PSV took the plane to Orlando, in order to prepare for the second half of the Eredivisie season (January 21st). The invitation to participate in the Florida Cup tournament brings PSV a lot of exposure, possibilities for teambuilding and, ofcourse, a decent training camp. You will read the last updates from Christmast until now in this article.
Transfers: incoming
Technical Manager Marcel Brands did it again: he signed a talented player from Latin-America. With players from Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay in the squad already, this time Argentina is added to the list. The this week turned 19-year-old Maximiliano Romero is official player of PSV as of this summer, but is being rent from Vélez Sarsfield for the rest of this season already. ‘Maxi’ is called to be a ‘typical number 9’ and got 22 as T-shirt number. You can see some of his highlights so far in this video.
The only position PSV might want to get a new player for, is the left back. Strongholder Jetro Willems moved to Eintracht Frankfurt this summer, Joshua Brenet has filled in the spot, but is right footed. Stand-in Kenneth Paal is left footed, but officially an attacking midfielder. Brands has said Brenet has satisfied the technical staff, but ofcourse they are looking out for a real left back.
Transfers: outgoing
Striker Luuk de Jong has been named as a possible new striker for Mexican Club América, but de Jong himself has said his focus is on PSV, and TM Brands said the Mexicans contacted him only once, which happened before they signed the French Jeremy Menez as their new striker.
Midfielder Adam Maher is one of two players that is most likely leaving Eindhoven before the restart of the Eredivisie, FC Twente being the most interesting candidate to take him over, since their new head coach, Gertjan Verbeek, has worked with Maher during his succesfull time at AZ in Alkmaar. Brands has said PSV will coöperate if the player wants to leave. The club will do the same when the Austrian midfielder Marcel Ritzmaier gets an opportunity to make the next step in his carreer. Both players haven’t matched up to what has been expected of them during their time in Eindhoven, but will leave on good therms if it comes to that.
Aygün Winter Champion eSports
Ali Riza Aygün has concluded the first half of the eDivisie season 2017/18 as winner. He took 42 points out of 17 matches on the Playstation 4, keeping a gap of 3 points on runner up Roda JC Kerkrade. Every playing round has reached over 500.000 views of this second season of the eDivisie, in which all clubs of the Eredivisie have their own player defending the club’s honour. The 17 return matches will be played on the Xbox One, the best 2 players will decide who will be national champions in an ultimate play-off event halfway May. Ali Riza will defend PSV’s honour in this play-off, the second half of the season has started last monday. He won the match against Vitesse with 7-2.
Florida Cup: Clubs & Rules
The Florida Cup takes place in Orlando from January 10 to 20. This year partakers are PSV Eindhoven, Glasgow Rangers FC (Schotland), Legia Warsaw (Poland), Corinthians, Atlético and Fluminense from Brazil, Atlético National (Colombia) and Barcelona SC (Ecuador). The winner can be decided by aggregate points or through a final match (playoff format), varying each year according to the international leagues schedules. In 2018, the winner will be the club with most points after 2 matches. Win = 3 pts, Tie = 1 pt, and 1 extra point awarded to winner by penalty kicks. The first tiebreaker, shall it be needed, will be number of wins, followed by goals differential, goals scored and goals against.
PSV’s opponents
PSV’s first opponent was Corinthians, the reigning champions of Brazil. With goalkeeper Cássio Ramos (nr.12) and defender Fagner Conserva Lemos (nr.23), they had two former PSV Youth Academy players in their basic eleven. Forward player Colin Kazim-Richards was Feyenoord’s striker between 2014 and 2016, so they knew what to expect from a Dutch team. PSV played with the usual line-up and didn’t give away much chances, but couldn’t prevent Rodriginho from scoring out of a free kick in the 24th minute, and were following facts for the rest of the game. Coach Cocu decided to bring some new blood and sent 4 of the newest PSV Youth Academy products to the pitch to turn things around. You can see what happened in this resume.
PSV’s second opponent is Fluminense, another big team from Brazil. Deco, Marcelo, Ronaldinho, Rivelino, Romário (who was also very succesfull for PSV from 1988 until 1993) and Thiago Silva are some of the most popular Brazilians who performed for the tricolores, and the club is still the fifth biggest supplier of the Brazilian national football team. Last season, Fluminense ended on a disappointing 14th position and the Florida Cup might be the perfect stage for them to show how talented their selection still is today. With Wellington, Henrigue Dourado and Marquinho they have a lot of offensive potential, so it’ll be interesting to see how PSV’s defense will deal with that.
Find all info about the Florida Cup through this link.
Match Information
Date: 14 January (USA) / 15 January (Netherlands)
Time: 7:00 PM (USA) / 1:00 AM (Netherlands)
Location: Spectrum Stadium, Orlando
Referee: tba
Broadcast: Fox Sports
Tickets: Through this link
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