Football Season Guide

The past season undoubtedly was the worst ever in MVV Maastricht history, as they finished 19th, only 3 points above relegated Jong Ajax. They had never touched a point so low since their foundation. To be fair, they had not been bad until early February but things went sour afterwards and they closed the season with just 1 win out of the last 12 fixtures. MVV excelled at being bad in all areas: they held both the Eerste Divisie worst attack, 41 goals scored only, and the worst defence, with 73 goals conceded. Moreover, they were almost hopeless when traveling, while they were slightly more solid in home soil. Not too surprisingly, coach Peter Van den Berg was let go after just one season in charge and the management handed the reins of the team to seasoned Andries Jonker, whose experience at the helm of the Netherlands women’s national team had abruptly come to an end. The summer logically saw MVV letting several protagonists of the past campaign go, not all light-heartedly, though. This was certainly the case of starting goalie Westerweld, who did wonders but had to return to his parent club. Wentges, his replacement, arrives after a season spent warming the bench at Helmond. At the back, they lost a couple of bit-time players but added centre-back Timber, who could end up being preferred to erratic Coomans or Breugelmans. Hofland may become the new starter at right-back since Lenn-Minh Tran and Sy both left. The midfield was hardly touched with Jashari leaving and Dumont arriving but, above all, they managed to retain Van Dessel, one of the few positives from last season. On the other hand, the attack needed some refurbishment and it went through major changes. Starting winger Silva Timas and Striker Braken, both decent last season, left together with a bunch of minor players, while valid Daneels, coming off a crazy experience at Helmond, and Vinogradac, a non-entity for Dutch football, are their likely replacements.