Football United

PSV have ended a demanding week during which they played three home games in the spell of eight days in style. They have maintained their leading position in the Dutch league, following a 3-0 win over FC Groningen. It was a rather uneventful game, but the balance sheet after a hectic week is impressive: three games, three victories, no goals conceded.

The win over FC Groningen was just as perfunctory as dull, but that takes nothing away from the net result of the past week. Top-of-the-league PSV have no domestic obligations for the next two weeks and can take a well-deserved rest. The next fixture is not scheduled before 16 October, when PSV are on the road to ADO Den Haag - and now that the hopes of qualification for the knock-out stages of the UEFA Champions League are still alive following the 1-0 midweek win over Panathinaikos, PSV have every reason to be content about the opening stages of the current campaign. The Groningen game may not have been that entertaining and was actually hardly worth seeing; most fans will probably have forgotten that the next day.

PSV took an early lead in the Eindhoven Philips Stadium. On five minutes Jefferson Farfán delivered a fine centre from the right and Groningen defender Kurt Elshot unfortunately fired the ball into his own goal; 1-0. The visitors had not been on the other side of the pitch yet and the crowd was warming up for a lovely night of action-packed football. It was not to be. PSV lacked concentration and they made a mess of things at time in their defence, so that FC Groningen got threateningly close to the goal defended by Gomes. They created a hatful of chances and were on the verge of scoring the equalizer a couple of times. Against the run of play DaMarcus Beasley doubled the advantage on 32 minutes. Captain Van Bommel superbly put him clear with a pass produced by the outside of his right foot and the American international player used the space created that way excellently. He finished his run clinically by prodding the ball past the helpless Groningen keeper Bas Roorda; 2-0. It must have been a morale-boosting goal for the American who was not included in the starting line-up the past few games.

PSV started to control proceedings again after this reassuring goal, but they still did not put up a sparkling performance. The hosts clearly lacked inspiration and Groningen were unable to pull one goal back.



After the break PSV upped a gear, but the game just babbled on. Elshot brought out a fine save from keeper Gomes, but the game was soon killed off when John de Jong crowned his 250th appearance as a professional football player in an official game by adding a third goal. He was in full control when he neatly headed home a Young-Pyo Lee cross past Bas Roorda; 3-0.

Fred Rutten and René Eijkelkamp took charge this night, as PSV head coach Guus Hiddink had flown to South America to see a large number of games. Defender Alex was taken off some thirty minutes from final time as a precaution and Michael Lamey left the bench to replace him. Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink was also granted some rest after a hectic week and Gerald Sibon came on. Johan Vonlanthen was brought on as third substitute and DaMarcus Beasley came off.

Nothing much happened in the final stages. FC Groningen were already mentally preparing for the long trip home by coach and it was fine with PSV. They had collected the maximum number of points from three games this week and obviously they liked that a lot!

Goals: 5´ Elshot (ong), 32´ Beasley, 65´ John de Jong

Source: PSV.nl