Club icons Willy and René van de Kerkhof are very proud now that PSV has equaled the seemingly untouchable record from the 1987-1988 season of seventeen victories in a row. “And records are there to be broken, so let them break our record next week too,” says Willy in the Willy and René Podcast of Omroep Brabant. He experienced that famous season in his last season as a footballer. Like brother René, he sees one player as the real driving force behind PSV’s success: captain Luuk de Jong.
The captain scored all three PSV goals against Excelsior, putting De Jong into the top ten of all-time Eredivisie top scorers. As a result, the discussion has flared up again as to whether national coach Ronald Koeman should bring the PSV striker back to the Dutch team, even though he has declined. “If Ronald asks him, he can’t actually refuse,” says Willy. “It will be his last major tournament and if he doesn’t do it, he will regret it for the rest of his life.” René would also like to see him return. “But I’m afraid he’s putting his foot down.”
“PSV played the worst half hour of this season.”
Usually PSV does not become weaker if De Jong leaves in the final phase, but that was different on Saturday. “PSV played the worst half hour of the season,” says Willy. “Excelsior made it 3-1 and then you can be happy that they hit the post and keeper Benitez made a good save.”
Yet it is no more than a small blemish on a historic evening with a fine record. “But they should stay away from one record,” says René. With FC Twente we conceded thirteen goals in 1971. PSV now has seven, I think that could become fourteen.”
The biggest annoyance of the evening for the brothers was Guus Til’s disallowed goal because Luuk de Jong would have been annoyingly offside. “I talked about it with my wife for two hours on Saturday, but I don’t understand it anymore. Yes, Luuk was on the field so he took part in the game, but this is no longer possible.” René is disappointed that it was VAR again that threw a spanner in the works. “Let the referee make the decision for himself. I’m done with that VAR.”
“I think they can stop offside.”
Actually, Willy and René would like to get rid of the offside rule completely. “I’ll tell you,” says René. “I once participated in a tournament in Singapore without offside. Then each team had one player who could not defend stand at the front and for us that was me. That worked fine, we scored very often, so I think they can stop with offside. ” In the podcast, the brothers come up with even more revolutionary ideas, discuss the failing competition and look ahead to the upcoming matches against FC Twente and FC Utrecht.
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