Dutch Soccer Scoreboard: PSV Beats Rival Ajax Amsterdam 3-1

Greetings to those of you checking out our blog in Denmark and Italy.

Even though it is very early in the season the two most storied franchises in Dutch soccer history played over the weekend (we were hoping the most would be on ESPN3, oh well!) as PSV Eindhoven beat out defending champs Ajax Amsterdam 3-1 thanks to the go ahead goal from Dutch national Luciano Narsingh (pictured top).

Den Haag, a team in Holland's other capital The Hague which is captained by Roland Alberg (pictured center) had a rousing 3-0 victory over Groningen with two goals from Micheil Kramer in the waning minutes of regulation time.

Finally, Rodney Antwi (pictured bottom) scored in the winning goal of the 72nd minute to lead road side Utrecht to a 2-1 win over Feyenoord, and, it was a disastrous weekend for American star Jozy Altidore's former team AZ Alkmaar as they fell to Willem II 3-0. Altidore now plays soccer in England.

Here are the scores from weekend play in the Eredivise:

1) Ajax 1 PSV 3

2) Den Haag 3 Groningen 0

3) Feyenoord 1 Utrecht 2

4) Zwolle 2 Vitesse 1

5) Breda 1 Twente 1, tie

6) Go Ahead Eagles 0 Dordecht 0, tie

7) Heracles 0 Cambuur 1

8) Heerenveen 2 Excelsior (Rotterdam) 0

9) Willem II 3 AZ Alkmaar 0

World Cup Lists (1 of 4): The Goal-Keepers

Greetings to our readers in Panama, Canada and the Czech Republic, who are among the many countries which alas did not make the World Cup field of 32.

We start our series of World Cup lists with a look at the goal-keepers for teams that have made the knock-out round of 16 in Brazil:

1) Jasper Cillessen. Netherlands. Age 25. Ajax Amsterdam (pictured top)

2) Fernando Muslera. Uruguay. 28. Galatasaray (Turkey; pictured center)

3) Vincent  Enyeama. Nigeria. 31. Lille (France; pictured bottom)

4) Orestis Karnezis. Greece. 28. Granada (Spain)

5) Julio Cesar. Brazil. 34. Toronto FC (Canada/MLS)

6) Tim Howard. USA. 35. Everton (USA)

7) David Ospina. Colombia. 25. Nice (France)

8) Keylor Navas. Costa Rica. 27. Levante (France)

9) Diego Benglio. Switzerland. 30. Wolfsburg (Germany)

10) Sergio Romero. Argentina. 31. Monaco (France)

11)  Thibut Courtois. Belgium. 22. Chelsea (England)

http://www.espn.go.com

Best Comics from the Sunday Washington Post (....and, how you can win a free trip to Amsterdam)

Thanks again for taking a look at this blog as we post our long-overdue entry on he best comic strips from the Sunday Feb.2nd edition of "The Washington Post"...........oh, about that trip to Amsterdam, we sort of used that just to get your attention (there is no free trip to Holland). Our apologies to Rudolf Bekink, the Dutch ambassador to the USA, for that! But, perhaps, you can go there and see an Ajax Amsterdam soccer game on your own dime:)

This Sunday, 1) Lio invited some ghoulish friends to watch the Super Bowl; 2) Hagar the Horrible reused to do the laundry (that strip did not make the top ten); and 3) there was a family feud in "Foxtrot" over whether to watch the Super Bowl or "Dowton Abbey." Of course, since the Seattle Seahawks won the 105-3, this proved to be a mute point in reality.

Here is the top ten:

1) Lio

2) Foxtrot

3) WUMO

4) Sherman's Lagoon

5) Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

6) Pearls Before Swine

7) Reply All

8) The Argyle Sweater

9) Prickly City

10) Dustin

http://www.washingtonpost.com

Dutch Futbol Notebook: An Easy Road Win for Ajax

It was a good day for Iranian international Alireza Johanbaksh, 20, who plays for the Nijmegen in the Dutch Premiere League, as he scored two goals for the home side against AZ Alkmaar. For the visitors, Dutch international Roy Beerens scored his team's two goals. The final was 3-2.

In a game that was broadcast on ESPN3 in America, Ajax Amsterdam routed Den Haag in the Hague by a 4-0 score. Danish star Viktor Fsicher scored a goal for Ajax in the 34th minute. Dutch player Quincy Promes scored the game-winner for the visiting squad Twente in their 2-1 win over Roda.

Here are all the scores from weekend domestic play:

Nijmegen 3 AZ Alkmaar 2

Den Haag 0 Ajax Amsterdam 4

Roda 1 Twente 2

Feyenoord 3 PSV 1

Vitesse 3 Canbury 0

Heracles 1 Utrecth 2

Zwolle 1 Waalwijk 1 (tie)

Heerenveen 3 Go Ahead Eagles 1

Breda 2 Gronigen 2 (tie)

http://www.flashscore.com

Futbol Notebook: Ajax Amsterdam Has Wins in Domestic Play and in UEFA

Today, Ajax Amsterdam pulled off an upset of Barcelona at home with ten players in the Netherlands. Ajax won 2-1 with goals from Thulhami Sereo (South Africa) and Denny Hoeson.

Over the weekend, Ajax scored a 3-0 home win over Heracles with goals from Hoeson, Viktor Fischer (Denmark) and Davy Klaassen.

On the more confusing scores to report from the weekend is AZ Alkmaar's 2-2 tie with Roda as two soccer players with similar names Aron Johannsson (USA) and Matias Johansson (Sweden) both scored goals for Alkmaar. The American player actually provided an assist for his Swedish teammate with a very similar surname.

Twente's 5-2 home win over Breda was actually broadcast in America on ESPN3, an internet web site which shows sporting events that the sports television monopoly can not show on its four domestic cable tv networks. For Twente, Quincy Promes (pictured top) scored two goals in the match.

It was not a good weekend for Go Ahead Eagles as Deniz Turuc, one of the few Turkish nationals in the Eredivise (Dutch Premiere League) got a red card, while Lucas Piazon (Brazil) scored two goals on penalty kicks for the visitors from Vitese in their 3-0 road win.

Here are the scores:

Twente 5 Brida 2

Go Ahead Eagles 0 Vitesse 3

Groningen 0 Zwello 0 (tie)

Waalwijk 1 Feyeenoord 0

Ajax Amsterdam 3 Heracles 0

Utrecht 3 Den Haag 0

AZ Alkmaar 2 Roda 2 (tie)

Cambur 2 Nimegen 1

PSV Einhoven 1 Heerenveen 1 (tie)

http://english.ajax.nl/

http://www.az.nl/en

http://www.fctwente.nl/en/

Futbol Notebook: Two Guys Get Red Cards in Dutch Soccer

Tow Dutch futbolers Ard von Peppen (pictured bottom) for Roda and Ingo van Weert for Waalwijk got red cards in domestic play over the weekend. But, the week was a much happier for Siem de Jong (pictured top), a Dutch player who is the captain of Ajax Amsterdam, as he scored two goals as did Aron Johannsson, a American national of Icelandic heritage who plays for AZ Alkmaar, a team that tied this weekend.

A third soccer player Jarchinio Antonia, a Dutch international for Go Ahead Eagles (yes, that is the name of a Dutch soccer team), kicked in two goals within a two-minute (in the 9th and 10th minutes of play).

But, the player of the week had to be Alfredo Finnbogason, an Icelandic player, as he landed a hat trick with three goals for his team Heerenveen.

Here are the complete results of Dutch weekend soccer play:

Feyenoord 2 AZ Alkmaar 2 (tie)

Nimegen 0 Ajax Amsterdam 3

Breda 2 PSV Eindhoven 1

Roda 1 Go Ahead Eagles 4

Heerenveen 5 Waalwijk 2

Zwolle 1 Twente 1 (tie)

Den Haag 3 Cambur 0

Heracles 0 Groningen 3

Vitese 3 Utrecht 1


Vites tops the league, with AZ Alkmaar in second place, followed by Ajax Amsterdam in 3rd.

There was a huge soccer game between two Istanbul powerhouses Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, for the week in Turkish soccer, visit our sister blog "The Daily Vampire": http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Things We Learned on Google Today- Ajax Amsterdam Has Won It All

Today, we continue our look at soccer teams around the world (most entries have been for European teams), which has been on both of my blogs. And, we move to the Netherlands/Holland, where we asked the might Google: How many domestic titles has Ajaz Amsterdam won?

The answer is an astonishing 30 Dutch Premiere League titles dating back to the 1917-18 season (the team was founded in 1900). The latest title was won by last year's team.

This seaon Ajax Amsterdam is participating in the UEFA Champions League where they are currently in third place in Group D, behind Real Madrid (Spain) and Lyon (France), but they are ahead of last place Dynamo Zagreb (Croatia).

Over the weekend, in domestic play, Ajax Amsterdam tied AZ Alkmaar 2-2. Their next Dutch game will against rival Feyenoord Rotterdam in a game that will be played on Oct. 23 at 6:30 a.m., New York time (yikes!).

The team captain for Ajax Amsterdam is Belgian defender Jan Vertonghen, 24, (pictured) and the co-captain is Dutch mid-fielder Theo Janssen, 30. The team also consists of many star players, including Uruguayan Nicolas Lodeiro.

On an interesting note, while researching this piece, we saw that Aras Ozbilis, 20, was on the team's roster. We don't know all the details of his personal history. But, Ozbilis is a person of Armenian heritage who was born in the Bakirkoy suburbs of Istanbul, not far from where my late Turkish aunt resided. He apparently moved to the Netherlands with his family. And, earlier in the week, he was rewarded with Armenian citizenship which will make him eligible to play for the Armenian national team.

On a personal note, I want to wish the Turkish soccer team Trabzonspor from Trabzon, Turkey, a city in the eastern Black Sea region, well. The team is currently on top of Group B in UEFA play. Domestically, Trabzonspor beat Ankara Gucu 3-2 over the weekend. Goalie and team captain Tolga Zengin has been helping his team in their early successes so far.

We also learned that my two favorite teams BursaSpor and GalataSaray met this weekend, with GalataSaray prevailing 2-1. On Youtube, there is apparently a video of Kobe Bryant trying to kick a penalty kick against GalataSary goalie Ufik Ceylan while on a visit to Istanbul.

SIDEBAR: We forgot to mention in our last entry that Barry Manilow is playing a regular gig at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas from now until at least the end of the time.

SPORTS SIDEBAR: Since we mention the University of North Carolina Tarheels' succesful week of play in women's volleyball, we thought it was only fair to give equal time no not to the Duke BlueDevils, but the 'other UNC.' That would be the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colo. Ironically, I saw a bumper sticker for that school during a visit to Chapel Hill a few years ago.

The UNC in Greeley, Colo., call themselves the Bears and their volleyball won a home match in straight sets thanks 15 kills from Amanda Arterburn.

My alma mater Radford University in Radford, Va., also had a solid week in women's volleyball action as they won home games over both Charleston Southern (in straight sets) and Coastal Carolina (a five-set nail-bitter).

Carly Fleming lead the Highlanders with 15 kills against Coastal Carolina for the major Big Conference win.