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  • Tuesday 4 August 2009

    Champions off to poor start: Eredivisie reviews

    Willem II 3-1 Vitesse
    Sparta 0-2 Twente
    Heracles 3-2 AZ
    Waalwijk 0-1 Utrecht
    Feyenoord 2-0 NEC
    Groningen 0-2 Ajax
    Den Haag 1-2 Breda
    PSV 3-3 VVV Venlo

    Ronald Koeman's first game in charge of the champions ended with a defeat and two players sent from the field as AZ's defence of the soup dish started in possibly the worst possible way. Having lost Demy de Zeeuw to Ajax, Koeman started with five at the back against unfancied Heracles. It didn't work. Within an hour, AZ were three goals down as, first, Everton exchanged passes with Bas Dost and burst into the box before firing in from a tight angle. That was after just eight minutes and three minutes after the break, the lead was doubled when Willy Overtoom shrugged off all three centre halves, checked back inside the cover and fired past Sergio Romero. An exquisite free-kick from Mark-Jan Fledderus made it three. AZ came back strongly as Graziano Pelle - fired in through a forest of legs inside the box - and Mounir El Hamdaoui - won the race to a near-post cross - pulled it back to 3-2. Then AZ imploded as Gil Swerts and Pelle were sent off for violent conduct in the dying moments.

    Three of the main fancied runners all won 2-0. Ajax eased to a win against Groningen as Miralem Sulejmani - the subject of widespread criticism last season for failing to justofy his hefty price tag - opened the scoring as Ajax played keep-ball around the Groningen box and Dennis Rommedahl, who had set up Sulejmani, stuck the second away to kill the game off to give Martin Jol a win with his new side. Mario Been was also a 2-0 winner as Jon-Dahl Tomasson latched on the horrid defensive header to open the scoring and Leroy Fer added a late penalty. Twente also won 2-0 with Brian Ruiz's inch-perfect lob adding to Blaise N'Kufo's opener. Steve McClaren went away from the rigid 4-3-3 deployed last year to a more conventional 4-4-2 as he's yet to replace Eljero Elia - now of Hamburg - and being without Marko Arnautovic for this one. Maybe he really does have more than one trick up his sleeve.

    PSV were held by promoted VVV in a hugely entertaining game. Nordin Amrabat and Ola Toivonen put PSV into a two-goal half-time lead, but Achmed Ahahaoui and Keisuke Honda had levelled it by the hour mark. With eight minute to go, Toivonen's second looked to have won it, but some comical defending was punished by Ruben Schaken's 85th minute equaliser.

    NAC got off to a winning start as Anthony Lurling and Matthew Amoah's goals meant Caba Horvath's reply was just consolation for ADO. RKC Waalwijk, the other promoted club, lost at home to a third-minute Ricky van Wolfswinkel goal while Heerenveen and Roda JC couldn't muster a goal between them. Willem II top the standings after round 1 on goals scored after their 3-1 win over Vitesse. Christophe Gregoire and Said Bouthar put them into a half-time lead, but Gregoire then picked up a second yellow in the second half and was duly dismissed. Sinan Kaloglu pulled one back a couple of minutes after the incident, but Arjan Swinkels added a third for the Tilburgers in the last minute to make the game safe.

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