Luca de la Torre and Heracles suffered a let-down after last weekend’s positive result, getting blown out at home by surging Feyenoord Rotterdam.
Heracles 1 – 4 Feyenoord
With little left to play for this season, de la Torre and his Heracles teammates were unable to keep the momentum going on Sunday afternoon in front of their home crowd, suffering their fourth defeat in their last six games.
The American midfielder lined up in the heart of the Heracles midfield and played the full 90 minutes. With Feyenoord utterly dominating the game from start to finish, holding 64% of possession, his effectiveness was somewhat limited, with the USMNT player having only 49 total touches and completing 31 of his 36 passes
Cole Bassett was on the bench for the visitors, but remained there for the duration as he was never called into action by head coach Arne Slot.
The hosts started out well enough, jumping to the lead within the first minute when they found the Feyenoord defense still asleep at the wheel.
Following a steal by de la Torre in the midfield, Anas Quahim weaved into the right side of the area at the touchline and laid a pass back to just outside the top of the area, where Lucas Schoofs was waiting unmarked with a line on goal.
Schoofs’ low blast to the lower left side was going just wide, however Sinan Bakis was waiting at two yards out and made a clever flick to redirect it over the line, just inside the left upright.
That was the lone bright spot for the hosts, with Feyenoord taking an insurmountable lead well before the halftime whistle had blown.
Orkun Kökcü equalized in the 21st minute, storming into the right side of the area, where he took a short lay-off from Reiss Nelson and unleashed an angled shot that was far too vicious for Koen Bucker to block at the near post.
18 minutes later, Nelson put away a loose ball from ten yards out following a corner to give his team the lead, then on the stroke of half, set up Guus Til for the 3-1, making a no-look heel-flick from in front of goal that his teammate happily put away with his one-time shot from just beyond the edge of the six-yard box.
Heracles did slow the bleeding after the restart, but were still forced to pick the ball out of their own net once more. This time, Swedish youth international Patrik Wålemark did the honors for Feyenoord in style.
Despite finding himself facing away from goal when Jens Toornstra’s shanked attempt unexpected rolled to his feet six yards in front of goal, he managed to get enough power on his cheeky right-footed flick to surprise Bucker for the final 4-1 score.
Despite the heavy loss, Heracles are still in 13th place, with a seven-point cushion above the relegation places and five games left to play. They will next take the field on April 24 with a visit to Groningen.
Notes
Richard Ledezma was an unused substitute on PSV Eindhoven’s bench on Sunday as a 2-0 victory over RKC Waalwijk left them with a shred of hope of catching first-place Ajax in the final five games of the season.
