There are sometimes those wonderful football nights that strongly call to mind one of my own (never out of the blue, by the way) careers as a football player. A beautiful low sun, hardly any wind, the grass still wet from a heavy afternoon shower and the air full of fresh oxygen. Delicious! Playing football! Now! That feeling.
Tuesday night was such déjà vu. In near-perfect football weather, a pleasant match unrolled against Helmond Sport that was eventually won 9-2. Almost the entire defense (Jeroen Swinkels, Roel van Linschoten and Ymanuel Hurmans) was out of action and coach Chris van der Weerden had called in Cody Gakpo and Ruud van Bremen as replacements. In a few months these guys will have to play on a big field as well. And they played well, let that be said.
Well, the match. Matthias Verreth seemed to put the game away after only three minutes with a header from a corner by Zohair Labyad. Dante Rigo almost signed for the 2-0 just after that, but saw his pounder splattered on the crossbar. Helmond Sport got their first chance after seven minutes, but Aaron van Engelen got out of his goal and parried the attack with his outstretched body. Joey Konings meanwhile ensures with one attack after another on the left that Helmond Sport has its hands full with PSV. Still, it is not the expected 2-0, but rather the 1-1 from a quick break that is not well cleared at the back. PSV recovered well, however, and put things right before halftime. First it is Matthias who reacts attentively when the ball bounces back into the penalty area after a hard shot by Mink Peeters (2-1) and then it is Dante who sends Joey into the depths. Joey shoots the ball past the goalkeeper not even hard, but cunningly, and sees his hard work rewarded with a goal: 3-1.
Cody and Ruud join the team in the second half. Already after two minutes Joey hit the ball with his head from a header: 4-1. Helmond Sport came out sporadically and Aaron had to stay alert. Yet PSV scores again, this time through Ertem Bölükbas who drives the ball into the ropes from 20 meters. Just before halftime, Joey scored his third goal by hitting the keeper with a flat, hard shot from the right side: 5-1.
The third half is probably the flashiest. Cody and Ruud have found their feet and have adapted to a bigger field and a higher pace. Very nice is the 7-1 from Mats Grotenbreg. He took the long ball from behind with him in his stride and shot the ball past the goalkeeper from a great distance. Ties van den Eijnde was close to scoring 8-1 when he shot a good cross from Ruud against the goalkeeper. Moments later it is Helmond Sport that does something back. From a great distance a free kick is shot faultlessly into the crossbar: a great goal! Zohair then makes it 8-2 when he pushes the ball past the Helmond Sport goalkeeper in the rebound. Almost the 9-2 falls, but PSV cannot get the ball in via Cody, Mink and Mats. Ruud finally gets a nice header on a tight cross from Mink and scores his goal: 9-2.
All in all a good game, tough but generally sporting from both sides.