The report

Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 18. PSV O15 played its very last game of the 2018 calendar year, away at AZ. Both teams had already long and wide qualified for the championship pool after the winter break. Still, there was something at stake for PSV. If they won, they would pass Ajax in the rankings and could call themselves unofficial winter champions. A paper title, but still.

The opening phase was for AZ, which had a great chance as early as the second minute. After that, the home team had the ball a lot, but did not create any clear-cut chances. PSV only created its first chance in the 23rd minute. After the goalkeeper boxed away a corner by Sven Simons, Iggy Houben had the chance to shoot at goal. But through a forest of players, his effort did not reach the goal. Then it was Jesper Uneken who, also from a Sven corner, headed wide. Both teams were unable to find the goal before halftime. They went to the warm dressing rooms with the familiar glasses.

After halftime, PSV was the team that first came close to scoring the opening goal. A free kick by Ruben van Bommel was headed inches wide by Lars Putters. Less than a minute later the other side scored, which meant PSV had to pull out all the stops to win the winter title. Twice, however, Iggy's shot just missed the target. As PSV went in search of the equalizer, they took a little more risk. AZ took full advantage in the 60th minute to make it 2-0. PSV still tried to get the tying goal on the scoreboard, but for the first time today they failed to score.

Thus, PSV failed to win the unofficial winter title. After the winter break the league starts again with the counter at zero for all teams. And so new chances at the title. There is at least one advantage to missing out on the winter title: we can now improve our final ranking. With a winter title, equalling was the maximum.

As a staff, we wish everyone Very Happy Holidays and best wishes in advance for 2019.

Setup:
Niek Schiks ; Livano Comencia, Luc Netten (c), Yaël Gil y Muinos, Julian Kuijpers (53' Koen Jansen); Lars Putters (64' Seb Loeffen), Sven Simons, Chahid el Allachi (58' Milan Govaers); Iggy Houben, Jesper Uneken (48' Shi-jon Martina), Jaivy Lourens (36' Ruben van Bommel).

Yellow card: Yaël Gil y Muinos