{"id":27695,"date":"2017-08-14T15:30:52","date_gmt":"2017-08-14T14:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/?p=27695"},"modified":"2017-08-14T09:36:37","modified_gmt":"2017-08-14T08:36:37","slug":"eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Eredivisie Roundup: Exciting Opening Weekend as Ajax Upset"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s that time of year again: time for some Eredivisie football! The Dutch first division isn\u2019t the most glamorous, rich, or big name-filled league, but provides quality entertainment and a chance to watch future stars before they make a big move. From the colossal crowds inside <em>De Kuip <\/em>or the <em>Amsterdam ArenA<\/em> to the passionate underdog fans of teams like Excelsior, VVV, or Heracles, there\u2019s sure to be a club you\u2019d love to support and a stadium to visit. There\u2019ve been plenty of goals, upsets, and excitement in the Eredivisie opening weekend!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Utrecht <\/strong>looks to have found its replacement for Sebastian Haller in Cyriel Dessers. The Belgian striker notched a brace in an away match at <strong>ADO Den Haag<\/strong> where the home side couldn\u2019t do anything to counter Utrecht\u2019s onslaught. The match ended 0-3 to the visitors, as Sander van de Streek dominated the midfield with a goal, three key passes, and six tackles.<\/p>\n<p><strong>VVV-Venlo <\/strong>started its first Eredivisie campaign since 2012\/2013 in fashion by putting three past <strong>Sparta Rotterdam<\/strong>. Midfield star Clint Leemans forced a goalkeeping mistake by powering a longshot into Roy Kortsmit before the half before on-loan Tarik Tissoudali gave the home side a two-goal advantage after the break. Young attacker Vito van Crooij (1 goal, 1 assist) finished the job at the end of the match with a counter-attack goal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>PSV <\/strong>was able to outlast a pesky <strong>AZ Alkmaar <\/strong>side 3-2 in Eindhoven thanks in large part to new signing Hirving Lozano. The match was overshadowed by AZ\u2019s Calvin Stengs suffering what looks like a horrible leg injury early on; we all wish him the best for his recovery. Stengs\u2019 substitute, Dabney dos Santos, scored the first goal of the match before Lozano equalized for PSV. The Mexican winger had a few great chances minutes later, but it was Gast\u00f3n Pereiro who gave PSV the lead after the break. Marco van Ginkel scored later to make it 3-1, and Wout Weghorst converted a penalty late as PSV held on to the three points.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Heracles <\/strong>winger Brandley Kuwas was the star of the show as his home side upset <strong>Ajax <\/strong>2-1. After a mundane first half, Amin Younes displayed some great dribbling to free Hakim Ziyech up for a long shot that gave the keeper no chance. Heracles refused to throw in the towel though; Kuwas provided a great ball to Paul Gladon to equalize. After the 80<sup>th<\/sup> minute, Kuwas became the man of the night as he cut in on his left and sent a magnificent shot into the net from range.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vitesse <\/strong>welcomed newly promoted side <strong>NAC Breda <\/strong>to Arnhem with a 4-1 thrashing, thanks in large part to Kosovan winger Milot Rashica\u2019s goal and assist. Thomas Bruns, Bryan Linssen, and Tim Matavz put Vitesse ahead with three goals before the half, and Thierry Ambrose\u2019s header was answered by Rashica with an inch-perfect long shot into the bottom corner. Vitesse looks strong going forward despite the loss of striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel this summer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Roda JC <\/strong>looked poised to grab a crucial away result against <strong>PEC Zwolle <\/strong>after Simon Gustafson\u2019s goal was taking his side into halftime with a lead, but Dirk Marcellis\u2019 late equalizer dashed some hope. Later, Adil Auassar\u2019s own goal gave Zwolle the lead, but Gustafson converted a penalty for his equalizing brace. Roda couldn\u2019t hold on though, and Ryan Thomas\u2019 sublime ball from the back left Mustafa Samyak open to chip the goalkeeper. Bram van Polen\u2019s long shot ensured PEC Zwolle walked away with a confident victory, 4-2 to the home side.<\/p>\n<p>Dutch champions <strong>Feyenoord <\/strong>squeaked by <strong>Twente <\/strong>to take advantage of Ajax\u2019s slip-up by a score line of 2-1. Last season\u2019s top scorer Nicolai J\u00f8rgensen began the new season in fine form, scoring a tap in following Jean-Paul Bo\u00ebtius\u2019 cutback pass. Twente\u2019s young Finnish sensation Fredrik Jensen scored a fantastic shot later in the first half from outside the box to level the scores. Feyenoord wouldn\u2019t capitulate though, as Steven Berghuis headed in Jens Toornstra\u2019s free kick to gift the <em>De Kuip <\/em>supporters a match-winning goal.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Roodzwarten <\/em>of <strong>Excelsior Rotterdam <\/strong>found themselves well matched against <strong>Willem II <\/strong>in Tilburg but escaped with a victory. Milan Massop\u2019s header found the post within the first half hour, but Willem\u2019s keeper Timon Wellenreuther couldn\u2019t prevent it from ricocheting off his hand and into the goal. In the second half, after some exquisite passing play, Excelsior\u2019s on-loan striker Zakaria El Azzouzi found himself in loads of space in the box and was able to convert a fantastic top corner strike. Willem striker Fran Sol capitalized on a poor clearance with a goal to halve the deficit, but Excelsior held on to claim three points.<\/p>\n<p>The final match of the weekend was the <em>Derby of the North<\/em> between <strong>Groningen <\/strong>and <strong>Heerenveen<\/strong>. New signing Denzel Dumfries\u2019 cross found the head of Morten Thorsby to give Heerenveen an early lead. That goal was almost perfectly replicated at the end of the half, except it was striker Reza Ghoochannejhad who got on the end of a Dumfries cross with an easy tap in. Groningen striker Lars Veldwijk remained composed as he cut the away side\u2019s lead in half, and Mimoun Mahi calmly converted a penalty to equalize. Mortin Thorsby scored once again in the 85<sup>th<\/sup> minute what looked like a certain winner, but the drama reached a crescendo when Groningen was awarded another penalty with only minutes left. Mahi converted once more and ran up to a delirious home stand. A great match to cap off an exciting Eredivisie opening weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s that time of year again: time for some Eredivisie football! The Dutch first division isn\u2019t the most glamorous, rich, or big name-filled league, but provides quality entertainment and a chance to watch future stars before they make a big move. From the colossal crowds inside De Kuip or the Amsterdam ArenA to the passionate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":158,"featured_media":23551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1621],"tags":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Eredivisie Roundup: Exciting Opening Weekend as Ajax Upset<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It&#039;s that time again: time for some Eredivisie football! A weekend filled with goals, drama, and upsets is sure to whet your pallet for some more football.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eredivisie Roundup: Exciting Opening Weekend as Ajax Upset\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#039;s that time again: time for some Eredivisie football! A weekend filled with goals, drama, and upsets is sure to whet your pallet for some more football.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"By Far The Greatest Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/By-Far-The-Greatest-Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-14T14:30:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-08-14T08:36:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/eredivisie.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alex Dieker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bftgt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bftgt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alex Dieker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/\",\"name\":\"Eredivisie Roundup: Exciting Opening Weekend as Ajax Upset\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/eredivisie.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-14T14:30:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-14T08:36:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8c6c3dabea9897d00f874717bf02ae1d\"},\"description\":\"It's that time again: time for some Eredivisie football! A weekend filled with goals, drama, and upsets is sure to whet your pallet for some more football.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/eredivisie.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/eredivisie.png\",\"width\":750,\"height\":350,\"caption\":\"Eredivisie\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Eredivisie Roundup: Exciting Opening Weekend as Ajax Upset\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/\",\"name\":\"By Far The Greatest Team\",\"description\":\"The football blog for fans of all clubs\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8c6c3dabea9897d00f874717bf02ae1d\",\"name\":\"Alex Dieker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17acf22f698efe66876be8272c1bf601?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17acf22f698efe66876be8272c1bf601?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Alex Dieker\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/author\/alex-dieker\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Eredivisie Roundup: Exciting Opening Weekend as Ajax Upset","description":"It's that time again: time for some Eredivisie football! A weekend filled with goals, drama, and upsets is sure to whet your pallet for some more football.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Eredivisie Roundup: Exciting Opening Weekend as Ajax Upset","og_description":"It's that time again: time for some Eredivisie football! A weekend filled with goals, drama, and upsets is sure to whet your pallet for some more football.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/","og_site_name":"By Far The Greatest Team","article_publisher":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/By-Far-The-Greatest-Team","article_published_time":"2017-08-14T14:30:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-08-14T08:36:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":350,"url":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/eredivisie.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Alex Dieker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bftgt","twitter_site":"@bftgt","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alex Dieker","Estimated reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/","url":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/","name":"Eredivisie Roundup: Exciting Opening Weekend as Ajax Upset","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/eredivisie.png","datePublished":"2017-08-14T14:30:52+00:00","dateModified":"2017-08-14T08:36:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8c6c3dabea9897d00f874717bf02ae1d"},"description":"It's that time again: time for some Eredivisie football! A weekend filled with goals, drama, and upsets is sure to whet your pallet for some more football.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/eredivisie.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/eredivisie.png","width":750,"height":350,"caption":"Eredivisie"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/eredivisie-roundup-week-one-2016-2017\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Eredivisie Roundup: Exciting Opening Weekend as Ajax Upset"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/","name":"By Far The Greatest Team","description":"The football blog for fans of all clubs","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8c6c3dabea9897d00f874717bf02ae1d","name":"Alex Dieker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17acf22f698efe66876be8272c1bf601?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17acf22f698efe66876be8272c1bf601?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Alex Dieker"},"url":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/posts\/author\/alex-dieker\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27695"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/158"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27696,"href":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27695\/revisions\/27696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.byfarthegreatestteam.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}