Tuesday 23 August 2011

Dutch League Weekly Review

Ajax battled back from two goals down to earn a share of the points from their trip to VVV-Venlo on Sunday.

A second-half double from Ahmed Musa put VVV in charge and on course to inflict a first defeat of the season on reigning champions Ajax, but the visitors struck twice inside a minute to salvage a draw.

Theo Janssen pulled a goal back in the 68th minute before Kolbeinn Sigthorsson levelled things up almost immediately.

Ajax now have seven points from their three games while VVV have two points.

Dries Mertens was the star as PSV Eindhoven claimed their first away win of the Eredivisie season, three first-half goals easing them past ADO Den Haag 3-0.

Mertens had a hand in all three goals as he opened the scoring in the 21st minute, before setting up Georgino Wijnaldum (24) and Ola Toivonen (39) to make the points safe before the interval.

With the game over as a contest there were few chances of note in the second half, leaving the hosts still looking for their maiden win of the campaign.

Guyon Fernandez struck a late equalizer on Sunday to earn Feyenoord a point in a 1-1 draw Heracles Almelo and keep intact their unbeaten start to the season.

Fernandez netted 12 minutes from time for the visitors to cancel out Glynor Plet's 63rd-minute opener for Heracles.

The result leaves Feyenoord with seven points from three games, while Heracles have five points to their name.

AZ Alkmaar returned to winning ways by thumping four goals past 10-man NEC Nijmegen at the AFAS Stadion.

All of the goals in the 4-0 win arrived in the second half as Jozy Altidore bagged a brace, either side of a Rasmus Elm penalty, before captain Niklas Moisander completed the rout late on.

NEC's capitulation came after the dismissal of Pavel Cmovs for hacking down Maarten Martens after 63 minutes, which resulted in Elm's successful penalty to make it 2-0.

Victory for AZ helped put the disappointment of back-to-back defeats to one side.

On Saturday, FC Twente maintained their perfect start to the Eredivisie season with a 5-1 rout of Heerenveen.

The Enschede club was 3-0 up at the interval with Luuk de Jong (27), Willem Janssen (29) and Marc Janko (45) all finding the target.

Substitute Emir Bajrami then added a fourth after 66 minutes and, although Luciano Narsingh pulled one back for Heerenveen three minutes from time, Janko scored his second of the match moments later from the penalty spot to make it three wins from three for Twente.

Elsewhere on Saturday, a brace from Wilfried Bony gave Vitesse Arnhem a 2-1 win against 10-man FC Utrecht to maintain their unbeaten start to the campaign.

The hosts were ahead after only six minutes with a penalty from Ivory Coast international Bony, but Jacob Mulenga levelled after 26 minutes.

However, Utrecht were reduced to 10 men when Marcus Nilsson was shown a straight red card for a late foul on Frank van der Struijk and Vitesse made their man advantage count as Bony scored again in the 89th minute.

Excelsior grabbed their first point of the season thanks to a late Leendart van Steensel equaliser at home to De Graafschap.

De Graafschap led through Rydell Poepon's 27th-minute opener, but they were denied a first win of the campaign when Van Steesel struck seven minutes from the end.

NAC Breda battled from two goals down to pick up their first point with a 2-2 draw against FC Groningen.

Leandro Bacuna put the visitors ahead in the seventh minute and Petter Andersson doubled their advantage a minute before the break to seemingly wrap up a second win of the season for Groningen.

However, NAC had other ideas and halved the deficit through Mike Zonneveld three minutes after the restart and then salvaged a draw thanks to Anthony Lurling's 56th-minute equalizer.

RKC Waalwijk recorded their first win back in the Eredivisie as they secured a 2-0 result at Roda JC in the Friday night game.

Having picked up just a point from their first two games following promotion back to the big time, Friday night's assignment in Kerkrade looked a difficult one.

However, goals from Ard van Peppen and Geoffrey Castillion proved to be enough for Ruud Brood's side, who are in the top half of the table.

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