Dutch Football - Eredivisie - FC Twente hand ADO Den Haag some more trouble

"The intellectualisation
of football has
always foundered
on a simple problem-
-the players. Doing
all your most
rewarding thinking
with your feet seems
to dull the philo-
sophical impulse.
Unless, of course,
you are Dutch.
According to legend,
Europeans played
a moronic, muscular
version of the world's
game, until Holland
proclaimed its vision
of total football in the
1974 World Cup,
and enlightenment
dawned."

From:
Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football

FC Twente hand ADO Den Haag some more trouble

Sunday 30 November 2008

FC Twente beat ADO Den Haag 1-2 yesterday, but the result by no means illustrates the quality difference between the two sides.

The win means Twente move back into the top 5 whereas Den Haag can not seem top stop their free fall down the table and they now find themselves in the relegation zone after their seventh successive defeat.

FC Twente were 1-0 up at half-time, but it should have been 4-0 for McClaren's troops.

Den Haag were a mouse in the lion's den as the team that beat Heerenveen 6-0 last week were all over them.

The Tukkers again could have made it a big score, especially since they went up early in the game from a Theo Janssen free kick.

But missing chances seems to be Twente's specialty this season as Perez, Eljero Elia and Marko Arnautovic missed chances you simply can not miss.

After the break the visitors went on where they left it before as Blaise N'Kufo and Ronnie Stam messed up to more great possibilities.

The latter had no one but the goal line to beat, but even failed at that.

ADO Den Haag in the meantime were a sorry lot, succeeding in nothing else but back passes to their goal keeper who would then give the ball away via a long clearance.

As Twente had to fear no danger of Den Haag they slowly fell asleep and only came back to life again when ADO scored an equalizer out of the blue in the 77th minute.

ADO were hoping for a miracle but Twente would have nothing of it.

A minute after the equalizer N'Kufo squandered another big chance but Marko Arnautovic did score the winner for his side straight after N'Kufo's miss.

So Twente did gain the well deserved three points in the end but Steve McClaren will be wondering just how he can get his team to make more of the shipload of chances his team keep missing every week.

First of all McClaren was happy about the victory though: "This is a good start of a week in which we will play Schalke 04 in the UEFA Cup. It seemed we would be punished for missing so many chances against ADO, but fortunately Arnautovic prevented that."

ADO Den Haag - FC Twente 1-2
0-1 09' T. Janssen
1-1 76' L. Resodihardjo
1-2 80' M. Arnautovic

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