AZ still suffer party hangover

Monday 03 August 2009

When one conclusion can be drawn after the first round of the 2009/10 season it is that champions AZ are still suffering from the hangover of the many parties they celebrated not even three months ago.

In their opening match against lowly Heracles they were beaten 3-2 after having gone 3-0 down early in the second half.

On top new coach Ronald Koeman saw two of his players being sent off in the last ten minutes of the game, as AZ players were irritated by the referee denying them a clear penalty..

"That irritation was not a good thing," Koeman said.

"I don't think players should behave like that. Losing the game is one thing, but losing two players with a red card is even more painful."

But that will not be the only thing that worries him.

The way his team performed on Saturday was under par and there was nothing that reminded spectators of the team that won the league last season.

The more positive surprise of the first round came in Eindhoven where newly promoted VVV gave PSV a very hard time.

In a spectacular match (3-3) in which the visitors could have scored a few more than the three they did in the end, VVV's striker Honda was the big star and it could well be that the fragile Japanese becomes one of the revelations of the season.

"When PSV made it 3-2 I still had a good feeling about the game," said VVV-coach Jan van Dijk.

"My boys had played a fantastic game. Still the equalizer seemed natural and I can say in all honesty that we came very close to scoring a fourth."

Ajax started with an impressive away win over FC Groningen, and new coach Martin Jol was delighted with his team's performance, especially in the second half.

"Then I saw just what people can expect of Ajax this season," BMJ said.

"The one negative was perhaps that we scored only one goal at that stage."

Last year's runners up FC Twente seemed very preoccupied with Tuesday's second leg of their Champions League qualification tie against Sporting Lisbon, but Steve McClaren's team still had no trouble whatsoever getting the three points from Sparta Rotterdam.

"We didn't start well," McClaren analyzed.

"Sparta were the better team and our opening goal came out of nothing. But that gave us some breathing room and we started playing better after that."

On the south side of the river Feyenoord Rotterdam had a hopeful start to the new season in which they hope to wash away the bad taste of the last few disastrous seasons.

The team of new coach Mario Been beat Been's former team NEC Nijmegen 2-0, but that score did not illustrate the face of the game very well.

NEC were equal to the home side and should have scored a couple as well, but still there were glimpses of a new Feyenoord and if they keep progressing the way they have been it could well be that Feyenoord are a contender for a Champions League spot this year.

"We could have played a bit better, but the result was just fine," said veteran striker Jon Dahl Tomasson afterwards.