FC Volendam snatched a draw away at Telstar in their first match of the season. The visitors gave two goals away in the first half and really struggled against Andries Jonker’s Telstar, but grabbed a goal in the final few minutes of the first half. Volendam dominated possession throughout the whole game, but became more dangerous in the second half. After 68 minutes they scored the equalizer through El Azzouzi, which was the final goal of the game.
Wim Jonk’s FC Volendam set up in a 4-3-3 formation with one defensive midfielder behind two midfielders with more freedom. In the second half they took both full backs off and started playing with three at the back with Antonucci as an extra midfielder. Telstar played a 5-3-2 formation and were really patient at trying to hit Volendam on the break.
Ratings:
- A1 – Very good, could play higher
- A2 – Strong potential to play higher
- B1 – Good, strong player at level
- B2 – Potential to be strong player at level
- C – Average for the level, re-watch
- D – Below average in this match
Micky van de Ven
Player profile:
- Nationality: Dutch
- Age: 19
- Date of birth: 19/04/2001
- Current club: FC Volendam
- Career: FC Volendam
- Position: Centre Back
- Secondary position: Left Back
- Preferred foot: Left
Micky van de Ven played as the left centre back in Volendam’s four man defense. The 19-year old did very well defensively, but didn’t start too strong with the ball at his feet.
Van de Ven is a tall centre back, standing at 6’4”, and really dominated in the air, not losing a single aerial duel this game. On the ground van de Ven is also a very solid defender. He always has his eyes on the ball and reads the game very well. This lead to six interceptions against Telstar. In his 1v1s he also does quite well. He has enough pace to keep up with most attackers and is quite explosive on the first few metres. His long legs also really helped him recover or block passes that look to be out of reach. Micky van de Ven probably needs to gain some muscle mass to play on a higher level, as he isn’t the strongest defender and is quite thin, but this didn’t have any impact this game.
On the ball Micky van de Ven is very confident. The young defender loves to dribble past his opponent and did this a couple of times against Telstar. The centre back was very calm on the ball and scans the area around him very well looking for his teammates. His dribbles weren’t as successful as in other matches as Telstar did very well to give him as little space as possible and force him wide, which made van de Ven lose possession a couple of times.
Overall van de Ven’s passing was very solid this game. He made on big mistake in the first half, but recovered the ball himself after it and didn’t seem to worry about it. He also showed some good passing range completing eight out of the eleven long passes he attempted in this game.
Rating – A2
Van de Ven made it clear that he wants to stay at FC Volendam season, despite interest from AZ, which is a wise choice in my opinion. He clearly has a lot of potential, but also needs to learn a lot.
Jari Vlak
Player profile:
- Nationality: Dutch
- Age: 22
- Date of birth: 15/08/1998
- Current club: FC Volendam
- Career: FC Volendam
- Position: Centre Midfield
- Secondary position: Defensive Midfield
- Preferred foot: Right
FC Volendam played with one defensive midfielder and two midfielders with more freedom to attack. One of them was Jari Vlak, who played on the right side mostly. Vlak is quite tall, standing at 6’3”, but isn’t a very physical player. He was reasonably strong on the ball, but seemed to lack a bit of aggression in his 1v1 duels. In the air Vlak seemed quite lost. His timing wasn’t good and at times he didn’t even try to jump.
Vlak still played a crucial role for his team against Telstar providing the assist for both goals this game. After a long pass got poorly cleared by Telstar’s defender El Yaakoubi Jari Vlak found right winger Doodeman in the box with a simple header. In the 46th minute Vlak scored the equaliser himself, but he just shot wide with his left foot after a good dribble in the box. Around 20 minutes later Vlak got his second assist of the game. After a smart run he got the ball on the right and his cross found El Azzouzi completely unmarked at the front post.
Against Telstar, Vlak had a hard time with the ball at his feet at times. His first touches were quite good and allowed him to turn quite fast, but he mainly struggled in the smaller spaces that Telstar offered. He was comfortable carrying the ball, but he had quite poor ball control at times needing too much space and ending up losing the ball. Vlak was more dangerous when he made smart runs between the lines and was a little more involved in the final third.
Defensively Vlak did alright, he intercepted some balls by cutting of passing lanes and didn’t do too bad in his defensive duels either, winning most of them despite lacking some aggression.
Rating – B1
Jari Vlak is a good player for FC Volendam and I’m curious to see if he can make the step to the Eredivisie in the next few years.
Martijn Kaars
Player profile:
- Nationality: Dutch
- Age: 21
- Date of birth: 05/03/1999
- Current club: FC Volendam
- Career: FC Volendam (Y), Ajax (Y), FC Volendam
- Position: Striker
- Secondary position: Right Wing
- Preferred foot: Right
With Telstar’s low defensive line and three centre backs it was a difficult game for Martijn Kaars, who normally gets dangerous from running in behind the opponent’s defense. Kaars made a couple of smart runs out wide, but only got one chance to score this game which went over the bar.
FC Volendam tried to play short combinations on Telstar’s half to create chances and Martijn Kaars did pretty well to get involved. He kept possession for his team most times as he was quite composed with the ball and played good first touch passes.
The 6’0” tall striker seemed to lack physically against the Telstar defenders. They outmuscled him pretty easily and Kaars didn’t have the pace to beat them with the ball. Technically Kaars is alright for a striker. He has a good first touch which helped him with his hold up play, but didn’t seem to easily beat his opponent with the ball.
Rating – B1
Kaars did very well for FC Volendam last season and is a good striker for them, however I have my doubts if he could perform on Eredivisie level.
Ibrahim El Kadiri
Player profile:
- Nationality: Dutch
- Age: 18
- Date of birth: 23/01/2002
- Current club: FC Volendam
- Career: Ajax (Y), FC Utrecht (Y), FC Volendam
- Position: Left Wing
- Secondary position: Right Wing
- Preferred foot: Right
The 18-year old Ibrahim El Kadiri started for the second time in his career for FC Volendam. It wasn’t a great first game of the season for the young winger however. There weren’t a lot of positives for him this game and he got subbed off after an hour.
El Kadiri is a small winger standing at 5’7” and his lack of physicality really showed against Telstar. Technically El Kadiri is very talented. He has a great first touch and very quick feet when dribbling, but he still had a hard time beating his opponent. He got pushed off the ball very easily by his direct opponent and didn’t seem explosive enough to beat him on the first few meters with his acceleration.
Throughout the game El Kadiri was mostly positioned quite wide near the sideline of the pitch and on the ball he would mostly cut in to his right foot. He did this quite well in the final third a couple of times, but his end product was poor. He didn’t seem to be very confident in shooting from the edge of the box and his crosses didn’t reach their target.
Rating – C
El Kadiri showed some good things against Telstar, but wasn’t involved nearly enough.