Tuesday 17 April 2012, 15:58
Love or hate them, Ajax are unignorable. Those who wrote them off as title challengers made one grave miscalculation. At the helm is a street fighter, the most capped outfield Dutch international, a natural...
Read more ...
Tuesday 28 February 2012, 17:12
When Holland ride into Wembley it will be their seventh visit. It's a stage renowned for controversy and drama, but it's one on which every Dutch footballer wants to play. Previous pilgrimages...
Read more ...
Friday 24 February 2012, 12:19
“It's not the despair, I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand.” The words uttered by John Cleese in Clockwise have been echoed by football fans ever since. As spring blooms, the...
Read more ...
Thursday 02 February 2012, 17:13
A fixture that has historically often decided championships did so again. Ajax left Rotterdam aggrieved, and did so with their hopes of retaining the title now hanging by a thread. A hat-trick by John...
Read more ...
Thursday 19 January 2012, 09:00
“You don't know what you've got until it’s gone.” No saying is more relevant to FC Twente right now. After 18 months of separation, the club’s adopted son Steve McClaren has made a surprising,...
Read more ...
Tuesday 20 December 2011, 12:44
Frank de Boer sat there, in his own word "helpless", as Ajax crashed out of this season’s Champions League with defeat to Real Madrid. A year to the day since his appointment, it was the coach's...
Read more ...
Friday 09 December 2011, 17:26
It should have been all about Roy Beerens, the AZ winger returning to former club Heerenveen with a point to prove, however he was left disappointed. Holland coach Bert van Marwijk, in attendance, still...
Read more ...
Friday 02 December 2011, 14:38
Precocious talent is nothing new in the Eredivisie: every season one seems to emerge from obscurity. No exception with the latest off the production line, whose rise has coincided with his team's resurgence...
Read more ...
Thursday 01 December 2011, 16:33
When Fulham and FC Twente played their opening Europa League group game at Craven Cottage in September, Martin Jol and Co Adriaanse looked to have put aside any past animosity. But at full-time, the handshake...
Read more ...
Thursday 17 November 2011, 13:15
It seems there’s never a dull moment at Ajax, and the latest plot twist is one of the most shocking yet: former manager Louis van Gaal is set to return as CEO. The club has been the epitome of instability...
Read more ...
Monday 14 November 2011, 12:37
After a six year hiatus, the greatest grudge match in European football is back. Two neighbouring nations, who have served up many a classic down the years, will lock horns in an attempt to lay down a...
Read more ...
Thursday 03 November 2011, 14:44
Forging a career in football isn’t easy, even less so if you’re following in the illustrious footsteps of an older sibling. The added burden of living up to expectations set high thanks to the actions...
Read more ...
Tuesday 25 October 2011, 11:26
The perfect time to visit Amsterdam is said to be during the autumn. The crisp breeze in the air and changing colour of the foliage are a striking but welcome reminder winter is around the corner. The...
Read more ...
Wednesday 19 October 2011, 16:29
There’s something special about Heerenveen. For one, they're from Friesland – the only one of the dozen Dutch regions to have its own dialect (West Frisian). And their stadium is the only one in the...
Read more ...
Friday 07 October 2011, 16:46
Bert van Marwijk had to see the man on everyone’s lips for himself, even if it meant undertaking a rare scouting mission outside of The Netherlands. As his flight landed in Lisbon, he held in his hand...
Read more ...
Tuesday 27 September 2011, 13:38
Did you have a Super Weekend? The Dutch did, for that was the name given to the most recent Eredivisie clashes, centring around two battles between the division's top-four sides as AZ welcomed Feyenoord...
Read more ...
Friday 16 September 2011, 13:30
When PSV Eindhoven and Ajax square off on Sunday it will be the 111th league meeting between two sides that have dominated the Dutch top flight for half a century. With an incredible 51 titles between...
Read more ...
Thursday 08 September 2011, 13:43
May 24, 1995 will forever be a date etched in the Ajax annals as the Dutch club claimed their fourth European Cup title. In what was an epic conclusion to a memorable season – and in the case of Frank...
Read more ...
Monday 05 September 2011, 13:39
Sigmund Freud, the famed Austrian neurologist, had a famous theory of 'repressed memory'. The hypothesis was that a subject would block out a painful or traumatic time in their life, then be unable...
Read more ...
Friday 02 September 2011, 16:35
As Kevin Strootman prepares to turn out for the Dutch national team on Friday night, it's a far cry from De Adelaarshorst. That 6,700-capacity stadium in Deventer is where Strootman started last season...
Read more ...
Friday 05 August 2011, 15:18
It seems like only yesterday that Ajax and FC Twente's final-day duel for the 2010/11 Eredivisie championship. Ajax ultimately lifted their 30th league title thanks to a brace from Siem de Jong, causing...
Read more ...
Tuesday 19 July 2011, 14:01
It is now three seasons since PSV Eindhoven, Holland’s second most successful club, were Eredivisie champions. This is now their worst drought since the early 1990s. With seven championships already to...
Read more ...
Wednesday 29 June 2011, 15:31
After a six-year absence, the man they call “Psycho Co” is on his way back to the Eredivisie and ready to ruffle more feathers like he did before. For 20 years Co Adriaanse has been one of the most sought...
Read more ...
Monday 06 June 2011, 12:41
Looking back on the 2010/11 Eredivisie season one word comes to mind: crazy. It’s been one of the more dramatic, unpredictable and emotional rollercoasters. The pre-season favourites nosedived before Christmas...
Read more ...
Wednesday 25 May 2011, 11:24
The regular season is over, but the football isn't – and in Holland, play-offs aren't restricted to deciding promotions from lower divisions. The season-sending shoot-outs this weekend (first legs...
Read more ...
Wednesday 18 May 2011, 18:23
Where were you in 2004? Shrek 2 busted the block, George W Bush was re-elected, Arsenal completed their Invincible season and Olympics-hosting Greece lifted the European Championships with their biggest...
Read more ...
Tuesday 10 May 2011, 10:42
The billing was Part One of an epic end-of-season showdown between the league's top two sides, FC Twente and Ajax. The stage was the KNVB Beker (Dutch Cup) final. The subtext was a chance to inflict...
Read more ...
Tuesday 03 May 2011, 15:39
Get your diaries out and make sure the following dates are free: Sunday 8 May and Sunday 15 May. On those two successive Sundays, FC Twente and Ajax will clash for the two major prizes in Dutch football...
Read more ...
Wednesday 27 April 2011, 11:45
So it comes down to this. With two games left, the possibility of the Dutch league title being decided on the final day is well and truly on. It’s what the neutrals wanted – and most definitely what the...
Read more ...
Thursday 21 April 2011, 16:30
October 24 2010, is a date that will forever live in the memory of Feyenoord fans. On that fateful Sunday afternoon in Eindhoven, their team were humiliated 10-0 by PSV, a game which coach Mario Been described...
Read more ...
Monday 18 April 2011, 12:23
It’s starting to get interesting towards the top of the Eredivisie - and I’m not just talking about the title race, which now sees the top three separated by just one point, but also the race for the Europa...
Read more ...
Thursday 14 April 2011, 14:03
Dutch football blogger Mohamed Moallim ponders whether there are big problems facing club football in Holland in the light of Dutch sides' poor performances in Europe this season... As they enter tonight's...
Read more ...
Thursday 07 April 2011, 18:06
Dutch football blogger Mohamed Moallim looks back at the past of Ajax hero Johann Cruyff to decipher whether his latest return to Amsterdam is likely to end in tears of anguish or joy... In the space of...
Read more ...