Saturday, November 29, 2008

a tough act to follow

After last weekends shocking 6-0 outpouring over Heerenveen, Steve McClaren and company have a tough act to follow in Den Haag against ADO. André Wetzel’s side are having a tough ride since being promoted in the Eredivisie this year and in the midst of a six-match losing streak, including last weeks 3-1 loss to Feyenoord. Despite the problems Wetzel is confident that if they can weather the storm and stay positive, “it will come out right in the end.” They have Ahmed Ammi back from serving suspension but will miss Wesley Verhoek,Gino Coutinho and Robin Faber.

For Twente, they are in the odd position of trying to put aside last weekends match and not let it get them over-confident. They have an important mid-week UEFA Cup match against Schalke 04 coming up on Wednesday and will need to have veterans Blaise Kufo and Kenneth Perez fully recovered so it is likely to influence the lineup. Steve McClaren gave no indication of changes in his pre-match press-conference and merely noted the competitive nature of matches between ADO and Twente. Although historically this has been a very tough match with a opportunity to advance in the UEFA Cup riding on a victory over Schalke, I expect a few key lineup changes with veteran Romano Denneboom playing a greater role.