It's Tuesday afternoon, the leaves are falling and it's raining. Today no inspired training but
a practice match against Excelsior. Not the Rotterdam Excelsior but the Excelsior of
Maassluis also called Excelsior M. in the abbreviation. Excelsior M. also plays in the second division
and is not very high in the league. But on the site you read that in the last game they
Excelsior R. manage to beat Excelsior R. And given that the competition in the west is usually
is tougher than in the south, I expect a tough match for PSV D2.

Moreover, I learn before the match that Excelsior M. has even organized a training camp.
organized. Well, I thought, they are serious about a training match. Later I understood that
the training camp was there first, and that the practice match against PSV is a nice addition to the training camp.
the training camp.

The start of the match suggests that it will indeed be a tough match.
Exelsior looks professional and in the first minutes of the match both sides
played with a high tempo and Excelsior delivers a lot of effort. PSV has an advantage
and some chances follow. A defensive error by Excelsior provides Robin with a ball on
a silver platter and the 1-0 is a fact.

The pace of PSV is too fast for Excelsior and chance after chance follows. Especially
Amar is a plague for the left back because time after time he is beautifully launched and knows
to find a free player in front of the goal. It is waiting for the next goals but
At the other end, Excelsior also got a great chance through some inaccuracies at the back
chance but the captain shoots the ball over the goal.

On the other side again through Amar to Robin it is soon 2-0. And then it is actually
done. PSV combines, soloing and Excelsior loses the courage. It is
a drizzly Tuesday evening but for the neutral spectator and also for the PSV D2 supporters
(and maybe also for the Excelsior fan) there is more than enough to experience. Beautiful
football on the pitch.

At the back we build up the defence in a consistent way. No long ball is played.
Occasionally things go wrong, but that is for the grumblers among us. In the first half
We scored 3 goals in the first half: Ruud, Amar and Lars.

After the break it goes on. The players who come in provide new impetus and energy
and it is Roland who starts the second half production by scoring after two
moves to bang high into the corner. Jordan a brilliant goal with seemingly
ease to peg the ball into the cross from about 30 meters. Cody for also a beautiful
goal: via a long rush only for the goalkeeper and then a sublime lob over the goalkeeper.

And luckily for Excelsior they can still score a goal before the honor and Cody scores two more.
two more goals. Final score 11-1.

It was not a tough match after all. Possibly the training camp fatigue
Excelsior might have been to blame. In any case, the D2 played a particularly strong game again. The

might be good for the boys to have more opposition in the practice matches.
have. At least that will be the case next Saturday in the cracker against Ajax....

Hans Bosma