Now that 2021 is coming to an end, it is time to take stock after the first half of the season of the Kitchen Champion Division. Voetbalzone, in collaboration with Opta, has put together a selection of the best players so far. Formally, the first half of the season ended after the nineteenth round, but the first twenty rounds were taken into account for this team. With three players, Excelsior is the main supplier of the first eleven, in which Naci Ünüvar and Robert Mühren have also earned a place.
Reserve bank: Jay Gorter (Young Ajax), Boy Kemper (ADO Den Haag), Arnaud Luzayadio (FC Emmen), Patrick Pflücke (Roda JC Kerkrade), Youri Regeer (Young Ajax), Jort van der Sande (FC Eindhoven) and Jonas Arweiler (Almere City).
Romain Matthys (MVV Maastricht)
The MVV goalkeeper is perhaps a striking name in the team with the best players of the first half of the season in the Kitchen Champion Division, as the Limburgers occupy a somewhat disappointing thirteenth place. Moreover, Matthys, who is hired from KAS Eupen, has only been making minutes since the beginning of November, after trainer Klaas Wels decided to give him preference over Thijmen Nijhuis. However, Matthys can provide impressive statistics in the total of eight games he played. For example, he only conceded 8 goals, while MVV conceded no less than 32 goals in the 12 matches before that. On the basis of expected goals Matthys should have conceded fourteen goals. The difference between the expected and actual number of goals conceded is the best positive difference of all keepers in the Kitchen Champion Division. Matthys stopped a whopping 46 of 53 shots on his target, a save rate of no less than 87 percent.
Denso Kasius (FC Volendam)
Kasius leaves all defenders in the Kitchen Champion Division behind with his statistics in three areas: recaptures (171), shots (27) and rounded dribbles (43). The right-back rented from FC Utrecht is of great value for the game of leader FC Volendam and has provisionally signed for five goals and two assists in nineteen competition matches. This makes Kasius also the most scoring defender of the Kitchen Champion Division, although he does share that title with Jasper van Heertum of De Graafschap.
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Denso Kasius highlighted football zone earlier this season in the Talentscout section.
Redouan El Yaakoubi (Excelsior)
No player was in the Team of the Week of the Kitchen Champion Division, Opta and Football Zone as often in the first half of the season as Excelsior captain El Yaakoubi: five times, just like teammates Thijs Dallinga. Thanks in part to this duo, Excelsior is experiencing a surprisingly strong season, in which the second period title was conquered and is currently in second place with a virtual Eredivisie ticket. El Yaakoubi has already scored three times this season and also stands out with his passes: no less than 42 percent of the total 1004 passes were forward.
Jeroen Veldmate (FC Emmen)
Only Robin van der Meer of Helmond Sport and Seydine N’Diaye of FC Dordrecht can present a better success rate of their personal duels this Kitchen Champion Division season than Veldmate. The 33-year-old center defender – who exchanged the promoted Go Ahead Eagles last summer for the relegated FC Emmen – has won 69 percent of his personal duels so far. As captain, he also leads the least passed defense of the Kitchen Champion Division with only fifteen goals against.
Lorenzo Burnet (FC Emmen)
In the words of Opta, Burnet scores particularly well on the components this season defending (i.e. defend) and possession (aka possession), though he’s nowhere in the top ten in terms of specific stats. “Burnet appears to be a good left back, especially all-round,” is the conclusion. Burnet, who returned last summer after an adventure at the Danish HB Köge in Drenthe, delivered one goal and one assist in the first half of the season on behalf of the current number three of the Kitchen Champion Division.
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Marouan Azarkan explained the football zone earlier this season in the Talentscout section.
Marouan Azarkan (Excelsior)
Azarkan spoke to Voetbalzone in September about his ambition to deliver more than ten goals and more than ten assists for Excelsior this season. With five hits and four assists, that goal of the Feyenoord mercenary has not yet been fulfilled, but as a right winger he is extremely important in the game of the Rotterdam team. No player created the most chances after a this Kitchen Champion Division season carry, where you walk at least five meters with the ball at your foot and then prepare a chance for a teammate: sixteen times.
Thom Haye (NAC Breda)
Haye shows himself this season at NAC as an all-round midfielder. Only one player captured possession more often than Haye, while he also created the most chances after Patrick Pflücke of Roda JC Kerkrade: 47 to 58. In addition, he provided five goals and seven assists in nineteen league games for the current number nine of the Kitchen Champion. Division. Haye has according to BN DeStem rejected an offer from NAC to extend his expiring contract and seems to be picking up a free transfer at the end of the season. Sparta Rotterdam wanted to bring him in in January, but Haye did not like that step.
Sem Steijn (ADO The Hague)
Prior to the season, Steijn hadn’t played for a minute in the first team of ADO Den Haag, but he is now one of the great tastemakers in the team that won the first period title. The attacking midfielder has already scored eleven goals and two assists and also puts an important stamp on ADO Den Haag’s game with his game. Steijn created 41 chances for teammates; only five players did better this Kitchen Champion Division season for the time being.
‘It was wonderful to make my debut in De Kuip under my father’
Earlier this month, Voetbalzone spoke extensively with Sem Steijn.
Naci Ünüvar (Young Ajax)
No player gave more assists in the first half of the Kitchen Champion Division than Ünüvar: eight, as many as Joey Sleegers of FC Eindhoven. In addition, the eighteen-year-old attacker also scored nine goals on behalf of Young Ajax. “I’m comfortable in my own skin, the team is running very well and my statistics are good. This season is going really well”, said Ünüvar recently in conversation with Voetbalzone. A reward for his strong season followed earlier this month, when he played his second official match in the first team of Ajax as a substitute against Barendrecht.
Robert Muhren (FC Volendam)
19 goals, 7 assists, 80 shots (more than any other player in the Kitchen Champion Division) and 28 opportunities created for teammates: Mühren’s name cannot be missed among the best eleven of the first half of the season. The 32-year-old striker has already shot the Keuken Kampioen Division to shreds in the previous two seasons with a total of 64 (!) goals on behalf of SC Cambuur and has continued that line since his arrival at FC Volendam. Mühren received the Bronze Championship Shield for the best player of the second period earlier this month and hopes to celebrate his second championship in a row at the end of this season.
Thijs Dallinga (Excelsior)
With Dallinga, Mühren can only have one attacking partner in this team. Since Opta collected this data (the 2008/09 season), it never happened that a player had already scored 25 times in the Kitchen Champion Division before Christmas. The unprecedented goal production of last summer transferred transfer-free from FC Groningen in the service of Excelsior has not exactly gone unnoticed, because he was praised by Hans Kraay junior and Johan Derksen and would be in the interest of SC Heerenveen and AZ, among others. “No, the intention is to stay,” said Dallinga shortly before the winter break at ESPN. “We are all working on something wonderful this year and that now also results in the period title. That’s just motivation to keep going together and I’m part of that.”
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