NAC Breda - VVV-Venlo

VVV-Venlo are still waiting for their first away victory of the season. Saturday evening, at the Rat Verlegh Stadium, the Venlo side suffered a fully deserved defeat against the home side, NAC Breda.

 

On the day of the match, coach Jan van Dijk was confronted with physical problems of one of his players. An attack of migraine prevented goal keeper Kevin Begois from playing, which forced the coach to throw sub goal keeper Ruud Boffin to the wolves. This in turn had consequences for Robert Böhm: with all speed, the German had to travel to Breda to come and sit on the reserve bench next to Van Dijk.

 

Despite these less pleasant preparations, the Venlo squad got off to a good start at the Rat Verlegh Stadium. During the early stages of the first half, VVV-Venlo were the dominating side, creating three chances. Due to the snow-covered pitch, keeper Jelle ten Rouwelaar, for instance, had all the trouble in the world with a Frank van Kouwen shot. A Gonzalo García through pass caused some problems to the NAC Breda defence, but Sandro Calabro was unable to take advantage of it. After 14 minutes, the same Calabro was offered the best opportunity for the visitors. Ruben Schaken managed to get through on the right. Reading the game well, he passed the ball to Calabro who did not hit it on target: the ball went just over the cross bar.  

 

After 25 minutes, NAC Breda – which only on Wednesday had been kicked out of the cup competition by Go Ahead Eagles – were picking themselves up. By putting on the pressure earlier, NAC were able to slow VVV-Venlo down. Robert Maaskant’s experienced side were able to cause little problems here and there. Just before half-time, the Breda squad took the lead. After a corner, VVV-Venlo could not get the ball away properly, enabling Joonas Kolkka to feed the ball a second time. Patrick Zwaanswijk was overlooked by the Limburg side: the NAC defender could score 1-0 from close by.

 

Right from the start of the second half, NAC Breda took the initiative forcing VVV-Venlo back to their own half. Ruben Schaken and Adil Auassar could each penetrate far into the NAC Breda defence once, but apart from that the visitors looked as if they had totally lost their way for a while. Coach Jan van Dijk tried to take some action by fielding Kevin van Dessel and Michael Uchebo, but it did not do much good. Ultimately, VVV-Venlo could still hope for a good result for quite a long time.

 

It was only 16 minutes from the end that the well-deserved 2-0 appeared on the scoreboard. A long ball by Kurt Elshot found Anthony Lurling, who shot the ball into the Venlo goal through Boffin’s legs: 2- 0. During the last 15 minutes, the home side did not run into any difficulties anymore and the 300th premier league home victory for the Brabant squad was a fact.

VVV-Venlo will not have much time to lament the fifth successive away defeat, for the next game is this Tuesday already. Heerenveen are coming to Seacon Stadium – De Koel – .

 

 

Saturday 30 January 2010

 

NAC BREDA – VVV-VENLO 2-0

41. Patrick Zwaanswijk 1-0, 74. Anthony Lurling 2-0. Referee: Liesveld. Crowd attendance: 17,750. Yellow cards: Ferne Snoyl, Kurt Elshot (both NAC Breda), Sjors Verdellen, Michael Timisela, Achmed Ahahaoui and Gonzalo García (all VVV-Venlo).

 

NAC Breda squad:

Jelle ten Rouwelaar; Kurt Elshot, Patrick Zwaanswijk, Kees Kwakman, Ferne Snoyl; Tim Gilissen, Edwin de Graaf, Robbert Schilder; Joonas Kolkka, Donny Gorter (89. Omer Bayram) and Anthony Lurling (86. Martijn Reuser).

 

VVV-Venlo squad:

Ruud Boffin; Michael Timisela, Frank van Kouwen, Sjors Verdellen, Niels Fleuren; Ken Leemans, Gonzalo García, Adil Auassar (62. Kevin van Dessel); Ruben Schaken, Sandro Calabro (64. Michael Uchebo) and Achmed Ahahaoui (82. Soufiane Dadda).