Fate struck PSV's technical staff last week. Trainer Tim injured his ankle during a training session. As a result, he was unable to attend the last two training sessions and trainer Bastiaan was on his own. Fortunately his team did not have to come into action. Due to the autumn vacations, opponent RPC was unable to field a representative team. We traveled to Veldhoven with a complete selection (including a taped trainer Tim). After the toss was won by our red and white boys, the game started. After a somewhat hesitant start by both teams, the visitors took control after three minutes. This immediately resulted in a dangerous header by Benjamin from a Davy corner. This ball went wide of the goalie. However, Tijn's effort (two minutes later) had no answer. On the left side of the pitch Davy, after putting good pressure, conquered the ball. In the corner of his eye he saw Tijn standing free, who took a devastating shot from 20 meters (0-1). After eight minutes of play, Davy again took a corner on the right side of the pitch. He placed the ball on the head of Benjamin, who left the goalkeeper defenseless (0-2). The visitors continued to put good pressure on the RKVVO defense and within two minutes Joey was able to take two shots. The first was preceded by a nice individual action and his shot with the left went just wide of the goal. The second shot also missed the target. Halfway through the first half, RKVVO scored the tying goal out of nowhere. The ball ended up in a tangle and in the turn the striker scored (1-2). PSV wanted to quickly bring the difference back to two. First, it was Davy who saw the well-rounded Joop. His effort skimmed the post. Barely a minute later it was a goal. Again it was Davy who found Joop with a through ball. Eye to eye with the goalkeeper, he remained calm (1-3). Instead of digging in, RKVVO continued to play football. Almost yielded another goal. The effort from a corner was cleared off the goal line by Rico. A goal fell anyway, only on the other side. A nicely set up attack over four drives (Gregory, Davy and Joop) ended with Tijn, who again lashed out (1-4). The game seemed to be decided, especially when Arne sent Joop away with a beautiful ball. The goalie managed to turn the ball away. In the last minute before halftime Kyan had to come into action twice. First he was in the way of a RKVVO attack. He also managed to keep out the attacking midfielder's long-distance shot. Immediately after halftime Arne tried to surprise the goalkeeper with an overhead kick. Unfortunately it just didn't work. A nicely set up one-two between Arne and Joop also failed to hit the target. At the other end, RKVVO continued to be on the lookout for good football and came out well on several occasions. In one of those attacks Pepijn managed to minimize his goal and prevent a goal. The attacker's effort hit the post. Within five minutes the visitors managed to run out to a spacious 1-7. The 1-5 was for Benjamin after beautiful preparatory work by Arne. The 1-6 and 1-7 were beautiful distance shots by Arne and Davy respectively. It remained admirable how RKVVO kept playing football for a goal. Finally this was also rewarded in the 42nd minute (2-7). They almost scored a third goal as well, but again the post stood in the way. The best was saved for last. On the right side of the pitch, Tijn gave a finely cut, tailored cross to Davy. With a brilliant header he set the final score at 2-8. Another big win for our red and white boys in a nice match with two attacking teams.

Report with thanks to Kees Raaijmakers