Feyenoord can call itself the winner of the cup competition in the 2023/2024 season. In the final, NEC was defeated 1-0, with the Rotterdam team leaving the field with only ten players. The match was messy, both on and around the field. In the NOS Football Podcast from the NPO the competition is discussed with Jeroen Elshoff, Jeroen Grueter and Jan Roelfs.
The standouts
Grueter points to David Hancko, Quinten Timber and Timon Wellenreuther as standouts at Feyenoord: “Special attention to the reserve goalkeeper who has become the first goalkeeper, Timon Wellenreuther. With a few very good saves, especially in the final phase after that red card for Minteh They can be grateful for that.” The commentator also mentions Igor Paixão who scored the winning goal, but ‘nothing else worked’.
Ueda of Gimenez?
Arno Vermeulen, presenter of the program, wonders out loud: “There was a lot of discussion beforehand about Gimenez’s position, should he start? He is about a mile from here to the South Pole, shouldn’t Ueda have started?” Jeroen Grueter does not agree with that. “Wasn’t it a bit of a strange discussion? Then you do that earlier in the run-up to a final and not on the day of such a big match.” Roelfs agrees with Grueter: “Moreover, he has his value, because he has provided an assist and he is your first striker, so why would you take him out before the cup final?”
Vermeulen tries to keep the discussion alive: “But if there had been a striker behind him who would have made an impression, Slot would have doubted.” Grueter responds to this: “Feyenoord does that too, because in training he (Ueda) really shoots in one ball after another. A truly fantastic striker, also in the Japanese team. But in those other matches it just doesn’t work. It could be just that, because I assume that Gimenez will explode next year and put in 25 or 30. He keeps coming in at strange times, the game is completely tailored to Gimenez being a striker, gaining confidence, that can all contribute.”
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