Twente are playing VVV at home so preferring the above three games is totally understandable. I've got a feeling both AZ and Heerenveen will get a spanking. Vitesse vs Feyenoord will be the tightest game of the lot.
Can't disagree with him, his squad is a joke on paper. Last year they conceived 59 goals, the attackers only masked the weakness of the team. If you hear MvB like that you have to wonder how long he will stay there.
Yeah, I agree with what you say. The good thing IF they keep up this 2 or 3 matches per weekend, it will be some very good coverage of the Eredivisie even if I have to watch Dutch football in Spanish. Note to self, I need to learn Spanish.
I actually like watching matches in Spanish. 1) The only important thing is to hear the name of the player who has the ball, and the names are the same whether it's English Spanish or Dutch commentators. 2) You don't have to hear the commentators' stupid comments and other shit 3) They sound freaking hilarious
I prefer Spanish commentators just because I don't understand it. I also like the atmosphere of southern Europe a lot more, in England it's mostly roars and shouting.. not even to mention the way the stadium speakers celebrate a goal... ''Robin vaaan Persie''.. or ''Wayne Roooney''.. just what is the point? (German speakers are still the best imo!)
I agree for 95% of what you are saying. Before I was translating everything online and finding more indepth club forums than the super cool general football forums such as big soccer, it was more of an issue that I couldn't understand them as I felt I might be missing something said about player A and the drama he created or went through during this past week but now I am so into everything and anything on my clubs that I pretty much know every news item. As for the play on the pitch, I am cool as having played this sport since 1980 I am pretty sure I can follow it quite well.
Being a polylinguist, I'm somewhat fluent in Spanish and don't mind listening to the matches that way. Andres Cantor who got his start with one of the US Spanish language stations some years ago before the widespread availability of 'soccer' cable channels in the US was the one who pioneered the GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL call on television. We only got a couple of Euro matches a week, most were from the Mexican league and his call of the match was quite good. Now we have all the Spanish commentators over here using his goal call which is really great. I like the term goalazzo for a wonder strike as I don't think one can describe it in the same way in English. I also like the British Sky Sports broadcasters that are on our Fox Soccer Channel as they let the action of the pitch go without a lot of extra commentary. the 2nd person is usually a retired footballer and they don't run off at the mouth like the retired American footballers do when our domestic matches are broadcast. Italian broadcasters are good in the same way. The Dutch matches that I watch on the Internet are called very well and it's usually a single broadcaster which is fine with me.
God i hate this 99% of the time. Should be preserved for only the greatest of goals or not at all imo. Especially hate it when Sierd de Vos does it, but then again i hate everything he does anyway. I usually prefer the belgium commentators, nice to listen too and basic most of the time.
I just wish there was someone to contact at ESPN Deportes to let them know that I appreciate the extra Dutch coverage.
Maybe it's nostalgia, but nothing is as good to me as Dutch commentary. Am I imagining this or are Dutch commentators really decent?
in the end, they could have a muppet in the corner of the tv screen broadcasting in sign language and I wouldn't care as long as I keep getting 3 matches per weekend.
Nice to see the traditional 'quality' refereeing and the 'quality' defending in the Dutch league this weekend. Don't watch comedy capers, watch the eredivisie, much more entertaining. AZ, Ajax, Heerenveen, all in trouble because of a dodgy back four. Vitesse and Twente best teams defensively so far.
Amen to this. I thought the officiating had improved by the second half of last season (at least in the matches that I saw). The Heerenveen/Ajax match disabused me of that pretty quickly. Bad match official and linesmen, the only thing that was worse was the finishing on the part of both teams. There should have been at least 10 goals today in this match!
If it makes you feel better, all clubs suffer from terrible refereeing at some stage. I don't think they're targeting specific clubs. They're just generally rubbish, and Faaaaaaaaaaar too easily impressed by home crowds. The referee at Twente vs VVV actually was a player in the VVV youth academy for eight years and lives in that part of the country still. Which is hilarious considering that no-one who lives within a 50 mile radius from Enschede is ever allowed to referee a Twente game.
Is it true that some of the refs for Sunday's matches make extra money on the side as circus clowns? Nice victory for PSV although it took a lot longer to put away than had hoped especially with one man up after the early AZ red card.
Another fun weekend in the eredvisie, the highlight (or lowlight) being nine men Utrecht beating PSV. Oh dear. Thinking of all the money PSV spent on forwards and then considering that frankly piss poor Marcelo is still a central defender for them, the mind boggles. I wonder if the Dutch pundits still think they're the only real favourite for the title. Advocaat just said that 'heads are going to roll' but I wonder if it might be his own head soon. Dodgy Russian Oil Money United (AKA Vitesse) still going strong in place 2, they beat Groningen who are shockingly poor this season. AZ also played well and Feyenoord seems to be benefitting from the Pelle signing already.
Good for the Eredivisie that Van Bommel returned. In the previous years we had Suarez with the diving, Toivonen with the nasty little flicks and now it's Mark who attracts all the attention from the referees. It's a nice game to follow, Mark against the ref. Both know this game is going on, before the match, during and afterwards.
Bommel was the best PSV man on the pitch today. He's not their problem. Their problem is the same as it has been for the past five years: they're a shower defensively. Is it Brands who makes the buying decisions over there? He deserves to get sacked.
It's not about Bommels football, that's all very well. It's the extra game that is going on, between Mark and the ref. The ref knows he's watched, Mark knows the ref has this in the back of his mind, the opponent knows about it, the public, the media. Our refs aren't CL level nor have they enough personality to play this thing down. Mark has his temper and might not all the time want to go the difficult way in stopping an opponent somewhere in midfield. Perhaps they should make him libero so he can see things coming and doesn't have to react immediately.
It's actually Strootman who pisses me off more where that's concerned. WTF was his overreaction about when Bommel got carded? Bommel himself was calm, and it might even have been because of Strootman that Bommel got carded in the first place because Strootman was up in the ref's face. But like I said, I don't think either of them are PSV's problem. Their horrible defence is. Ironically Bouma was the best player in their back four today. Enough said...
Just some general Eredivisie observations. Vitesse got the best defender of the league and the two best strikers: Kalas, Bony and Reis. Djuricic is way too good. And Utrechts Mike van der Hoorn is by far the most dangerous player with corners in the leauge. Only 19 years old as well.
giving up a goal on a set play, not being able to attack even when 2 men up. very little character away from home so far for PSV.