kept rolling in when the home fans were finally really fed up. Two red cards and 4-0 down? I’d be fed up too if I was an ADO Den Haag fan. 15 minutes of play was stopped when fans were singing obscenely at the referee.

Once play was restored, ADO Den Haag showed PSV that they weren’t the only side who were at fault defensively, when all the attention were shifted to Carlos Salcido’s marking on the left side of defence, before a pass to Soltani (unmarked) just outside the box enabled him to latch a fine hard low shot into his right far corner. All Isaksson could do was watch and stare.

Near the end of the game, Toivonen bagged (head) his fourth goal of the game from an Orlando Engelaar cross. Around the same spot for the fouth time I must say, but this time no more celebrations, just minimal high fives out of respect. Who wants to have thousands of people singing obscene stuff at you afterall?

Some relatively insignificant substitutions late in second half for PSV. Dirk Marcellis went on for Manolev, Jonathan Reis (yeah, that Brazilian on fire for PSV) went on for Pieters (weird one to be honest, striker for left back?), and Amrabat for Lazovic.

Personally thought the referee was very harsh. First red card, fine I’ll give you that. The second red card… replays did show that he did touch the ball, so I reckon yellow card at most. As a PSV fan, of course it is nice to see your teams thrash opponents with 5 goals, but it wasn’t fun to watch PSV thrash a 9 men team 5 goals. Despite easily being fallen into the trap of lazy relativism, PSV was playing a weak team that was weakened even further by having two men dismissed. If PSV didn’t score those 5 goals, they shouldn’t even be called PSV. Wish PSV could convert that kind of performance onto the European stage…