11th heaven for Jones

Brad Jones is in the form of his life, holding out a legendary Eredivisie keeper at Feyenoord, which is causing a bit of a stir in the land of clogs and windmills.

The 35-year-old former Liverpool stopper has excelled in the twilight of his career since moving to the Rotterdam giants, winning a drought-breaking title last season with Feyenoord.

Feyenoord's 1-0 win over Heracles overnight was Jones' 11th cleansheet of the season, as he presses his claims for Socceroos selection.

This season has been slightly harder for Giovanni Van Bronckhorst's men, but in no part due to Jones - Feyenoord sit fourth in the league, but have conceded less goals than league leaders PSV Eindhoven.

Jones will also face Willem II in the semi-final of the KNVB cup on March 1. With Ajax and PSV already out, Feyenoord will now be favourites to win the competition. The Australian's form since moving to De Kuip has seen his position become almost untouchable.

After Jones kept 17 clean sheets last season, Feyenoord and former Dutch national team goalkeeper, Kenneth Vermeer, was loaned out to Club Brugge for this season, leaving the Australian keeper un-opposed leading into the World Cup.

As a big name in the Netherlands, replacing the injury-prone Vermeer with Jones has been big news in the Netherlands. For his part, Van Bronckhorst has shown faith in the Aussie.

"Kenneth is very disappointed", Van Bronckhorst told the European media recently.

"We have evaluated the first half of the season with the technical staff, especially with goalkeeper coach Khalid Benlahsen, and then I decided to continue with Brad."

"We spoke with both keepers, and for one we had good news, for the other less good news, but we are not going to change anything."

A KNVB Cup win would restore some shine to a rather dull follow up for the Dutch club. The Rotterdam side also had a disappointing Champions League campaign, losing five of their six group stage matches.

Jones' major competitors for the reserve Australian goalkeeping spots leading into the World Cup are Genk's Danny Vukovic and Nagoya Grampus' Mitch Langerak, but neither have excelled to the same level as Jones this season.

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