‘Tornado-Twente’ outclasses Heerenveen and remains in race for European soccer

FC Twente have convincingly qualified for the finals of the playoffs for European soccer. Ron Jans’ team scored a 4-0 victory over sc Heerenveen at home, after winning the outright match in Friesland on Thursday (2-1).

Twente will play next Thursday and Sunday in the finals for a ticket entitling them to a spot in the second preliminary round of the Conference League. Sparta Rotterdam and FC Utrecht will decide tonight who Twente’s opponent will be.

The number five of the premier league was lord and master from minute one. Dutchman Michel Vlap put Twente ahead after more than ten minutes. He got the ball played to him in the penalty area, prepared the ball and shot via the leg of Heerenveen defender Jeffrey Bruma and the inside of the post against his old team (1-0).

About ten minutes later, Vlap was behind the second goal. He shot at the hands of Heerenveen goalkeeper Andries Noppert, after which Robin Pröpper headed in the rebound (2-0). After that, “Tornado-Twente” took it easy, although there were still some fine attacks from the home side.

Just before halftime, one such fine attack led to the 3-0. Joshua Brenet simply put Osame Sahraoui off the ball and led the counter attack. Brenet ran through and got the ball back via Vaclav Cerny, allowing the right back to shoot face to face with Noppert.

In the second half, the Twente storm subsided. Although it still managed to score once. Ramiz Zerrouki put the ball down at the far post and Virgil Misidjan tapped in in the 68th minute. In the second half, several players were rested and a kind of summer night soccer ensued.

For Heerenveen, the season is now over. It seems that Sydney van Hooijdonk has played his last game for the club. The striker played for Heerenveen for the past year and a half. In that time he scored 22 goals in 46 premier league games.

Van Hooijdonk returns to Bologna, where he is under contract. The striker’s future is not yet clear.