Feyenoord has great players…

By: Jan | October 5th, 2008

Karim El Ahmadi came over from FC Twente to Feyenoord last summer, but hasn’t seen a lot of action due to a groin injury. Against Kalmar, the midfielder played his first minutes. The start of the game, he enjoyed from the bench.

“I heavily enjoyed seeing us play. We have fantastic players. So much quality and depth. In particular the youngsters, who had to carry the team due to all these injuries… We started a bit shaky two weeks ago and if you see how we came back. Backs straight, chin up. I’m proud to be part of this club. This group has grown enormously over the last weeks, mentally.”

El Ahmadi finally made his debut as the holding midfielder in the last 20 minutes. He was partly responsible for a save last 20 minutes, defending the lead.

“I think I did well. It felt good to play. And now I have to keep this trend going. The most important thing is that we went through.”

The trip back was one big party. Verbeek: “The vibe was great. We were all tired but we couldn’t sleep, at there was this little party in the back of the plane.”

Now, Feyenoord can look forward. Roy Makaay saw that there’s an option for Feyenoord to draw against Deportivo La Coruna, the club where he had so many successes. But the focus is NEC first.

Verbeek wants to win that desperately. “We need to win all games, of course, but since there’s an international game week agead of us, I want to have that victorious feeling for two weeks. Winning is good for the moral and you can build on that.”

Although there are no new injuries, Verbeek still has a puzzle on his hand. Kevin Hofland, man of the match against Kalmar, is suspended against Mario Been’s team.

With only 37 year old striker Mols on the bench and some youth players, it seems El Ahmadi can start against NEC. “It will have to be a midfielder, I guess. I mean, I can’t just make new defenders appear. El Ahmadi is fit to start, so…”

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