Dutch football 2019/20

[Marten]

No thread here yet, so I'm starting one. The Dutch eredivisie had its first 2 rounds. Not many shocking results yet, but AZ Alkmaar have become homeless for a while as the roof of their ground collapsed. Thankfully for them, ADO Den Haag offered them to use their stadium. AZ accepted that offer so they will play Mariupol (Ukraine) in the Europa League qualifiers on Thursday and FC Groningen on Sunday in The Hague (around an hour's drive from Alkmaar). Their next home game is only mid-September (or the EL play-off round should they beat Mariupol), so they will know more about for low long they are expected to be homeless.

 

[Marten]

AZ beat Mariupol 4-0 so eased through to the play-off round in which they will play Antwerp. However, they can't play in The Hague this time as the local authorities aren't happy with this tie. Antwerp's fans have got quite a bad reputation. Also, they despise Club Brugge, who in turn are great friends with ADO Den Haag, meaning that Antwerp playing there could get quite messy.

As a result, AZ will play the PO game in Enschede at FC Twente's ground. Remarkable fact: this means that for AZ in a European tie against a foreign opponent, the away game will be closer to their home ground (193 km) than the "home" game (206 km)..

Edit: I just read that Antwerp will play their home game in Brussels as their own ground isn't suitable. This means that the "home" game for AZ is still closer, but it's still quite a unique situation that they have 2 consecutive European rounds in which none of the games have been played at the home team's ground (Mariupol played theirs in Odessa due to the security situation in their part of Ukraine).

Edited August 17, 2019 by Marten

[Silverton End]

Excelsior out of the blocks with a 1st game win over Jong Utrecht last week Marten.

 

[Marten]

9 hours ago, Silverton End said:

Excelsior out of the blocks with a 1st game win over Jong Utrecht last week Marten.

 

Yes, playing Jong AZ tomorrow, hopefully another win. Starting off with 2 colt sides... Welcome back in the Eerste Divisie.  

Important change for this season which could benefit us: the runners up will also get promoted with the 17th placed Eredivisie side getting relegated. Play-offs will take place between 16th Eredivisie and 6 Eerste Divisie clubs.

[Silverton End]

13 hours ago, Marten said:

Yes, playing Jong AZ tomorrow, hopefully another win. Starting off with 2 colt sides... Welcome back in the Eerste Divisie.  

Important change for this season which could benefit us: the runners up will also get promoted with the 17th placed Eredivisie side getting relegated. Play-offs will take place between 16th Eredivisie and 6 Eerste Divisie clubs.

Fingers crossed Excelsior can bounce back.

Roda JC seem to be in freefall mode

[Marten]

25 minutes ago, Silverton End said:

Fingers crossed Excelsior can bounce back.

Roda JC seem to be in freefall mode

Yeah, they have been pretty awful since their last relegation. Quite a few regular eredivisie teams in the division who have dropped down (Roda, NAC, NEC etc.)

[GNU_Linux]

I assume theres no promotion/relegation between the Eerste & Tweede Divisie again this season?

[Marten]

6 hours ago, GNU_Linux said:

I assume theres no promotion/relegation between the Eerste & Tweede Divisie again this season?

Nope, the pyramid there is still quite a shambles tbh.

[GordonS]

No thread here yet, so I'm starting one. The Dutch eredivisie had its first 2 rounds. Not many shocking results yet, but AZ Alkmaar have become homeless for a while as the roof of their ground collapsed. Thankfully for them, ADO Den Haag offered them to use their stadium. AZ accepted that offer so they will play Mariupol (Ukraine) in the Europa League qualifiers on Thursday and FC Groningen on Sunday in The Hague (around an hour's drive from Alkmaar). Their next home game is only mid-September (or the EL play-off round should they beat Mariupol), so they will know more about for low long they are expected to be homeless.

 

That's horrible reminiscent of the roof collapse at Enschede.

[Marten]

11 minutes ago, GordonS said:

On 13/08/2019 at 22:43, Marten said:

No thread here yet, so I'm starting one. The Dutch eredivisie had its first 2 rounds. Not many shocking results yet, but AZ Alkmaar have become homeless for a while as the roof of their ground collapsed. Thankfully for them, ADO Den Haag offered them to use their stadium. AZ accepted that offer so they will play Mariupol (Ukraine) in the Europa League qualifiers on Thursday and FC Groningen on Sunday in The Hague (around an hour's drive from Alkmaar). Their next home game is only mid-September (or the EL play-off round should they beat Mariupol), so they will know more about for low long they are expected to be homeless.

 

That's horrible reminiscent of the roof collapse at Enschede.

True, fairly similar, although this one will take a lot longer to fix apparently. They could be homeless for up to a year.

[Silverton End]

2-1 away win for Excelsior

[Marten]

15 minutes ago, Silverton End said:

2-1 away win for Excelsior

Yes, now we can finally focus on games against proper football clubs.

[GNU_Linux]

Wild stuff in the PEC Zwolle & RKC game as Reza Goochannejhad scores just the four goals coming off the bench. Was 2-2 when he came on & game finished 6-2 to PEC.

[senorsoupe]

1 hour ago, GNU_Linux said:

Wild stuff in the PEC Zwolle & RKC game as Reza Goochannejhad scores just the four goals coming off the bench. Was 2-2 when he came on & game finished 6-2 to PEC.

On his debut for them no less!  

[Marten]

Ajax seem to be throwing their season away recently. On Thursday they were knocked out of the Europa League against Getafe. Only just over a week ago they were 6 points clear at the top of the table, and not long before the gap was 9 points. But tonight AZ beat them in Amsterdam and both teams are now level, with Ajax just clinging on the first place on goal difference.

Should AZ win the league, it will be extra impressive considering they have played around 40% of their home games an hour's drive away in The Hague due to the roof of their own ground collapsing.

[Herman Hessian]

2 minutes ago, Marten said:

Ajax seem to be throwing their season away recently. On Thursday they were knocked out of the Europa League against Getafe. Only just over a week ago they were 6 points clear at the top of the table, and not long before the gap was 9 points. But tonight AZ beat them in Amsterdam and both teams are now level, with Ajax just clinging on the first place on goal difference.

Should AZ win the league, it will be extra impressive considering they have played around 40% of their home games an hour's drive away in The Hague due to the roof of their own ground collapsing.

great stuff - just on here to post about that; three defeats in four games for Ajax and a couple of tough ones coming up for them - away at Utrecht who are having a decent season, and Feyenoord who must now fancy their chances of getting back in the title race, that's definitely one to watch after the six goal hiding they handed ajax just over a year ago.

in other news, the mighty Super Boeren of De Graafschap looked nailed on for promotion after just one league defeat all season to date; that'll be about fifteen promotions/relegations in the last 25 years 

[Marten]

great stuff - just on here to post about that; three defeats in four games for Ajax and a couple of tough ones coming up for them - away at Utrecht who are having a decent season, and Feyenoord who must now fancy their chances of getting back in the title race, that's definitely one to watch after the six goal hiding they handed ajax just over a year ago.

in other news, the mighty Super Boeren of De Graafschap looked nailed on for promotion after just one league defeat all season to date; that'll be about fifteen promotions/relegations in the last 25 years [emoji38]

I don't think Feyenoord have enough to actually win the title, but AZ will have a very decent chance. They are playing well, a tough side to beat, and they don't have as tough of a run of fixtures coming up as Ajax, so they will be hoping to actually pip them to the top spot. Since 1964 it only happened 3 times that a club from the traditional "big 3" didn't win the title: AZ in 1981 & 2009 and FC Twente in 2010. If AZ do it for a third time it could arguably be the biggest surprise of these. Because AZ are now not bankrolled by very rich owners, like they used to be when they previously won the title.

 

 

[Ray Patterson]

Is AZ winning the Eredivisie, a similar achievement than say Hibs winning the Premiership?

[ahemps]

4 hours ago, ArabAuslander said:

Is AZ winning the Eredivisie, a similar achievement than say Hibs winning the Premiership?

Ajax pay 3x the wages of AZ. It would be an amazing achievement and I hope they do it. Celtics wage bill is more than 7x that of Hibs so I would say it's not as big an achievement but would still be pretty amazing. Only on 4 occasions as the Eredivise not been won by one of the traditional big 3 so historically it would be huge.

Surprisingly 5 different teams have won the league in the last 10 years. You have to go back 56 years to say that about Scotland.

[Marten]

3 hours ago, ahemps said:

Ajax pay 3x the wages of AZ. It would be an amazing achievement and I hope they do it. Celtics wage bill is more than 7x that of Hibs so I would say it's not as big an achievement but would still be pretty amazing. Only on 4 occasions as the Eredivise not been won by one of the traditional big 3 so historically it would be huge.

Surprisingly 5 different teams have won the league in the last 10 years. You have to go back 56 years to say that about Scotland.

It's worth noting as well that most previous "non big 3" champions were quite heavily bankrolled, including AZ and Twente when they won the title in 2009 & 2010 respectively. Now, AZ's rich owner that got them the 2009 title is long gone and they don't have a rich owner currently, which would make a title this season a greater achievement than both AZ's and Twente's titles back then.