Down for the Count

Dutch club football quality is going down the tubes, much like toilet waste.

Less than 20 years ago, Ajax Amsterdam was winning the Champions League, and could have easily been considered one of the best 2-3 teams in Europe, if not the best.

But, now, saying any Dutch team has a chance of winning the most prestigious inter-club competition in existence today would get you laughed at by anyone who is not a fan of that one team.

The present Ajax team fits that description, too, but at least they have qualified for the group stage of the Champions League. (Only by virtue of winning the league. They probably would have lost in the play-off round, much like PSV, if they were only forced to take part in it.)

PSV is the focus of this article, however.

They were easily crushed by AC Milan, at the San Siro, after 1-1 in Holland, and have learned the hard way that they can't challenge Italian teams anymore (like Ajax was doing in the mid-1990s).
And Milan is not even close to being the best Italian team out there, at the present time.

But what's all the more surprising is that, three days after that match, PSV Eindhoven players were not even able to take out their frustration on the small, newly-promoted Eredivisie squad Cambuur Leeuwarden. (... A team, mind you, that Zwolle was able to beat by more than one goal, just one week ago.)

0-0 against Cambuur?!...
Not even scoring, in a match that should have returned the Eindhoven team to the top of the standings, albeit probably only provisionally, because Zwolle still has to play on this matchday?!...
If I was a PSV fan, regularly going to see their matches, it's at this time that I would stop giving them my hard-earned money. (You see what I'm saying, PSV fans?)

Highlights from Milan - PSV 3-0 (on 28 August 2013, in the CL qualifying P-O round):