PSV Eindhoven Appreciation thread

i've watched psv a few times this season. and have been impressed most of the time with their performances. this one however in the second half was truly outstanding. i can't think of any game in the last 3 years, including depor in riazor, when we were so under the kosh. they played so very well and with clamer finshing could have scored 5 goals in the second half. ok milan didn't play well, but that was more due to psv outplaying us than us playing badly.

fortunatley for us, we stole a goal at the end of the game to give us a big advantadge in the second leg. as for the game, the draw would have been a fair result, as we also had a lot of chances and had the upper hand generally in the first half.

as for psv, i woulnd not mind having park, and van bommel in our team in the positions of kaladze,and seedorf. lee also impressed. park for me, along with sheva and kaka were the best players on the pitch. we commited daylight robbery for the 2nd goal i have to say, and i have to admit despite going wild with joy when jdt scored, i did feela tiny tiny bit sorry for psv.

but i think we should congratulate psv on a fantastic performance and they showed that their being in the semi finals of the best competion in club football was totally deserved

kudos to psv, and we'll have to be very careful in eindhoven, they'll come us at hard. thank god we'll have nesta back.

i gave psv some praise in the match comments thread so not going to go through all of it again except to say they are a good side

I think this thread is a little bit too much. Nice way of paying respect though Lorenzo.Not to be misunderstood, i was impressed by psv, they did great job,above the level of most people`s expectations but still nothing SO extraordinary,especially if you add to this whole thing how tired our players were lately(in the last month especially).
i`d also disagree on the matter of Lee and Park,great players both of them,very versatile, but simply not efficient enough(not for Milan that is).I fail to see how we could use Park as such(only MY opinion,i know many will disagree)...Van Bommel is another story though.

This thread is a little over the top, but I understand why PSV wins many hearts and minds, because they won my respect months ago already, so I like the intention.

I wasn't suprised by PSV, as they have played the same way many times, and not losing a single match in 2005 until now. PSV lost the game on individual talent, but Hiddink certainly won the chess match vs Carlo, and PSV has won much respect, which counts too, especially for a small side.

Good mix of veterans and younger players, Hiddink has done a good job and bringing Cocu back was a good move for them. They have hung on to Van Bommel longer than some expected and his presence has been very useful obviously. Not easy for Bouma, Alex and Gomes too but they have done ok overall throughout their season.

i have to give respect to them as well they totally outplayed us in the second half, they could use kezman or RVN infront of goal ... theyre really fast and theyre passing is very accurate but one thing got on my nerves is how easily they fall... too much acting ... very weakly built players especially the 2 asians and beasly

lol... your comments mk18 reminds me of the porto-celtic final ... unfortunately it is in the nature of asians.. we're born smaller and we'll always be however I do feel that people dont give Lee & Park enough credit, not only judging them from this match per se, they have done some good things for PSV and on occassions have been impressive.

PSV brought out some of the points I said to watch out for in my pre-match post. I was very impressed by them, but not at all surprised tbh.

Hiddink deserves a lot of credit. to leave Venegoor on the bench for pace in Farfan was an incredible move as the way he'd use pace to attack us, particularly in wide areas and thus stretching us is difficult to make work properly.

We can take heart in our own quality, but we must be prepared for the second leg. If this match wasn't a wake up call, I don't know what is.

they are a very solid side and if their finishing was a bit better we would be in serious trouble. the only team this team is missing is finishers as park and far-fan missed some terrific chances while sheva and tomasson on the other end showed them how its done.

however PSV is a TERRIFIC team.
i have said it before even in the group stages that this team will be the dark horse of the competition but i think that their amazing run has almost ended. however with such talent they are a team to watch out for in the future. however will they keep that talent? i doubt so as already vogel and van bommel are free agents during the summer. however if they keep this side they will be dangerous.

yeah maybe i was a lil over the top in retrospective. i watched the game again last night, and still think we did get away with it big time last night. we'll have to be cafeful in the second leg, i don't want us to just sit back and invite them on us for 90 minutes. we'll be able to judge them more in the return leg, to see if this wasn't just a a flash in the pan result

Classy thread

Alex is solid, I know we talked about him last summer and he deservs the hype. Van Bommel and Park were the other two players that stood out for me. As PSV is a Chelsea feeder club, I imagine the talants will end up there.

To be honest, i was more dissapointed with Milan rather than surprised by PSV. Dont get me wrong they did very well and definately deserved to draw and its a good job JDT showed them how to finish
But i honestly felt that Milan let them back into the game. Im not sure if it was just a lack of discipline in midfield or possibly that when the first goal went in some of our players werent sure whether to push for a second or protect the lead as it was.

PSV are a capable side and can pass the ball around for long spells if necesary but usually the passing is short and restricted to midfield. They were given too much encouragement to go forward because we werent covering the runners well enough, this let them attack without having to commit too many players forward

I doubt they are going to score 3 in Eindhoven and i'd expect Carlo will play a solid possession game anyway but hopefully the lessons of yesterday will be learnt before we come up against a side with decent finishers

i hope we play with 5 midfielders in the return leg... we should start serginho on the left and push seedorf to roam around the center... we can play sheva upfront alone but if need be we can start crespo or jdt instead and let him in later

UEFA Champions League dark horses PSV Eindhoven may have fallen to a 2-0 defeat against competition favourites AC Milan in the first leg of their semi-final tie at the Giuseppe Meazza stadium but the manner of their performance underlined the strength of Guus Hiddink's side this season.

Midfield star
The recently crowned Dutch champions were desperately unlucky to lose when many felt a draw would have been a much fairer result and now face an uphill task to reach the final in Istanbul. If they are to succeed, midfield maestro Mark van Bommel will be a key figure.

On his way
The Dutch international has been an ever present in PSV’s Champions League campaign this season and he has now won four league titles with the Dutch team. However, he will leave the Netherlands at the end of the season with FC Barcelona believes to be favourites to sign the 28-year-old on a free transfer. Van Bommel spoke to uefa.com about PSV’s season so far and his plans for the future.

uefa.com: PSV's heavy European schedule does not seem to have had any effect on your domestic form?

Mark van Bommel: The good thing for us is that we have not lost points in between the European matches, because our main goal has always been to become Dutch champions, so that is a compliment to the squad.

uefa.com: What has been the secret of PSV's success this season?

Van Bommel: We lost five or six players this summer, and we brought the same number of new players in. The good thing is that they all appear to be real team players, who think in the terms of the team and not only for their own individual interests. We work hard for each other and now we have shown you can achieve a lot with that.

uefa.com: How important has the experience of Phillip Cocu and coach Guus Hiddink been in all this?

Van Bommel: Everybody learned from the experience of Cocu: he played in Spain at Barcelona for years, so that is experience we all can profit from. Not only in a match, but also off the pitch. We are always room-mates on away trips and he is a nice guy too. But we have a group in which everybody likes each other. If you are fighting every day, it does not work, but when you get along with each other, you can see that on the pitch. And Hiddink also adds his experience to our group and we feel that every day.

uefa.com: Your contract expires this summer and you have announced that you will leave the club. Do you have any regrets now PSV are doing so well?

Van Bommel: The downside of success for a club like PSV is that when everyone sees our good matches, they want to buy the players. But from the other side it also gives opportunities for the players to leave. And it is great to be able to leave after you have reached the highest possible level.

uefa.com: You were unlucky to lose against Milan. Are you still hopeful ahead of the second leg?


Van Bommel: We conceded two goals in last few minutes of both halves. We played well especially in the second half and we deserved to score. It will be difficult to bring it home in Eindhoven. We have confidence to beat them but it won’t be easy. It is going to be difficult to score twice against a team who have one of the best defences and who are so good at counterattacking football

Originally Posted by sehnsucht79

Van Bommel: We conceded two goals in last few minutes of both halves. We played well especially in the second half and we deserved to score. It will be difficult to bring it home in Eindhoven. We have confidence to beat them but it won’t be easy. It is going to be difficult to score twice against a team who have one of the best defences and who are so good at counterattacking football

They need 3 goals, Milan has let in 3 goals in the entire tournament. I am afraid that we will have to disapoint Mr Van Bommel

Is he going to Barca for sure?