Right back Sergiño Dest Sprint with the ball forward. It is the 86th minute, but there are no signs of fatigue with the American who missed almost the entire previous season due to a serious injury. He plays the ball at Guus Til, speeds up and gets him back. Without assuming, the defender of PSV rams the ball in the far corner. A goal typical of the attacking struggle by trainer Peter Bosz, and the decision in a match in which PSV convinced at times, but did not look as stable as at the end of last season.
Just as traditional as the battle for the Johan Cruijff Scale is the discussion about the importance of the game. A endless discussion: in the end it is about how much interest the participants attach to it. See how Eagles striker Mathis Suray goes crazy after he has put his team the lead after more than half an hour, running and screaming with happiness, and you know that the club from Deventer was at least a lot to win the prize.
What can a modest club can do after an exceptionally good year? Go Ahead played without midfielder Enric Llansana, who left for Anderlecht, and attacker Oliver Antman. Last season’s seasoning with fifteen assists is reportedly about to relocate six million euros to Rangers. A big loss, certainly, but for the time being, the exodus is limited. Apart from course from trainer Paul Simonis. He went to Wolfsburg, his replacement is the 38-year-old Melvin Boel who came over from first divisionist FC Dordrecht.
Against PSV, Go Ahead was very much like last season’s team. Disciplined and often as ‘low block’ defensive, specialist in the switch, with midfielder Jakob Breum as a turntable, Dean James as fast, emerging left back and Victor Edvardsen in the role of strong, targeted dribbler.
Transfers
For PSV, national champion, the Johan Cruijff Scale is primarily a good test to see how the team is doing. Well, Bosz thought beforehand. He sounded confidently during the PSV training camp, in mid -July in Marienfeld, Germany. What he saw on the training sessions and who he saw there, gave him. Players with a great urge to apply. A selection that is already largely ready for the upcoming season, with until recently only uncertainty about Spits and former captain Luuk de Jong, who, it turned out on Sunday evening, leaves for FC Porto.
How different was that last summer, after PSV under Bosz ‘leadership had become champion again for the first time in years. Some players wanted to redeem that success at the time by making a transfer. The dream club did not come, or PSV did not cooperate, in an attempt to keep the team intact as much as possible.
The result: loss and concentration loss, something that Bosz immediately noticed about the training sessions. At the same time, midfielders Joey Veerman (Lies and abdominal muscle) and Jerdy Schouten (knee) returned from the European Championship and the club only managed to get it in the selection deep in August. They are plausible explanations for the remarkable dip that PSV had to deal with last season, Bosz thinks.
And so the club tackled it differently now. Bosz: “The learning point has been that you have to bring freshness into your selection.” Already in the first weeks of the transfer period, PSV Malik Tillman, Noa Lang and Johan Bakayoko sold an estimated 80 million for added up, while Boscagli and Benitez left transfer -free. Six mostly young players came back, including winger Ruben van Bommel (20), defenders Yarek Gasiorowski (20), Killian Sildillia (20) and striker Alassane Pléa (32).
The level on the training sessions was very high, Bosz saw in Marienfeld. “There is a lot of sharpness in this group. There are occasional duels in between that I think, are they still getting up?”
It wasn’t hard, Sunday evening in Eindhoven. But in terms of dynamics, PSV does not seem to have returned compared to last season, despite the departure of playmaker Tillman. Especially thanks to the emerging backs Dest and Mauro Junior, who frequently created a surplus with their rushes in midfield and in the attack, and the fit of director Veerman, PSV was able to tap the opponent in the first half. In addition, striker Pléa was also important. He was preferred over Pepi and was often playable, ball -resistant and dangerous. Like after more than fifteen minutes, when he shot next to a concealed shot.
Vulnerable with the loss of ball
But as flashy as PSV attacked at times, the team was so vulnerable at the loss of ball. After half an hour, for example, when Dest thought a ball to intercept but fogstasted, and Suray shot up close. A few minutes later, the Belgian was able to score up close from a quick attack on the left. Almost all PSV members stood before the ball, far from where the danger was.
In the second half, PSV’s attack also lung. The team became sloppy, the attack game slower. Maybe a lack of rhythm. It took half an hour for the Bosz team to become really dangerous: a long shot of Til that was tapped from the intersection by the strong -keeping Jari De Busser. Til was one of the three invaders, next to Pepi and Van Bommel, who gave PSV new energy. The pressure on Go Ahead increased, so that Go Ahead defender Gerrit Nauber saw no other solution than to tap a pass from Perisic in his own goal. Moments later, Dest, Dest, threw the game in the end.
With the cooperation of Joost Pijpker