In the wooded surroundings of Nijmegen's De Goffert stadium this Sunday morning, not only senior teams were on standby, PSV's D3 also warmed up for the match against NEC's NEC/FC Oss team. Earlier in the 'league', PSV won at home against NEC/FC Oss 3-2, but a friendly match played just after the winter break, ended in a draw.
In the first minutes, both teams showed eagerness and enjoyment of play. Both PSV's and NEC's first attacks were good. Gradually the tone of the match changed and it was NEC that dominated physically and tactically. PSV would have to rely on counters, which became increasingly sparse as the first half progressed.
After about 10 minutes, the home team outplayed PSV and scored mercilessly. It was a goal that clearly indicated the difference. Set up from their own half, they surrounded our boys with reasonable ease and perfect passing and finished the actions nicely with a goal. PSV defended undaunted and caused a free kick in an unfavorable spot: just outside the sixteen. Arne put up a wall with all his voice and persuasion, but the difference between the crossbar and his fingers was/is just too big. Just before halftime, the same Arne prevented two more goals by running out perfectly and catching the rebound while running back. Shortly afterwards he prevented a goal by stopping a tricky bouncing ball by diving diagonally.
PSV got right into the game after halftime. The first chance was one by Robin who took advantage of a defensive error, but the ball rolled wide. Then Cody passed to Steven from his own half who easily outran his opponent at speed and passed the ball beautifully. Roland attempted to finish it off, but failed to get a shot off. With this attack, the team showed its mental resilience. It was not that PSV dominated the second half. There was more security in the passings and offensively they came up more and more often. NEC, of course, was not standing still either. Armando prevented a third goal by 'replacing' a run-out Arne. But the ensuing corner was finished off faultlessly. PSV still smelled chances, and through a deep pass from Husseyn to Cody, it was a goal. The captain took the ball and passed it to Robin who only had to tap in. Ruud also came forward. He made meters from the defense, passed to midfielder Cody at the right moment and he played the rising Jordan in. Unfortunately his shot went just wide. Immediately afterwards NEC asserted themselves again and scored, it must be said, with a neatly set up and executed attack the 4-1. From the combination of Cody and Husseyn followed another great chance which, to the surprise of even the NEC linesman, was given offside. PSV went on until the bitter end and showed more and more danger in attack. NEC did not fail to take advantage of small mistakes and finished the score 5-1.

Report courtesy of Ank Gakpo-van Bommel