Hollandia!
PSV:
Last year they had to substitute Kezman, Robben and Rommedahl and they did that with success. Huge success. The Dutch title, Amstel Cup and CL Semi-Final. This year Van Bommel, Vogel and Park moved to other clubs and Vayrynen (Heerenveen) and Simons (Club Brugge) came. What will 2005/2006 be like for PSV Eindhoven ...
Ajax:
The club with the most talent is definitely Ajax. Unfortunately Van Der Vaart left, but still they have a team with lots of possibilities. Danny Blind had a tough start (Feyenoord, PSV, AZ), but later on he was able to put up a good team with Nicolas Escude being the captain. I wish them good luck this year and I think they have a good chance of winning the title again.
Normally you get Feyenoord after the top 2, but there’s another club that was much better last year:
AZ Alkmaar:
Co Adriaanse, Olaf Lindenbergh, Robin Nelisse, Jan Kromkamp gone. Schaars, Koevermans, Arveladze and Van Gaal back. Some names will be known, others won’t, but trust me when I say they’re all good players.
Louis van Gaal is an amazing trainer, but I don’t see him finishing 3rd again this year. The quality of the squad in general has gone down a little. But it will also depend on how good Feyenoord is this year. Now we’re talking about them.
Feyenoord:
Aweful, bad, dramatic, sad. Those are the words we used for the attacks in London, but those are also the good words to descibe Feyenoord’s last season. Ruud Gullit made a total mess. He bought 12 players, but still wasn’t able to come up with a decent team.
Now there’s Erwin Koeman (the brother of) and he has given some players a new chance from which Gullit had said they could leave.
Schreuder and De Graaf are examples. I absolutely have no idea how the team will do, we’ll see?
NAC Breda finished 15th last year and the last 8 home matches got lost, but their whole team has changed and I have faith they can reach UEFA Cup. Some new players: Van Gessel, Elshot, Zwaanswijk and ofcourse Pierre Van Hooydonk.
And then a few paragraphs about one the most controversial issues:
play-offs. They will happen, they are planned, they are scheduled and this is how it’s going to work:
Whoever ends 1st and becomes Champion will automatically qualify for the Champions League.
A) 2nd will play 5th
B) 3rd faces 4th
Winner A will play against Winner B and the winner of that match gets CL Qualification and the loser UEFA Cup.
Loser A will face Loser B and that winner gets UEFA Cup. The loser from that last Final will play another play-off (G). So far 2 UEFA Cup tickets have been given away, still with me?
C) 6th will play 9th
D) 7th faces 8th
Winner C will play against Winner D and the winner of that match play-off against G, like stated in the paragraphe above. The winner gets the 3rd and last UEFA Cup ticket and the loser an Intertoto Cup ticket.
Loser C will face Loser D and that ‘winner’ will also get an Intertoto Cup ticket. So far 3 UEFA Cup tickets and 2 Intertoto Cup tickets have been given away, still following?
E) 10th will play 13th
F) 11th faces 12th
Winner E will play against Winner F and whoever wins will receive the last Intertoto Cup place. The others don’t get anything. It has to stop somewhere!
The teams that finish 16th or 17th are in a play-off system with the First Division and 18th ranked team will automatically relegate. So yes, (only) 14th and 15th are already finished mid-April.
Super Cup
Ajax 2-1 PSV
Friday 12th August
AZ - Sparta
Saturday 13th August
Heracles Almelo – PSV
Willem II – RKC Waalwijk
Vitesse – Heerenveen
Roda – Twente
Sunday 14th August
Ajax – ADO Den Haag
NEC Nijmegen – Utrecht
Feyenoord – NAC Breda
Groningen – RBC Roosendaal
It seems the big clubs have it pretty easy in their 1st Gameday. Not only in Holland, but also in other competitions. Or is it just my imagination?
EDIT: Ajax - ADO Den Haag is postponted to January 7th, 2006.
Eredivisie 2005-2006 (Dutch Competition) 
Or is PSV Eindhoven being overrated? A fantastic draw for the promoted one, a 'loss' for PSV. Ajax won't take advantage, but what will Feyenoord do? 
