Hoofdklasse Round 8: Bloemendaal Host Den Bosch as Amsterdam Visit Unbeaten Oranje-Rood
The top of the Dutch league is a two-horse race, and Sunday is the day it gets interesting.
Amsterdam and Den Bosch are locked together on 19 points after seven rounds, both unbeaten, and both face awkward away trips in round 8. Den Bosch go to Bloemendaal, who sit fourth on 14 points and have already drawn 2-2 with Amsterdam this season. Amsterdam go to Oranje-Rood in Eindhoven, and that’s the harder assignment on paper: Oranje-Rood are third on 16 points with a game in hand, and they’re the only other unbeaten side in the league.
Den Bosch have been scoring for fun. They put eight past Klein Zwitserland last Sunday, and Timo Boers leads the league’s scoring chart with 11 goals, eight of them from penalty corners plus three strokes. Thierry Brinkman has seven of his own. But Bloemendaal at ‘t Kopje are nobody’s easy afternoon: they beat Schaerweijde 9-1 earlier this season and held Amsterdam to that 2-2 draw. If Den Bosch win here, they carry real momentum into the run-in.
Amsterdam’s problem is the same one they’ve had all season: everyone raises their game against the leaders. Oranje-Rood have Struan Walker, the league’s second-top scorer on nine goals, and they’ve won five of their six games, drawing the other. A win here takes them level with Amsterdam and Den Bosch, and with that game in hand they’d fancy their chances of topping the table outright.
Elsewhere, the story is Rotterdam. The defending champions are eighth with six points from seven games, and they travel to Pinoké, who are seventh on nine. That’s a mid-table game on paper and a crisis meeting in reality. Rotterdam have lost five already, including 4-3 at home to Amsterdam and 5-3 at Kampong. Another defeat on Sunday and their title defence is effectively done before the winter.
The other three games all matter at the bottom. HDM host Kampong, who have a game in hand and sit fifth on 13 points. Klein Zwitserland host SCHC, sixth on 11. And the two pointless sides meet each other: Schaerweijde against Tilburg, both 0-7, both leaking goals. Somebody has to get off the mark.
All six games are on Sunday, 3 p.m. local time (7 p.m. PKT).
