The report

Under beautiful weather conditions, the O15 peers of PSV and Ajax played on Tuesday for a catch-up match. Both teams lost their matches last weekend. Ajax at AZ 2-0 and PSV 4-2 at Vitesse. In the league table, Ajax was three points behind PSV, so a home win could put the Amsterdammers on six points.

All kinds of wonderful reflections, but ultimately it has to happen on the field. And PSV did not get off to a happy start. In the sixth minute an Eindhoven defender unluckily headed a cross at the far post into his own goal: 0-1. After PSV threatened the Ajax goal twice a minute later through Jesper Uneken and Iggy Houben, Ajax made it 0-2 in the counter attack. First goalkeeper Niek Schiks cleverly turned away the effort of an Ajax player, but in the rebound the ball was hit hard against the arm of captain Luc Netten from a few meters. That he tried to avoid the ball, tried to protect himself, without making himself wide or moving towards the ball, the referee decided to give a penalty and a red card. The penalty was taken and Niek was still on the ball, but could not prevent the 0-2. Eight minutes played, 0-2 behind and one man less, the O15 has ever known a better start. The rest of the match is easy to guess. In the first half, PSV was not in the game. They were lucky that a header hit the post and that Niek was in good shape. PSV was dangerous once when Milan Govaers sent Ruben van Bommel away on the right. His shot from just outside the box, however, fell to the Ajax goalkeeper.

In the second half, PSV showed a lion's heart. They fought for every meter and also the duels were played at the cutting edge with the home team winning the game much more often than in the first half. This made for a very interesting second half. The home team certainly had chances to score the tying goal. However, a free kick by Milan went over. And halfway through the second half, a pass from Jason van Duiven just did not reach Iggy. Ajax got its only chance of the second half about thirteen minutes before time when an outside player was allowed to shoot from inside the goal area. But again Niek had a good view of the shot and parried it. With seven minutes to play, PSV had a decent opportunity when Iggy took a free kick from the edge of the penalty area. However, his curled shot went wide via the side netting.

PSV therefore lost 0-2, but showed in the second half that it is cut from the same cloth as PSV 1: never give up. And that, especially considering the age of the players, is worth a very fat compliment!

Setup:
Niek Schiks; Livano Comenencia, Luc Netten (c), Matteo Dams, Yaël Gil y Muinos (60/Koen Jansen); Lars Putters, Milan Govaers, Shi-Jon Martina (36/Jason van Duiven); Iggy Houben, Jesper Uneken (20/Seb Loeffen), Ruben van Bommel (36/Jaivy Lourens).

Red: Luc Netten