The report
On paper, an easy match was scheduled for PSV O14 on Saturday afternoon. The team has already been qualified for the champions' pool for several weeks and Sparta is already certain of relegation from the top pool. So for both teams there were no stakes, they were free to make it a delightful match. PSV won 0-2, but there was certainly no question of a nice afternoon of football for the neutral spectators.
It is difficult to explain why the match was not a good one. But it is certain that the strong wind across the pitch played a role. The trainers Vincent Heilmann and Joonas Kolka said during the warm-up that they expected a slow game. And they were right, the game went up and down at a very slow pace. Neither team got further than twenty meters in front of the goal. Then the game went the other way again. It took until the seventeenth minute before the first chance came along. Renzo Tytens managed to pass to Tim van de Heuvel. But the Sparta goalkeeper got to the ball just a bit earlier than Tim. In the twentieth minute PSV had a good attack. Isaac Babadi reached the penalty area, played the ball off to Tim, and Tim was not selfish and extended the ball to Immanuel Hagemans. The latter took a devastating shot and saw the ball disappear against the net. Actually an unexpected lead for PSV, but it really counted. After the opening goal, the careless play of both teams continued. In the 31st minute another chance for Jason van Duiven, but he hit the post at the first post from a difficult angle. Both teams will be told at halftime that they will have to do better.
Things got slightly better in the second half, but both teams remained well below their level. Jason did get a header chance, but the Sparta goalkeeper went just a bit higher. All was not well with Jason today anyway; where he is normally the most dangerous, today it did not work out. But every player has a bad day sometimes. The trick is to get better from that and not get caught out. In the 57th minute a chance for Sparta, PSV goalkeeper Tijn Smolenaars managed to tap the ball out of the far corner. In the 59th minute the liberating goal finally fell. Renzo sent Isaac away, with a good action Isaac put several players on the wrong foot and managed to jab the ball in from a difficult angle perfectly. In the last ten minutes PSV gave nothing away and knew that the three points were going to Eindhoven.
In a bad game where things didn't work out, keeping the zero, and managing to score twice is also a quality. Training hard again next week and trying not to let AZ celebrate the winter championship in Eindhoven. But normally the boys of PSV O14 can hold their own in the bigger matches. Next week a nice game at De Herdgang at 11.00 am.
Setup:
Tijn Smolenaars, Reda El Meliani (52/Samuel Gomez van Hogen), Brian van de Boogaard (25/Arthur Piedfort), Renzo Tytens, Enzo Geerts, Immanuel Hagemans, Tijn Vergeldt, Jason van Duiven (C), Tim van den Heuvel (68/Khaled Rhazak), Isaac Babadi.