The head is off! After a long summer vacation and a short, intensive preparation (in which a reasonable tournament was played in Vorden and a useful practice game was played against Leverkussen), Saturday finally saw the kick-off of the new football season. Opponent was Willem/ RKC D1 that since the merger has never been able to live up to the favorites they had before, but against PSV they are always keen on a good result. Whether they want to say with that: they really can't only play good football in Eindhoven.... PSV's games against Willem II in recent years have always been on the cutting edge and almost always exciting. A good result for PSV was by no means certain.
At least it was not for the weather. It was beautiful! And there was nothing wrong with the kits either. Beautiful, with the white piping on the pants. PSV D1 has a selection of 18 players this season, of which Lennerd Daneels (ex-Willem II) and Tom Scheepers (Eindhoven) are the new additions. PSV also started against Willem II with those players in the base, Aaron van Engelen was under the crossbar.
We can be pretty short about the first half. The beginning consists mainly of feeling each other out, with quick changes of ball possession, but without big chances. In the sixth minute the D1 gets a decent chance when Matthias Verreth misses from a corner by Mink Peeters (finally back with his 'own' team, just like Dante Rigo), but the ball is almost headed into his own goal by a Willem II player. PSV plays fresh and with intelligence with Dante as the spider in the web, Willem II can actually do little in return. In the fifteenth minute the second chance. An attack is set up on the left via Ertem Bölükbas and Joey Konings (Joyvonen!). Joey slings the ball in front of the Willem II goal where Mink just missed. Only in the 22nd minute does Willem II create some danger, but the ball can be cleared by the PSV defense (Ymauel Hurkmans, Koen Vos, Tom, Ties van den Eijnde) without many problems. It is notable that after this action by Willem II the D1 play becomes more sloppy and, apart from a couple of free kicks, PSV does not really come close to the Tilburg goal anymore.
There is a different Willem II in the second half (Giovanni Nicolaas for Ertem and Roel van Linschoten for Koen). PSV interferes much less with the opponent's build-up than in the first half and even allows itself to be pushed back into its own half. From a (wrongly?) awarded free kick in the sixth minute, Willem II even gets the best chance of the match. Aaron shows that his election as Best Goalkeeper of the tournament in Vorden is not based on loose sand; he punches the ball beautifully just over the crossbar. But PSV is warned. Only in the twelfth minute does PSV show up near the Willem II goal again. On the left an attack originates with Ties who plays Mink in the depth. Mink sends Joey away on the flanks who then passes to Mink again. Mink crosses to the incoming Lennerd who just misses. A great opportunity! Joey gets a good header from a corner immediately after, but barely a minute later a free kick from Willem II on the other side goes wide via the post. Without short-changing Willem II (they play a strong second half) the PSV crowd cannot shake off the impression that the referee is giving away free kicks to Willem II very easily. They get about six in the second half, most of which fortunately cause little danger. PSV is under considerable pressure in this phase of the match, but suddenly can get out quickly in the 20th minute. Matthias goes off alone towards the goalkeeper, but at the last moment cannot get the ball past the well-running Tilburg goalie. Moments later a fine action by Ymanuel who fires at the Willem II goal from long range. His shot is turned into a corner but does not lead to anything. PSV then enters a strong phase in which the advantage is again on our side. A goal by Matthias was also disallowed because Joey raised his leg too high. Joey goes, just like his opponent, purely for the ball and his leg doesn't come one centimeter higher than the player from Willem II (it's all on tape, so we are definitely not talking out of thin air).
But, the biggest danger comes again from Willem II. From an obscure situation, a Willem II player fires at Aaron who can only just work the ball out of his goal via the bottom bar. Everything seems to remain 0-0. Until the 30th minute. Matthias slings a corner at the second post. Everyone thinks that Joey misses the header, but instead of heading, he catches the ball on his chest and fires it high into the ropes. A hard-fought victory and to be fair, it could have gone differently today. Football-wise PSV is further ahead than Willem II, but the combinations have to become much more fluent and natural. Do not look too much at the feet, but also around you....Once that happens, PSV has nothing to fear from any opponent. However, no one doubts that this team (all 18 of them!) is going to do great things.