Last night, the three remaining Dutch participants in the Euroa League displayed a very wide range of performances. Let’s have a look.

PSV

When the line-ups were handed out before the game against Glasgow Rangers, few believed what they saw. Right there, behind that last line of four defenders, was another dot. A sweeper. Surprised looks were exchanged. Bewilderment was shared. But there he was, in the Glasgow line-up. An honest-to-god Ausputzer.

Glasgow fielded one very lonely striker up front and made it very clear what their intention was. They bunkered down, hoofed a couple of balls forward and that was it. They were dangerous exactly once, from a corner, but Isaksson saved.

On the other side, PSV created very little. Typical was the performance of Orlando Engelaar. The lanky distributor had by far the most possession, but held up play, gesturing his teammates to come into the ball.

PSV had two or three decent chances but Marcus Berg once again reminded everybody he is not the same striker who played for Groningen anymore. He was released, twice, by Ola Toivonen and was twice caught up by Bougherra, who has the figure of a tank. Berg is set to return to HSV at the end of the season, as PSV does not want to make his stay permanent.

Ajax

Ajax – Spartak Moscow were one of two simultaneous Dutch-Russian affairs. The Amsterdammers were again without troublemaker Mounir el Hamdaoui and were decidedly wasteful in front of the Russian goal. De Jong, playing instead of el Hamdaoui, did very well as centre forward and it looks as if de Boer has a viable option to replace the Moroccan.

Wingers Ebicilio and Sulejmani, as well as midfielder Demy de Zeeuw had plenty of chances but didn’t pull the trigger. De Jong too, while promising as an alternative number 9, didn’t show the scoring drift he did last year.

After about an hour, it was Spartak who scored. Captain Alex curled in a shot from outside of the box, leaving Ajax to do what they had been doing so unsuccessfully before the 0-1. De Zeeuw, Ebicilio and Erikssen got very close, but even a 1-1 draw would have suited Spartak just fine. Ajax will find it plenty difficult, especially without a striker like Suarez, to overturn a 0-1 deficit in Moscow.

FC Twente

There was, however, some good news to report from the Dutch fields and it came from Enschede, where FC Twente hosted Zenith St. Petersburg. In the previous round, Twente had taken care of Russian Rubin Kazan at home and in Kazan, but Zenith, it was expected, would provide more of a challenge.

It was the good form of Luuk de Jong that proved deciding. While his older brother was missing chance in Amsterdam for Ajax, the younger de Jong brother, more of a natural striker in the first place, had more success.

Zenith started out the more threatening side. Danny’s first attempt on goal was disallowed for offside. His second chance followed shortly but was aimed over the crossbar.

Twente’s opening goal came off a deflected cross by the much maligned right back Roberto Rosales. De Jong reacted quickly and headed In the 1-0.

The Venezuelan Rosales has been criticized for losing possession in unfortunate positions, but his defensive contribution showed when he cleared a certain Zenith equalizer off the line.

Play flowed from one end to the other throughout the game, but Twente goalkeeper Michaylov answered well when called upon. At that point, another goal could have fallen on either side of the field but it was Twente who expanded their lead through a volley from Denny Landzaat. The midfielder has a history in the UEFA league, reaching the semi finals with AZ in the middle of the last decade.

In the extra time, it was again de Jong who crept in front of a Russian defender (actually, Brazilian defender Bruno Alves) to head home from short range, after a hard-as-nails cross from Theo Janssen. An absolutely wonderful result for Twente, who will travel to St. Petersburg with a comfortable lead.

That concludes the Dutch performance in Europe this week. All three sides could have won, but only FC Twente did, proving again it is both the most creative and effective team among the Dutch contenders for the Europa League

Tonight, three Eredivisie clubs will play in the round of sixteen of the Europa League, Europe’s – let’s face it – second most important club tournament.

The Dutch are elated by this.

Read that sentence again. Dutch football is now officially satisfied – no, happy – to have three representatives remaining at this stage of the Europa League. Participants from countries like Spain (Villarreal) and France (Lille, against PSV in the previous round) field sub par teams because their final ranking in their domestic league outweighs the importance of winning this cup but in Holland we are happy that we’re even still in this thing.

And we should be. We really do.

You see, the declining performance of Dutch clubs in the Champions League has led to Holland gradually slipping in UEFA’s Coefficient ranking. Rather than competing with the likes of Portugal and Russia, the Eredvisie is now trying to hold off Turkey and Greece. Both of those countries have however already completely exited the European stage this season, so any points PSV, Ajax and Twente will rack up will widen the gap to losing another European spot significantly.

Now that you know why they should do it, the question becomes if they can?

PSV

Just like last round, all three clubs play at home at the same time. However this time, it’s in the first leg, which could hurt. PSV isn’t known for its high scoring exploits and a small lead could conceivably be easily lost at Ibrox.

At home in the Eredivisie, PSV can’t shake the idea that they are not performing up to their standards. They got off lucky last weekend against Excelsior, being awarded a last minute penalty to take home the win. But it was difficult. It was ugly. It was hard-fought. It was the same type of game that PSV has been playing since the winter break. They have been on the winning end often enough to stay in first place, but it certainly raises doubts about their chances in Europe.

I don’t think it should. European nights are still a different matter, as seen by PSV’s win over (an admittedly understrength) Lille. PSV will be with Toivonen, who is suspended domestically for elbowing Jan Verthongen in the face. But as long as PSV has Dszudszak, they have a creative game-breaker on the left wing.

Glasgow went through because of a last minute goal in Lisbon from American midfielder Edu, leveling the match against Sporting 2-2. No mean feat, Lisbon has been a solid Europe League contender with plenty of talented players. Rangers itself, of course, were a finalist in one of the most one-sided finals in recent memory, against Zenith St. Petersburg in 2008. Which brings us to

FC Twente

Because the tukkers face Zenith, get it? Twente was mightily impressive against another Russian particpant, Rubin Kazan in the previous round. They took away an impressive 0-2 win from Rubin and restored order at home after going down two goals, pulling level on the back of Theo Janssen.

These past few weeks, young striker Luuk de Jong has been in excellent form, scoring impressive goals against AZ and NAC Breda. The newly minted international thrives with the savvy Theo Janssen behind him. Janssen himself, of course, is always dangerous from set pieces but has recently also shown a penchant for taking shots from outside of the penalty era, with decent success.

Like PSV, Twente will be able to field a player who has been suspended domestically for attacking a referee. Douglas, the long Brazilian centre back, will be able to play in Europe, having been served with a six match ban for Eredivisie games.

Ajax

Ajax faces another Russian team, Spartak Moscow. Ajax has been fickle in the league, but surprised with a very good result against AZ last weekend (4-0). In Europe, their two games against Anderlecht were won by a comfortable marging.

Frank de Boer has fallen out with Mounir el Hamdaoui yet again and he will ikely not play tonight. Mounir hadn’t exactly been setting the world alight with his recent performances, so I doubt Ajax will miss him all that much. Siem de Jong, older brother of Twente’s Luuk de Jong, will likely be the focal point of the attack again. Normally a midfielder, de Jong will be flanked by the extremely boom-or-bust Sulejmani on the right and Ebicilio on the left. Much will depend on the young Danish playmaker Eikssen.

Utrecht started the year well, but its obvious their squad cannot handle the load they have had to deal with. The Europa League games, while certainly beneficial to a young and growing team like Utrecht, has seemed to done more harm than good.

Twente will have to rebound from the events on Sunday, when they lost defender Douglas to a momentary laps of sanity. The prospect of a final against Ajax, who face second league RKC tomorrow, will be enough motivation.

Game starts in half an hour.

The weekend itself started of rather bizarrely, with Vitesse getting creamed by Heracles (6-1), proving the many newcomers in the Arnhem defense still do not gel as well as hoped. Roda JC gave away yet another home lead, drawing their eight home game this season.

But the real fireworks on Saturday happened in Tilburg, where one would least expect them. With VVV netting three points on Friday, Willem II had to win in order to not keep a shot at avoiding direct relegation. They did. And how.

Having gone down 0-2 against Heerenveen, they clawed back into the game to equalize. Against Heerenveen, for this Willem II, that would be a good result, but Heerkens’ men needed more. The optimisim after the equalizing goal was quickly dimmed when, after an unfortunate (and late) own goal Willem II was once more staring defeat right in the face. But in the last five minutes, Willem II showed some backbone. It only took them 25 games to muster it, but a last minute equalizer by van der Heijden and a last second winner by Maceo Rigters (who had scored the own goal minutes earlier) meant a little hope in Tilburg.

Come Sunday, eyes were squarely fixed on Eindhoven, where Ajax went for its last shot to stay in contention for the title. Eyes assumedly wandered pretty quickly when they saw two teams who really, really did not want to lose. PSV could live with a draw, and weirdly enough, so could Ajax. They are now banking on PSV dropping points in their more difficult remaining schedule. But this Ajax will not run the gauntlet like they did last year. They’ll drop points, too

PSV will be without Ola Toivonen for the forseeable future. The sneaky Swede, who provoked NAC’s Gudelje into a pair of yellow cards last week was slightly less subtle this week when he blatantly elbowed Jan Verthongen in the face.

Verthongen cried foul after the game, having been elbowed in the face and all. But his rant on sportsmanlike conduct rang a bit hollow when The Fair Play committee launched an investigation into him for punching PSV defender Marcelo way below the belt after the Brazilian manhandled him on a set piece.

All the refereeing irregularities in the game between PSV and Ajax paled in comparison to Ruud Bossen’s antics in the other top game of the day, the one between AZ and Twente. Not many referees manage to send off two players, get attacked by one of those two players, temporarily pause the game on the request of the home team and then have both coaches fume over his performance after the final whistle but Bossen pulled it off.

The games absolute lowest moment came after the first sending off, the score already 1-0 after an own goal by Theo Janssen. Douglas mowed an arm in the general direction of Wernbloom, who feigned being hit in the face. When Dougles saw the red card, he snapped and gave Ruud Bossen something in between a headbutt and a cuddle. Then he pushed  Wernbloom, who fell to the floor as if he had been shot. Again.

After AZ’s Viergever had been sent off to balance it out a little bit, Twente started pressing for an equalizer, which they found through a wonderfull finish in the 89th minute by Luuk de Jong. But in the dying seconds of extra time, after a lovely flowing move, Falkenburg got AZ the win after all. Twente coachh Preudhomme was fuming at the fourth official for all of the games and might (or at least should) get suspended for his behaviour.

Also on not-so-Super Sunday, it was Feyenoord – FC groningen, which ended in a surprising 5-1 win for the Rotterdam team. Georgino Wijnaldum scored four goals, two from the spot kick in what was Groningen’s second horrible showing in as many weeks. Also it was NEC – FC Utrecht, which ended in 1-1.

After a spectacular day for Eredivisie teams in the Europa League with Twente, Ajax and PSV advancing to the next round, we turn once more to the Eredivisie, which is about two fixtures this week. There are seven others, but pretty much two of them count. Big time.

Yesterday, the Dreary Friday Night Game (copyright pending) was even Drearier than usual, with 17th place VVV hosting 16th plaved Excelsior. The two managed one goal between them, by Robert Cullen. He’s another product of Venlo’s forays into the Japanese market. Cullen is of Irish and Japanese heritage and actuall had some bright moments in the loss against Ajax as well.

Today, well, I guess there’s NAC Breda against ADO? Or maybe Willem II – Heerenveen? Roda JC – de Graafschap? Heracles – Vitesse? Truth be told, none of them are particularly juicy matchups, and there’s not a whole bunch of stories going on today. Of course, it’ll be interesting to see if ADO can keep their pace up, or if Willem II will get waxed again. But really, if you want stories, drama and decent football, Sunday is your best bet.

You know, when PSV hosts Ajax and FC Twente visits AZ?

This Sunday could very well reshape the outlook of this season. Let’s have a look.

PSV – Ajax

This is put or shut up time for the Amsterdammers. A loss against PSV would mean a whopping eight point deficit with nine more games to go. Ajax has been extremely fickle lately. For example: In between two impressive wins over Anderlecht on the European stage was an absolute eyesore of a performance against VVV. At home, no less. Sulejmani was on form against Anderlecht, but his inconsistency examplifies Ajax. Pretty decent when they’re on, pretty sad when they are not.

PSV meanwhile, just beat French leaders Lille over two games, capping it all off with a resounding 3-1 home win. Sounds impressive, sure, but there might be more to it. Lille, being in first place in France, can already smell that sweet, sweet Champions League money. They have a tough draw against Lyon this weekend and pretty much rested their starters in both games against PSV. Still, when PSV had to find some goals, they turned to Balasz Dszudszak, who scored a cheeky free kick when nobody was watching yet.

The Hungarian is picking up the slack after the departure of Affelay and has been lethal from free kicks, as well as providing tons of assists. Recently against AZ, he cut in from the left and unleashed a shot with his right foot, which everybody up until then had presumed was pretty much useless. It wasn’t. If Dszudzsak can keep up the threat to go both around to cross and inside to shoot, Gregory van der Wiel is going to have a long day tomorrow.

AZ – Twente

In the impressive European wins department, Twente surely ranks first. Their opponent was the strongest, and they clawed their way back into the tie after going down two goals quickly. That’s the kind of character I haven’t seen Ajax show this year. An absolutely beautiful strike by Janssen got them back into the game and a header by Douglas sealed the deal.

The Tukkers visit Alkmaar on Sunday in a must win game, but AZ is looking to plant themselvs firmly in the subtop. Gert Jan Verbeek’s team won in Heerenveen last week with Gert Jan Verbeek himself watching from the stands, proving that Gert Jan Verbeek’s team can get by just fine without the expert guidance and sideline-bitching antics of Gert Jan Verbeek.

AZ is once more a young and promising team. They have little problems swarming the rest of the league, but against a bit of opposition, such as PSV a few weeks ago, they still fall short.

Also on Sunday it’s: Feyenoord – FC Groningen and NEC – FC Utrecht

In the noughties, PSV welcomed back a lost son of their own; Philip Cocu. Supposedly at the end of his career, Cocu brought the stability that turned PSV into the first Dutch dynasty of the millenium. He didn’t get PSV to the Champions League final, but he sure got close; A.C. Milan finally defeated the plucky team from Eindhoven in the semi final.

Wanting to get in on the action of, Ajax brought back Davids. His second stay in Amsterdam was marred with injury and he left again unceremoniously. Many hoped that Seedorf would be the one to return to Amsterdam one day, but then many forget Seedorf has been in Milan longer than he ever was in Amsterdam.

Feyenoord thought they could pull off the same and brought back Giovanni van Bronckhorst. In an absurdly clueless move, he was positioned at midfield, the rationale being that he was a left back and…uhm…? It took a while before everybody finally remembered he was a pretty decent left back, but his return to Rotterdam at least slowed down the inevitable demise a wee bit.

Just a wee bit...

Now, PSV figure it’s their turn again, and is eyeing Mark van Bommel and Ruud van Nistelrooy. Both are in the latter stages of their career and were fan favorites in Eindhoven, vowing to return to the old nest one day when they finally did spread their wings.

There are two questions a club like PSV should ask themselves at this moment, the first one being if it can be done.

The contracts of both van Bommel and van Nistelrooy are set to expire at the end of the season, meaning PSV won’t have to pay a transfer fee. But over time, these two have gotten used to some hefty paychecks, and it’ll take a strong sense of nostalgia for them to take a massive cut just to put on their old shirt again.

Furthermore, Ruud’s tour has since taken him to Manchester, Madrid and Hamburg. Van Bommel departed for Barcelona, Munich and then Milan. Can they really be exptected to be motivated for, let’s say, De Graafschap, away? They’ve played with and against some of the best players in football since departing Eindhoven. Why would they want to go back and get their shins kicked in on a bad field, on a rainy Saturday night,  by Purrel freaking Frankel?

Eindhoven: Barcelona, it is not.

Both haven’t just said they would one day like to return, they’ve promised. But what the hell is that promise worth? If, when their contracts expire, Tottenham Hotspurs go after van Bommel and Real Madrid fancies Ruud to be their bandaid in need, does PSV really stand a chance? Another year will go by, another contract will end, which brings us to the next question…

Should it be done?

Van Bommel will turn 34 this april and at the start of next season, van Nistelrooij will be 35. If PSV has to wait for either of them for much longer, how much, if anything, do they still have to offer?If they do make their way to Eindhoven, PSV could get another two years worth of decent mileage out of them. Both are supposed to be consumate professionals, but anything more than two years would be an absolute surprise.

Rijkaard returned to Ajax when he was 31 to push them to the upper echelons of European football. Cocu, like van Bommel will be, shocked everybody by holding up – no, excelling – well into his late thirties. But like Rijkaard, he was the final piece of a puzzle that was very close to looking like a Champions League. PSV is a Europa league team nowadays and if they do get to the Champions League, they will be content enough with a third place in the groups stage and some fun in the Europe League. Will van Bommel and van Nistelrooij be, too?

"What? I'm at the wrong press conference? Oh..."

I suggested, moreover, that Roda would struggle all the way away in Groningen. They did not. In fact, they whooped the locals four goals to one, otherwise knowns as the biggest home-loss deficit in Euroborg history. Mads Junker scored three goals, the Polish Promise stopped another penalty. Pretty smooth sailing.

I also suggested Twente should have enough on them to see off NEC, eventhough they had a short week after the long journey home from freezing Kazan. They did not. A 1-1 draw at home now sees them two points behind PSV, who did take care of business against NAC and only three points ahead of Ajax, who had surprising difficult against VVV. That would have been the game I thought would end in a blowout.

There were some other results this weekend.AZ beat Heerenveen, in Heerenveen 0-2.  Willem II lost heavily, which is not newsworthy anymore at this point. If anything is, it was that the lost 4-0 against Excelsior, who are not exactly high rollers either.

There is one final highlight of this Eredisie weekend everybody should see. De Graafschap lost their game against Vitesse. They did, however, have a small opportunity to go up 0-1.

That round of course, actually started yesterday with a game between FC Utrecht and Heracles Almelo. To absolutely no-one’s surprise, it wasn’t a great game and it ended in a 1-1 draw. The fans in Utrecht saw 84 minutes without a goal, between the 3rd minute opener from the returning van Wolfswinkel and the last gasp equalizer from journeyman Ellery Cairo. Fun times where had by nobody who watched this.

Now, on to the Saturday games, which traditionally provide a bit more entertainment. Except it’s only three games today, and a whopping five tomorrow. Off those three games, two are between clubs vying for a spot that means Europa League next year.

Heerenveen – AZ, for example, which starts at 19:45. The  only storyline I can think of here is the return from AZ coach/mannerless hack Gert Jan Verbeek to his first Eredivisie club. But that’s a lot less special since Verbeek returned before with Feyenoord and then with Almelo. Also, he won’t actually be in the dugout, because he is suspended. Why, you ask? For comments against the fourth official in last week’s whooping against PSV (0-4). So unlike Verbeek. He’s normally such a gentleman in defeat…

An hour later, another game in the north of Holland between two good teams kicks off. Roda JC travels the longest distance for any Dutch club to travel in an away league, to Groningen. Roda won the first game between the two by virtue of Groningen being not so very good when they leave the comfort of their own stadium. While van Veldhoven’s men got a good result against Ajax last week, Groningen-away is another matter. Both teams have some injury worries, especially in midfield.

Also on Saturday, kicking off the proceedings at 18:45, is Excelsior – Willem II.

On Sunday, things start off with ADO – Feyenoord at 12:30. ADO is a traditionally difficult opponent for Feyenoord, and that was before everything made several turns for the worse in Rotterdam. ADO actually goes into this game heavily favored. It is one more game that Feyenoord really cannot afford to lose, but probably will.

A little later, at 14:30, three more games kick off, being De Graafschap – Vitesse, FC Twente – NEC and Ajax – VVV. Both Ajax and Twente came off big away wins on Thursday and have had little time to prepare for their Eredivisie games. But both teams should have enough to see off their respective opponents, although NEC will probably be a bit more of a handful than VVV.

Closing out the weekend is PSV – NAC. PSV played poorly for 87 minutes against Lille last Thursday, but still got away with a 2-2 draw. They could have been down by four goals easily, but turned around the 2-0 deficit in two minutes flat. PSV lost the first game to NAC, but at home, should grind out a victory over a NAC team that has looked increasingly toothless.

After a long hiatus, European football resumes this week and there are still three Eredivisie teams active in the Europa League. Let’s have a look

PSV

PSV is one of the two lucky teams that won’t have to travel a preposterous distance to compete. They are unlucky, however, in who is waiting for them across those two borders. OSC Lille is leading the notoriously competitive League 1, but then PSV is leading the Eredivisie.

Rutten and his team have had some time to get used to playing without talisman Ibrahim Affelay in Holland, but this will be their first European game without him. It was at this level that Ibi was often the difference. The league leaders just got of a big confidence boosting win in Alkmaar however, and like against AZ, will mostly rely on Balazs Dszudszak, a man with so many s’s and z’s in his name it should be illegal.

Dszudszak, incidentally, was a late transfer target for the club from Lille. It smelled a bit like an attempt to unsettle their opponent from Eindhoven and in the end, the Hungarian winger even extended his contract.

I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on the French League, but from what I know about Lille, their main danger comes through Belgian wunderkind Eden Hazard. PSV doesn’t really play with a holding midfielder (unless you count Orlando Engelaar, which nobody should) so it’ll be interesting to see how they keep the lively Hazard in check.

FC Twente

The reigning Dutch champions, who did pretty well in their Champions League debut, have to travel the furthest for their tie against Russian Rubin Kazan. Kazan has been a Champions League participant the last few years, even knocking off Barcelona in Nou Camp once.

The most interesting fact about this game is that it might not be played. The temperature in Kazan at the moment is a brisk -21 degrees, and snow is expected. According to VI.nl, neither team wants to take the field.

For now, the game is planned as early as possible to avoid the worst of the cold, and UEFA is not a big fan of cancelling games. They will decide tomorrow however if the game will either be played, postponed until Friday or canceled completely.

The latter would create the interesting scenario where, because the return games are next week already, the game in Enschede alone would decide the tie, which would mean a big advantage for the tukkers. If the game is played, Twente will have to deal with the pace from Nigerian wanderer Obafemi Martins (bet you where wondering where he was holding up, right?) and former Hoffenheim surprise Carlos Eduardo.

Ajax

Ajax plays close to home aswell, travelling the small distance between Amsterdam and Brussels to face Anderlecht. The two met last year in the group stage of the tournament and drew in Belgium. The return tie in Amsterdam was a bit of a formality since both teams had already progressed. Ajax won 3-1.

This game will be incredibly interesting in that there is not too much between the two teams. Ajax of course is without Suarez and aren’t at their best, as evident by their 2-2 draw against Roda JC (ed. Note: whoohoo, suck it!)RAnderlecht of course will field continent-wide transfer target Romalu Lukaku, who will face two of his teammates at the Belgian National team in the Ajax defense, Verthongen and Alderweireld. If Verthongen will be more occupied with looking annoyed and bitching at the ref like he was against Roda, Alderweireld will have his hands full to contain the heir apparent to the Drogba throne.

With Boussoufa and Biglia pulling the strings in the Purple and White midfield, Demy de Zeeuw will have his hands full and can’t afford to go missing again as he has done in several of Ajax’s big games. It will also be interesting to see if Mounir El Hamdaoui, who has made himself spectacularly unpopular in Amsterdam will manage to climb out of his rut or continue to sulk.

]]> http://netherlands.theoffside.com/team-news/dutch-clubs-in-europe-preview.html/feed 2 http://netherlands.theoffside.com/team-news/the-polish-promise.html http://netherlands.theoffside.com/team-news/the-polish-promise.html#comments Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:17:02 +0000 joep http://netherlands.theoffside.com/team-news/the-polish-promise.html I’ve tried hard not to flash my fandom of Roda JC, but yesterday’s heroics by Roda goalie Tyton forced my hand.

Last Sunday against Ajax, The Parkstad Limburg Stadium was filled to capacity for the first Eredivisie game in its ten year existence. Twenty thousand and change saw how, in the 87th minute, Przemyslaw Tyton saved a penalty to earn Roda a 2-2 draw. A lot has changed in two years, and it is partly down to the young Polish goaltender.

Before Tyton, there was Chaos (also known as Bram Castro). A Belgian goalkeeper with decent enough reflexes on the line, but hilariously beatable on crosses, one-on-ones and long range efforts. An already shaky Roda defense knew that if their opponents got past them, Castro wouldn’t be that much of a problem either.

Tyton arrived in Kerkrade in 2007 but rode the bench behind Castro for a while, to the astonishment of those who had seen him play for the reserves. After a series of gaffes in the early part of the season, many felt Castro’s credit, if he ever had any, was slowly eroding and that Tyton deserved a chance between the sticks.

But then, on the 30th of October 2007, Castro did the unthinkable. He scored.

And it wasn’t just any goal. Look at the score up there in that video. Look at the time. An equalizer, at the death, in a cup game Roda would go on to win. You can’t take out a goalkeeper who gets on the scoresheet, right?

Castro bought some himself some time, and it proved almost disastrous for the club. Yes, Castro stopped the penalty in the series against Cambuur which would decide relegation the next year, but it was partly down to his frequent mistakes (seriously: among many, many other things) that Roda had sunk so far in the first place.

In January 2010, another costly mistake meant the end of Castro, and Tyton was thrown into the spotlight. So far, the season that had followed the Great Escape had started just the way the 08/09 season had started. And that one ended in near-relegation.

But with the introduction of Tyton, a calm descended in the Roda defense. If their opponents got past them, defenders knew they still had Tyton to deal with, and that proved to be one hell of a task.

Tyton had his breakout game against Twente, which Roda lost. But the margin would have been much higher had it not been for a series of saves that dropped some jaws around the league. Kenneth Perez of Twente, a dead ball specialist, took arguably the single most precise free kick in his career.

Tyton got to it.

In the remainder of the season, Roda started looking upwards, and eventually clinched a spot in the playoffs for European football. Prezmyslaw made his debut for Poland.

In the beginning of this season, Tyton started to win games for Roda JC. In September they played an away game against AZ which they had absolutely no business of winning. But when the Alkmaarders started to pile on the pressure to find an equalizer, down 1-2, Tyton saved Roda time and again. In the dying minutes of the game, Elm released himself and with a nearly perfect arch, lifted the ball over the goalkeeper to the top corner.

Nearly perfect. Tyton got to it.

Throughout the season, Tyton has been a vital part of the surprising performance of Roda JC. After years of having to deal with Castro, and a string of so-so goalkeepers before him, Roda fans finally know that when their goal is threathened, Tyton is still the man to beat.He is is the first sure thing Roda has had between the posts since Ruud Hesp, the goalkeeper who left Roda for Barcelona in the late nineties.

Tyton might not be ready for such a step but his outing against Ajax yesterday showed that Roda will be hard pressed to hold on to the Polish promise for much longer. Feyenoord is interested, but they are strapped for cash. Tyton renewed his contract a while ago and when he leaves Kerkrade, it will be for nothing short of the jackpot.

Yesterday, in the 87th minute, after Roda had gotten back two goals against Ajax, Mounir El Hamdaoui lined up to take a penalty.

Tyton got to it.