A sold-out Abe Lenstra stadium, a match against the approaching national champion and a small chance of the play-offs. SC Heerenveen has enough to play for against PSV on Thursday (6.45 p.m.).
With four competition matches remaining, SC Heerenveen is four points behind Sparta, which is currently in ninth place in the Premier League. The Rotterdam team faces a home game with relegation candidate FC Volendam this round. Conclusion? “We actually have to get a point or more against PSV to have a chance of making it to the play-offs for European football,” says Kees van Wonderen.
That will not be an easy job, the trainer knows, if only because PSV can become champions on Thursday evening. The people of Eindhoven are dependent on the result that Feyenoord achieves against Go Ahead Eagles later in the evening. A possible PSV title will therefore not be celebrated in the Abe Lenstra stadium anyway.
PSV is champion if the team wins a point or more against Heerenveen and Feyenoord loses points. “It is an important match,” says Van Wonderen. “That applies to PSV, but also certainly to us. We want to turn it into a football battle, where we can compensate a lot with team spirit.” The coach still hopes for the play-offs. “That feeling is also strong in the group of players.”
Tjoe-A-On absent
For the time being, Nathan Tjoe-A-On is the only absentee. The left back plays with Indonesia under 23 for the Asian Cup. South Korea is the opponent in the quarter-finals. Giving up Tjoe-A-On causes mixed feelings for Van Wonderen. “We brought in Nathan during the winter break because we wanted reinforcements behind Mats Köhlert in that position,” he says.
“On the other hand, we cannot imagine how big football and that tournament is in that country,” Van Wonderen continues. “Nathan may have been on the bench for 90 minutes against PSV, while he can gain great experience in Indonesia. That is the decision we have made.”
Talented youth player
Osame Sahraoui trained fully with the group for the first time on Friday, after the injury to his thigh that he sustained against FC Utrecht at the beginning of this month. The wing attacker passed the last test without any problems, but will still start on the bench. “He has barely trained in the past two and a half weeks,” Van Wonderen explains.
Due to the almost complete group of players, Isaiah Ahmed (18) will have to be patient before he makes his debut in the match selection. He is a physically strong defender for Heerenveen under 21.
Ahmed left a good impression on the technical staff in the friendly match against RKC Waalwijk (2-3) and during training last week. “This boy is coming,” said Van Wonderen, who included Ahmed in the selection. “He can take balls and is a breaker in duels. We heard from other boys that they would like him to train with us. Something like that is nice: football players who recognize the qualities of talents.”
