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PSV win first silverware of the season
Saturday 23 August 2008
PSV Eindhoven have won the 13th
edition of the Johan Cruijff Schaal on Saturday.
The Dutch champions beat a depleted
Feyenoord in the Amsterdam Arena 2-0 by second half
goals from Danko Lazovic and Dirk Marcellis.
That PSV won the traditional opener
of the season was no surprise.
PSV coach Huub Stevens had a complete
squad at his disposal, where his Feyenoord colleague
Gert-Jan Verbeek had only half a squad.
The Rotterdammers were without
Roy Makaay, Jon Dahl Tomasson, Jonathan de Guzman, Karim
El Ahmadi, Theo Lucius, Ron Vlaar, Andwele Slory and
Kevin Hofland.
"We don't have a very broad
selection," Verbeek admitted.
"You can tell from the results
we got over the past few weeks. PSV is more consistent.
They won the league for the fourth time in a row last
season.
The pre-match fears that Feyenoord's
would be destroyedby PSV turned out to be unfounded.
What's more: Feyenoord's youngsters
were PSV's equals in the first half.
With Giovanni van Bronckhorst and
Denny Landzaat in in a holding role coach Verbeek emphasized
on his defense and he seemed to be successful at first.
PSV had trouble finding any holes
in the Feyenoord defense.
Edison Mendez tried from long
range and the solo efforts of Ibrahim Afellay and Nordin
Amrabat each time stranded early.
Center forward Danko Lazovic was
totally anonymous before the break.
On the other side Feyenoord had
no chances at all.
The only time new goal keeper Andreas
Isaksson had to get involved was on weak shots from
Luigi Bruins and Nicky Hofs.
It was clear that Feyenoord are
toothless without the wit of striker Roy Makaay.
PSV were more mature and in the
second half they illustrated that with goals.
Ten minutes after the break Lazovic
found the net with a header and shortly after Dirk Marcellis
followed the example.
Feyenoord, with only teenagers
on the bench, seemed hapless in the second half.
Mitchell Schet had a big chance,
but the youngster could not get passed Isaksson.
On the other end of the field PSV
wasted a handful of good chances - Amrabat putting it
over the bar in front of an open goal - but it remained
at 2-0.
A week ahead of the star of the
Eredivisie PSV seem ready to try and clinch a fifth
consecutive league title.
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