Last Wednesday PSV U13 played a friendly match against a team from the USA "Lonestar SC". The result was 1-2, what surprised me most then was that after the game I heard several reactions from people who did not see the game, PSV U13 lost to a team from the USA!!! Were they that good or PSV that bad? I learned from this that you should never judge a match if you did not see the match or do not know what happened. Because PSV U13 played a very good match against the Americans, only in the morning during a training of Lonestar it was already clear that they would be totally destroyed if they would only field U13 players. So it was decided by mutual agreement that a number of U15 players would join them, and when it turned out that 8 U15 players played the whole match and that the U13 players were substituted, the result (which by the way is not important) looked quite different. Against a physically stronger opponent, the boys played a very nice game of football, and showed that they are not afraid of anyone, even if they are 4 heads taller and wider.
Then today to Tilburg for the always difficult away game against Willem II. PSV do not know how to defend themselves well against Willem II's style of play in the beginning. Willem II fixes it at the back with PSV, so playing football from the back is quite difficult, by very consistently tipping well and thus making the space very small it is very difficult to play football for PSV. PSV will have to move faster from side to side to try to get through. In the 15 minute PSV tries to get the block open again, a high ball comes to Ruben, who controls the ball masterfully on his chest and so lays it ready for Shijon, everyone now thinks that Shijon will get out at 17 meters in front of the goal, but Shijon sees that Chahid is even better in front, so lays it off instead of shooting. Chahid does not think twice and kicks the ball with a lob like ball at the goal, it falls nicely into the corner and is out of reach for the goalkeeper 0-1. A few minutes later perhaps the moment of the match, a cross from Matheo is fabulously controlled by Chahid, laid dead on the foot from the air, then he turns a pirouette around his axis and spoons the ball on goal. The ball landed on top of the bar unfortunately, but what a ball control. 1 minute before the halftime signal, Willem II seemed to come alongside, but Kjell managed to work the ball neatly out the inside of the post, the following shot went just wide. It could have been 1-1, but fortunately it remained 0-1, although the coach of Willem II will certainly take this into the dressing room.

After the break, PSV knows how to deal with the game of Willem II, because if Willem II wants to disrupt the build-up quickly, there is space behind their defense which PSV can and must take advantage of, especially with the speed in front of PSV. A few minutes later Shijon was able to go for goal on his own, but the ball hit the post. In the 33rd minute, Milan tried their luck with a free kick from 20 meters in front of the goal. The ball seemed to go too high, but just below the crossbar it went into the goal, 0-2. So a good kick by Milan. PSV now has much more grip on the game than in the 1st half although it remains difficult to play through the well organized defense. In the 47th minute finally comes the deep ball that was always being looked for, Ruben is sent into the depth and is at full speed, the goalkeeper comes out well and does make his goal very small for Ruben, but wait Ruben thinks a Lob over the goalkeeper goes as well, so a beautiful perfectly executed lob decides this attack with the 0-3. PSV is still hunting for more but luck is not with them Jaivy has another chance but goes just past, and Thijn a header just past the wrong side of the post. In the last minutes Willem II had another attack, from which they managed to score, Mees, a former PSV player, managed to hit the net for Willem II 1-3, and that was the final score. The boys were not in a 100% party mood afterwards because of the goal against. They really don't want to give anything away. Next week a home game against JVOZ at 11:00 on the Herdgang. See you then.