The first Saturday in October. And it's summer. A glorious summer sun adds to the beginning of autumn colors on the Herdgang. The crowd sits in glorious full sun or stands on the other side in the shade, anxiously awaiting what is to come. Fc Twente is the next opponent. After last Tuesday's somewhat disappointing loss against Tottenham Hotspur, all eyes are on the Twente side today. They are our equals in the league table but we want to show today that we can and should be at the top.
After the match meeting we started warming up (considering the weather, everyone is already warm, including the crowd) and after getting our uniforms ready, we are ready to go.
We start brightly but a real chance does not result from the beginning. It is Twente that keeps disrupting our build-up and Eric is the first to intervene after a dangerous shot by our opponent. After 20 minutes we got a bit more grip on the game and in the 23rd minute it was Geraldo who scored the 1-0 after a rush by Burak and a cross by Elvio. The first blow is dealt. But Geraldo has even more in store and two minutes later it is again Geraldo who catches a kick from the goalkeeper and after outplaying the last man scores the 2 - 0. That's nice (we think) but less than a minute after that we just let our opponent on the right run away and the score is suddenly a lot less rosy. 2 - 1.
With this score we reach halftime. In the break we reiterate last week's game when we also almost gave the game away. That will not happen today. Twente went looking for the second goal and after an hour the second goal was scored because we slackened our pace again and some sloppiness crept into our play. Both teams take a step back and it will not happen that the game ends with a tie. At least that is not what Tufan thinks. He took a free kick twenty meters to the right of the goal and with a truly phenomenal kick around the wall he curled the ball into the crossing. The liberating 3 - 2. Now Twente has to come. So there must be room for our play, can't be otherwise. And in the 82nd minute it is Rai who after a good action from the outside pulls in and with an unparalleled shot into the long (top) corner makes it 4 - 2. This again a goal of exceptional class. Even in bad weather such goals get you hot. The last few minutes we managed to finish the game in a controlled way and the three points deservedly stayed in Eindhoven. (Twente's coach may or may not see it differently).
This victory puts us in third place and the top of the league table still remains in sight.
Next week the cup game against Roda JC.
See you on Saturday.


Verstappen, Kardes, (64th Brenet), Koch, Hendrix, Özbozkurt, Horsten, Van Overbeek, Noor (69th Vloet), Rayhi (56th Mohmoed), Soomer (75th Jacobsen), Antonio.