Eredivisie Matchweek 11 Review

It was another eventful weekend in the Eredivisie as 11 rounds were completed over the Halloween weekend. PEC Zwolle dished out a number of treats to Heracles while Ayase Ueda was up to his usual Eredivisie tricks for Feyenoord against Volendam on Sunday.

Friday’s action: PSV’s Saibari can’t stop scoring

PSV continued their fine form with another goal fest on Friday night. Ismael Saibari is in imperious form at the moment and the forward grabbed another brace. Dennis Man, Ricardo Pepi and Guus Til also found the net as the side put five passed Fortuna Sittard. The away side did find the net twice through Kaj Sierhuis and Justin Lonwijk to add a bit of respectability to the score line.

Saturday’s action: Ueda on form, Ajax drop more points and relegation battle ends all square

Ajax dropped more points at home when they could only draw 1-1 to Heerenveen. Mika Godts had given the home side a first half lead after VAR had denied the away side a penalty. Despite shading the posession sttas and xG, Ajax allowed Herenveen to take 17 shots. Of the seven of these that were on target, Vaclav Sejk’s effort in the 68th minute found its way passed Remko Pasveer into the back of the net. The result means Ajax have won just one of their last six games.

NAC Breda ended a run of five games without a win when they faced Go Ahead Eagles at home on Saturday afternoon. Young Finnish winger Juho Talvitie got his second goal of the season just after half-time to give Carl Hoefkens’ side all three points. Talavitie is on loan from Lommel in the Belgian second tier having spent last season in the Eredivisie with Heracles. The win for NAC opens up a four point gap between them and the relegation play-off spot.

Feyenoord bounced back from last weekends defeat to PSV with a comfortable home win over newly promoted FC Volendam. Ayase Ueda grabbed two to give him 13 Eredivisie goals in just 11 games. Sem Steijn grabbed his sixth since joining from FC Twente in the summer. However, Volendam had made it 2-1 for half an hour or so in the second half after a goal from veteran striker Henk Veerman. Feyenoord move back top on goal difference while Volendam remain just outside of the bottom three.

The battle of the newly promoted sides took place on Saturday evening as Telstar welcomed Excelsior to the BUKO Stadion. Telstar were 2-1 up at half-time after goals from Jochem Ritmeester van de Kamp and Tyrone Owusu before the half-hour. Excelsior pulled one back through a 44th minute penalty from Arthur Zagre. Danny Bakker then missed a spot kick to put Telstar 3-1 up and was made to rue that miss when Gyan de Regt equalised in the 77th minute. This second Excelsior goal came just a few minutes after Zagre had missed his second penalty. An entertaining game between the two sides with a final result that did neither any favours.

Sundays action: Goals galore for struggling Heracles

Heracles have looked pretty poor to start the season but suddenly decided to show up at home to PEC Zwolle. Jizz Hornkamp grabbed a hat-trick within the space of 15 minutes to canacel out Kaj de Rooij’s opener. Nick Fichtinger made things much harder for PEC Zwolle when he was sent off just before half-time. Luka Kulenovic converted the resulting spot-kick to give Heracles a 4-1 half time lead. The side had doubled this by the end of the game, with goals from Mike te Wierik, Bryan Limbombe, Alec Van Hoorenbeeck and Thomas Bruns completing a crazy eight goals for the hosts. De Rooij did get his second to ensure the game ended 8-2, a result no one would have predicted.

FC Groningen had their first draw of the season when they hosted FC Twente on Sunday afternoon. The away side took th elead just after half-time through Kristian Hlynsson. Minutes later they gave away a penalty that was converted by Stije Resink for his first goal of the campaign. The home side had plenty of chances, registering 18 shots and an xG of 3.33. Lars Unnerstal made sure that his side left with a point after making five saves during the game.

Joel Drommel was a busy man between the sticks for Sparta Rotterdam in their defeat to AZ Alkmaar. The 28-year-old made 13 saves, including a spot kick from Troy Parrott in the first half. He was unable to keep out Kees Smit’s strike just before the 70th minute as AZ kept in touching distance with PSV and Feyenoord at the top of the Eredivisie table.

The final match of the weekend also ended 1-0. NEC Nijmigen travelled to Utrecht but were unable to make their 62% possession count. Miguel Rodriguez scored the only goal of the game just before half-time to make it three for the season for the Spanish winger. The 22-year-old will hope this goal can really kick-start his campaign after he grabbed 10 goals and four assists in 25 games last year.

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