Taylor Booth was on the mark again with a pair of goals against Fortuna, while Ricardo Pepi contributed a goal for PSV Eindhoven off the bench.
FC Utrecht 4 – 0 Fortuna Sittard
It was another impressive day at the office for Taylor Booth on Sunday afternoon when his Utrecht side welcomed Fortuna to Galgenwaard Stadium and soundly whipped them by a 4-0 score line. And the 22 year old American had a lot to do with that.
After a hat trick last week against his brother’s team, Volendam, he managed a brace this time out, scoring the first and third goals of the game. He also played the duration of the game.
Only 21 minutes into the game the Fortuna keeper was picking the ball out of the back of his net, thanks to Booth. Sam Lammers spotted the run of his American colleague and split the defense with his pass into the box that Booth caught up to and slotted past Michael Verrips for the eventual game winner.
It wasn’t until the second half when the goals began to flow and after Othmane Boussaid’s second of the season in the 70th minute, the next came another five later and it was Booth again. After a couple of nice passes on the right side of the goal, the Yank was picked out and easily slotted the ball home from 12 yards out.
Just to add insult to injury, three minutes after that Lammers, who just arrived last month from Glasgow Rangers scored his first for his new club.
The four goals equaled three points and moved the “Cathedral Citizens” into ninth place. They’ll look to move higher up the table this coming weekend when they take on third place Twente.
FC Volendam 1 – 5 PSV Eindhoven
In this Battle of the Yanks only one of the three started for PSV, with Sergino Dest going the distance and Ricardo Pepi and Malik Tillman coming off the bench in the 77th minute. Zach Booth started for the hosts and went the distance in a losing effort.
Although PSV dominated, it was the hosts who took the lead in the very first minute after an unfortunate deflection by Jordan Teze. But the disappoint didn’t last very long because Ismael Saibari was celebrating his fifth of the season.
The hosts held their own for the rest of the half but in the 52nd minute Jerdy Schouten put the Farmers ahead. Twenty-two minutes later Teze redeemed himself with a goal in the right net and then Pepi, who only came off the bench two minutes earlier, was celebrating his fifth of the season in the 79th minute with a low strike from the right edge of the 18-yard box.
In the 84th minute Isaac Babadi also hit the back of the net to end the decimation of Volendam and maintain their 10 points lead at the top of the Eredivisie. Next up Heracles will come to town, while Volendam heads to Arnhem to take on Vitesse.
Notes
Philippe Sandler went the distance in NEC Nijmegen’s central defense, picking up a yellow card in the team’s 2-0 road loss at RKC Waalwijk on Friday.
Kik Pierie played 72 minutes in the Excelsior Rotterdam backfield on Saturday, as the team were handily beaten by visiting FC Twente by a 3-1 score.
Anthony Fontana didn’t make it off the bench for PEC Zwolle’s 1-1 road draw at Go Ahead Eagles on Sunday.
Paxten Aaronson went the distance in midfield for Vitesse on Saturday, after the team blew a two-goal lead to lose at Heracles by a final 3-2 score.
