With the KNVB cup, PSV still takes a serious prize under trainer Roger Schmidt

PSV coach Roger Schmidt claps his hands viciously as his attackers once again chase the defenders of Ajax. The final whistle may sound any moment. Schmidt knows, just before he leaves this summer, that he finally has a prize of significance. And that against Ajax, leader in the Eredivisie and in recent years invariably slightly stronger. In addition, in an exciting cup final, PSV deserved to win: 2-1.

Schmidt is a trainer of the tactical details. In mutual encounters, the German often surprised his opponent by disrupting Ajax with a clever trick. A midfielder who unexpectedly took a position, a winger who played as a striker. Often Ajax coach Erik ten Hag soon succeeded in finding the right conversion to avert the chaos.

Even now Ajax does not immediately get a grip on its opponent, although PSV is kicking off with the same team as last Thursday in the lost quarter final of the Conference League against Leicester City (1-2). In the fourth minute PSV is already struggling on the left flank through a forest of Ajax legs and Eran Zahavi can shoot at goal from about twenty meters. A few minutes later it still seems to hit the mark for the Israeli, when after a clever heel from Joey Veerman and a through pass from Mario Götze he only appears in front of Ajax goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg and shoots in. The VAR intervenes, offside, as two goals from Ajax will later be rejected for the same reason.

Schmidt looks at it with apparent resignation. Hands in pockets, sleeves rolled up, stare unmoved. He watches just as quietly as Ajax takes the lead in the 23rd minute. Steven Berghuis with a tight cross pass to Dusan Tadic, header to Ryan Gravenberch, who – after a combination with Davy Klaassen – scores with a placed shot into the corner. It is the first smooth attack of the Ten Hag team, which for weeks must have had more willpower than good football. As if the staff unrest behind the scenes has also invaded the dressing room.

Ajax is always a team under construction, but at the moment the future is very uncertain. A technical director is missing, important players leave (Gravenberch, Noussair Mazraoui) or are of age (Daley Blind, Tadic) and the coach who brought the club back to the European sub-top is going for a new adventure at Manchester United. This defeat can be digested for Ajax if the club becomes champion and immediately qualifies for the Champions League. That perspective is necessary to remain attractive to players and trainers, something that is now even more important than usual.

Final ignites after halftime

In Amsterdam they will fear that the first minutes of the second half are a harbinger of what is yet to come in the competition. Immediately after the break, the match ignites completely. grip? Neither team can claim it. It will be football in top gear in De Kuip, with defenders who seem to have only a vague idea where their opponent is. First, PSV midfielder Erick Gutierrez scores a header from a free kick. A minute later, captain Cody Gakpo frees himself and pokes the ball into the corner from the edge of the penalty area (2-1). The game has barely resumed or Klaassen is allowed to equalize from close by, were it not for the fact that the VAR has seen that attacker Brian Brobbey was offside. Moments later: Tadic on the post.

This goes on until referee Danny Makkelie whistles in the Kuip before the end, which was shaking from the noise. What a contrast with last year, when Ajax won the cup by beating Vitesse (2-1). There was something eerie about that final. Tribunes remained empty at the time because of corona and a few hours before kick-off, a dozen top European clubs had announced that they wanted to separate from an elite competition. Ajax director Edwin van de Sar was so shocked that he barely noticed the match. Even during the cup final, the cup final had become an afterthought for him.

That was not the case now. On the contrary. For the avid fans, the match starts already an hour and a half before kick-off, in tireless efforts to drown out each other. Later on, smoke bombs fly onto the field from the PSV boxes. The game also has something dogged, especially in the first half. Lots of offenses, lots of theater too.

So much was at stake, especially for Roger Schmidt. It was perhaps the last chance for him at a serious prize with PSV, now that Ajax has taken a four-point lead in the battle for the national title, with five rounds to go. The Eindhoven club has had good phases since the arrival of the German in the summer of 2020. Especially the start of this season, with convincingly won matches against Ajax for the Johan Cruijff Scale (4-0) and against Galatasaray and FC Midtjylland in the Champions League qualifying rounds led supporters to believe that Schmidt was going to make good on his promise. He would turn PSV into a modern pressing machine, a specialist in the transition, master of the high tempo.

But at the end of his second season, a feeling of disappointment prevailed in Eindhoven. When it came down to it, it was always ‘just not’. Top players in the Eredivisie were almost all lost, the explicit ambition to ‘hook up’ at Ajax was out of sight and European adventures ended just too early and were too insignificant to look back on with pleasure. Like last Thursday, when PSV was knocked out in the Conference League by the number ten in the Premier League.

This Sunday it is finally ‘just right’ for Schmidt. Due to the won cup final, his legacy in Eindhoven will be viewed slightly more favorably.