The match against the second last in the league standings promised goaltending and it was. Despite the absence of Baggio who had to keep the bed due to a concussion, our boys also kept their own goal clean.
The match began somewhat unsettled. Both teams wanted to take control and nice attacks arose back and forth. Cody, Armando and Jordan made sure that Merijn had little to do by stopping the really dangerous breakthroughs in time. In addition, they served the attackers with sharp passing. Robin, Björn and Ruud provided enough attacking combinations, but the redeeming goal did not materialize.
After ten minutes it was Cody who crossed the field from the center line, passed three opponents and shot the ball into the net.
The unbridled efforts of Robin and Ruud were to no avail; their shots on goal did not end up in the nets. The second goal came from Jordan who shot the 0-2 from distance with his left foot! Bladella was knocked out of the game. The 0-3 was not long in coming and came from Björn who shot in from Cody.
Then the PSV defense had to come into action again. After a nice save by Merijn, Armando prevented a shot on goal by a breakaway player and James replaced the goalkeeper to block the ball. Shortly after, it was the same James who crossed the field with nice passing moves and speed and shot the ball razor-sharp from distance; 0-4. The goalkeeping had started; the 0-5 was scored by Robin who, after passing his opponent once again, finally scored. Ruud also scored before half time; 0-6.
The second half showed the same pattern as the first half. The first ten minutes both teams were aggressive. Bladella showed its best side by tackling without hesitation and trying to exploit every possible attacking attempt. Yet it was PSV who dominated. After Luc's powerful distance shots kept ending up in the side netting, it was Ruud who opened the follow-up score by taking the ball on the slipper from distance with his left; 0-7. Then within ten minutes Cody made his famous hat-trick; on speed, with a slalom and a nick. The last goal was again a wonderful combination of Armando and Robin; the former gave a cross from his own half to Robin who ran in well and did not hesitate when facing the goalkeeper; 0-11. Pepijn hardly had any ball contact in the second half, but showed at the penalty kicks that he is a keeper of caliber by stopping two of them.
This game was a good warm-up for next week when we have to play against Wilhelmina Boys who are in second place. The calves are greased!

Report with thanks to Ank Gakpo-van Bommel