After weeks of teeth grinding suspense in the Eredivisie football fans in The Netherlands have either been dreading or looking forward to this day: the 5th of May is Liberation Day for the Dutch. The country is celebrating it's liberation from the nazi occupants some 68 years ago. But this day also coincides with the Eredivisie's definitive round for the championship title and qualification spots for European football. please log in to view this image At 11:30 all nine matches kick off at the same time. most noteworthy is Ajax - Willem II. Willem II have already been relegated and Ajax... Ajax can grab the championship title in this game. A victory is enough for them to win the 2012-2013 season as they are four points clear of PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord. With Willem II down and out in the competition this looks like a very easy task for Ajax. The Capital and the country is already in the mood for a party because of Liberation Day. But when Ajax claim the title, Amsterdam will go nuts. And the last time Amsterdam went nuts, Ajax fans climbed onto the Rijksmuseum and caused hundreds of thousands of Euro's in damages. And that was 'only' a victory party. Today, hundreds of thousands of people are in Amsterdam just for Liberation Day, add the fan base off Ajax to that number and you get likely mayhem. This year will likely be remembered for the Danes. Lasse Schone, Christian Poulsen, Christian Eriksen and most notably this season: Viktor Fischer. All from Danmark and all made a massive impact in the team this year. The main question is: how many of them will still be in Amsterdam after the summer? The task for Ajax is pretty simple: win. For Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven the situation is a bit more complicated. With 2 games left to go and both clubs have 66 points in the league, Eindhoven has the clear advantage. With a goal difference of + 60, which is third highest in Europe after Bayern München and FC Barcalona, they need to win both games to claim the second spot on the table. Which is a spot in the third round qualification in the Champions League. But in the last couple of weeks, things have changed quite a bit for PSV. The managers and board of directors are scrutinized in the media and by fans. Former PSV legends and managers have been suggesting that a revolution is needed to bring the club to new heights. Hans van Breukelen, Ronald Waterman and Guus Hiddink are some of these that are openly supporting a coup within the club similar to the Ajax revolution of 2011 when Cruijff seized control of the club. PSV have been buying new players on a constant base since 2011 but so far the club has been without a league title for 5 years. And Eindhoven desperately needed to win the title this year. Manager Dick Advocaat won't return after the summer simply because he failed to build a consistent team. Even with the likes of Kevin Strootman, Mark van Bommel and Dries Mertens, PSV Eindhoven were unable to win week in week out. On the 18th of January PSV played PEC Zwolle at home, a relegation candidate and normally a second division club, PSV went into the game thinking they could roll them over quite easily and with a certain cockiness they started the match. 90 minutes later they mentally battered. PEC Zwolle won 1-3, Erik Pieters got sent off and smashed his hand through a glass wall. [video=youtube;CQm2Ac0AQwo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQm2Ac0AQwo[/video] This day proved to be pivotal in this season as it was the ultimate highlight of how inconsistent and unhinged the team was. The board and the director have openly apologized for the rough times the club is in and for the game against NEC Nijmegen, they bought the entire fan base of 35.000 people a beer, even for the visiting fans. In third place comes Feyenoord. Their mission is quite simple: pray for a miracle. If PSV win both games there is nothing then there is no use in looking up on the table, only to look down. Vitesse is 2 points behind them, dropping points in the last two games may even result in ending up fourth. Feyenoord however did enjoy a good season, despite ending in second place last year, the club saw the departure of some key players last summer. Ron Vlaar went to Aston Villa, Karim El Ahmadi followed Vlaar to Villa and Guidetti went back to Manchester United. Manager Ronald Koeman found himself in a position that he had some money to spend but the club pushed him into using youth players. Graziano Pellè proved to be the bargain of the season scoring 26 goals in 32 games. Pellè and Harmeet Singh were the only two players Feyenoord bought in the summer costing the club around 3 million euro's. Daryl Janmaat and Ruud Vormer came in as free agents and Jerson Cabral was traded to FC Twente for Wesley Verhoek. But those six players weren't enough. Koeman had use the youth academy to make the team competitive. In came Jean Paul Boëtius and Tonny Trindade de Vilheña. Both 18 years old at the start of the season, but by the end of the season, two solid first team players who have developed on an extreme rate for their age. This policy of using youth players instead of buying in players is a policy now used by most of the clubs in the Eredivisie. The problem for Koeman was that with this high amount of very young players, the team was very inconsistent in the first half of the season in the away games. Unbeaten at home now for one and a half years, the away games is what costed Feyenoord the title. But for the coming two weeks, it is praying for a miracle to get to second place, or hoping that they don't blow it in this weekends' away game against rival ADO The Hague. By the end of Sunday afternoon for some fans it could be liberation day, but in so many ways this could be a massive disappointment day for so many fans at the same time. Kick off starts at 11:30 GMT.
For those interested: The livestream links to today's games http://www.wiziwig.tv/competition.php?part=sports&competitionid=3&discipline=football
Jan Vertonghen posted a tweet yesterday about looking forward to Ajax becoming champions and they didn't disappoint him. A 5-0 win sealed the title for them and I wouldn't be surprised if about half of the crowd were scouts from a variety of countries. If we do go in for any of their players in the summer, then our Belgian defender could be a persuasive asset in our attempts to get some of his old teammates to join.
I think a top 4 spot on the table is a bit more persuasive as Ajax play in the CL themselves next year. They would have to give that up for a Europa League team if you end up in 5th or even 6th place.
Don't disagree with your basic point, but Vertonghen did it and 6th looks extremely unlikely, too. We're 5 points ahead of Everton with a game in hand and they've only got 2 to play.
68 years since the liberation, surely? Ajax have produced so many top players. It's a shame that the modern game means it's unrealistic for the best of those to remain at the club and for Ajax to be competitive in Europe as a result. No disrespect to Spurs, but should the team currently 5th in England be a better option than the champions of Holland with their great history and traditions? Money talks.
I was wondering if anyone would actually notice, small test to see if people actually bother reading my pieces. You're the first to see it though, put one or two of them in each blog to see if anyone cares enough.
