This Saturday morning the match against the frontrunner Fortuna Sittard is scheduled. In the outward game they suffered a 7-2 defeat. So far this opponent had only lost once, and that was in Eindhoven, but at FC Eindhoven. The parents were full of confidence this morning, as they even tipped a 2-1 victory. 10:10 the referee blows for kickoff and the match can begin. The match is balanced in the early stages. Where Fortuna mostly tries to reach the sides via a long ball, PSV chooses to build up from behind. Where in the first game the right striker was still dangerous, Bryan and later Niels did a good job of keeping him at bay. The long striker is also well controlled by Tijn and Jay, taking the sting out of the Fortuna attack. But we still have to be careful in the build-up, because a wrong pass with a possible loss of ball leads directly to a counter-attack. This way Fortuna can be dangerous twice, but Kyan is still there to intervene in time. Koen gets the ball twice in the 16-meter area, but they are just in front of his wrong leg (he is two-legged, but his preference seems to be on the right), so he cannot score effectively. PSV is not the lesser in this first half and so Joey is allowed to advance on the right side and with his tight cross Greg has something beautiful in mind, as he wants to turn it over, where his head might have brought more success. A minute before halftime, Fortuna takes the lead as a cross lands in front of a Fortuna leg. The player thinks long and hard and leaves Kyan without a chance with a high shot 0-1 at the stroke of halftime. The theory that if you are at the bottom you get setbacks and if you are at the top you have just that little bit more luck applies here as well.
In the second half the same picture and PSV is frequently in Fortuna's half. Even for their rearguard it remains to be careful, but just the right PSV end-pass is missing or a better free man is overlooked. The game seems to be in balance, but in the second half Fortuna took a 2-0 lead. PSV is not discouraged by this and continues looking for a goal. Joop is well played free and can head towards goal chased by a Fortunese. His pass to Greg is just too sharp for the goalkeeper to save. Seven minutes before time Rico can advance to the halfway line and sees Joop running free who is still blocked. Mo takes over the attack and puts it neatly back to Davy who shoots it in from the 16. 2-1 with a few minutes to go. In the remaining minutes both teams seem to have given it their best as no further opportunities appear. This makes the final score 1-2 for Fortuna and we are once again 0 points down. But ...... . The first 2 games of the 2nd round of play did show that you are closer to the competition. So a draw today against the leaders would certainly not have been undeserved.

Report with thanks to Eric Zeegers