Slowly but certainly we will re-start most of the topics you were used to on SoccerPages...

One of them was the thread about Ajax's glorious and sometimes not-so-glorious past. Any questions about Ajax's history? Any thoughts? Post them here.

I will also use this thread again to announce the publication of new installments in Ajax USA's monthly 15 Years Ago series. The most recent installment - about February 1990 - was published on February 01. Check it out:

http://www.ajax-usa.com/history/fifteen ... -1990.html

It's March 01. Time for a new 15 Years Ago installment!

Read about the March 1990 right here:
http://www.ajax-usa.com/history/fifteen ... -1990.html

K.

April 1st... time for a new 15 Years Ago installment!

Follow Ajax's shaky, tight and nerve-wracking quest for their first Dutch championship in five years' time, in the spring of 1990.

http://www.ajax-usa.com/history/fifteen ... -1990.html

I was there at the Ajax vs Roda game on 29 April 1990... A legendary one. Good God, I'll never forget the tension when it all seemed to go wrong. And the eruption when Ron Willem equalized. Loudest roar I've ever heard at De Meer... Can't believe it's (almost) fifteen years ago.

K.

Announcement for fans of 15 Years Ago... You will have to have a tiny little bit of patience this month. I've had a very busy week and will be on a weekend trip this weekend. I won't have the time to write the May 1990 installment before Sunday (May 1st). It will be up on May 2nd or 3rd, but not on the 1st.

Sorry, folks. Send your complaints to our honourable webmaster, publisher and president, so that he can decide whether or not he will fire me for this... :blush:

K.

There you go! Take your monthly peek at Ajax, fifteen years ago... The May 1990 is now up on Ajax USA. Enjoy!

http://www.ajax-usa.com/history/fifteen ... -1990.html

K.

Came across this great piece on www.degoeieouwetijd.nl/ which covers this month 25 years ago:-

Tonnie Bruins Slot only wants to focus on youthful football players coming season. At this he has the choice between a contract which connects him to FC Amsterdam as head education for three more seasons and the opportunity to start working at Ajax in the training atmosphere. Bruins Slot:” It isn't so strange that all those years I talk about all kinds of business with Ajax, like I also have contacts with other clubs. Those contacts are just there when you are working in the football business for a long time. I think that it might be known that I like to work with young talents. When it comes to that I can say that I have done well at FC Amsterdam. Except for three players of the current selection I have formed the group myself. If you are scouting the guys like Hans Bouwmeester and Martin Wiggemansen, then you aren't doing bad. I also have to say that I have the ambition to deal with young players, then I'm at my best. Moreover after the introduction of the labour agreements, after the coming to be of the special taxes inspector(BBI), the guidance and education of young players has become more and more fundamental for the paid clubs. If in these days you are still buying a player for, let's say, sixty thousand guilders, then this is wasted money. Look, at the moment I am doing everything at FC Amsterdam. The scouting, the educating, and the A-team. This is by now getting a bit too much for me, towards my family I cannot keep this up anymore. There are enough colleague's with an A-diploma, but how many A-trainers are really dealing with the youth? As a headcoach you get to deal with a lot of uncertainties. Just take the matter of Henk de Jonge. He is promoting with Willem II, that club ends up in the middle bracket, and still he has to leave. If this is what awaits me. Then I'm rather going to work with the youth for a few years. I do not see that as a step back, and why should I? I know that one thinks this is true, but I do not care about that. Of course the choice, Ajax or FC Amsterdam, is a difficult one. I am already working fulltime at FC Amsterdam since 1972, so then it isn't easy to abandon that club. Officially I still have a contract at FC Amsterdam for one more year, the chairman, mister Stoop, has already said that he does not want to let me go under any circumstance. I'm not worrying about that too much, if I would not be allowed to go to Ajax then I would be disappointed. That isn't nice for FC Amsterdam, I am assuming that Stoop will also realize this. But well, I haven't yet made up my mind, although it is for certain that my heart is laying at FC Amsterdam. If there comes a new trainer and I will only be dealing with the education, there will at least be a possibility for a gooed co-opperation, without me bothering the new trainer with all kinds of advices”.

A GREAT read...

L'Equipe Magazine asked this question: "What was the best European game ever?" Many European journalists voted, and the winner was... Ajax Amsterdam - Bayern Munchen, 1973.

And - not for the first time - a great, big thank you to Bertrand 'Carcajou' Chardon for translating this story for us!

K.

:headbang: Yeah, Thanks u for your translation Bertrand Chardon!
A great Article, Come On Ajax, I love all Ajax-Usa articles. We have lots delirious stories !

That was fun to read. I was just a kid, but remember the game well. The score was 0-0 at the half, when my father called me, -he usually did when Ajax played European football. The Ajax bug had skipped a generation with him. His team was from Rotterdam, so when he asked me what I thought about the game his tone was lightly amused. "It's going to be 4-0", I told him with an absolute assurance that made him laugh his head off. Fortyfive minutes later the phone rang again...

I realize only now that when he was that age he lived under German occupation. What a contrast to the steady diet of invincibility us Ajax kids were spoonfed in those days.

I'm much too young to have seen this match. Does anybody know if it can be downloaded somewhere? :eusa_pray:

My elder brother was present at that game with some friends. He stood on the temporary stand just behind the goal, where the four goals were scored. So he was able to see the best part of the game in a very close perspective. Even now, 32 years later, he can still be euforic about the way Ajax played that evening. He considers it as by far the best soccer he has ever seen. Unfortunately, I was ill that week and had to watch the game at home by television.

Damn that'd be awesome. I put a request up on the bittorrent forum, if anyone else is interested click here and request it also and hopefully someone will be able to get it!

The classic world cup match between Holland and Brazil in 1974 can be watched here: http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/p/video.html

Somebody should start a whole archive of these things. I'm sure some collectors have great matches that they would be willing to share.

Here is a 'dealer' in soccervideo's. In his collection is also a complete (?) videotape of Ajax-Bayern 1973:

http://members.aol.com/Olafthon1/Fussball.html

Thanks Bertrand what a lovely read . What beautiful football that team played. Sheer magic.

Today Ajax have confirmed the death of Gerard van Dijk, also known as Gé van Dijk, former players of Ajax and the Dutch national team.

Van Dijk played for Ajax-1 for twelve years, from 1943 to 1957. In this period he played 325 league games, in which he netted 89 goals. He also had two appearances for Oranje.

Van Dijk was 81 years old. He passed away in his home town of Amsterdam.

K.

A new 15 Years Ago installment, ladies and gentlemen! June 1990 is the featured month. Not a single Ajax game in it (summer break!), but a handful of Ajacieden had some other important stuff to do: the World Cup of 1990 in Italy, a.k.a. one of the most remarkable and tragic examples of complete failure by an (in theory) absolutely great Dutch national team... Read all about it:

http://www.ajax-usa.com/history/fifteen ... -1990.html

K.

This was the first World Cup that I watched most of. I remember thinking that the Holland-Germany match was one of the best of the tournament, even if the damn Germans won. But man, Holland was disappointing. I thought my parents were going to cry when that game was over.

I recall that Van Breukelen was magnificent in that Germany game. Particularly after Rijkaard was sent off for his shameful behavior, Van Breukelen made some big saves.

Bad memories, but it was that WC which got first aroused my passions for soccer. And, strange as it may sound, Italia 90 made me an Ajax fan.

Interesting...

Italia '90 is generally remembered as a very disappointing tournament, possibly the most boring World Cup ever. Even Brazil played negative football in those years, Argentina were even worse and Germany were regarded as a very gray world champion. I remember how the whole world loved Cameroon and their 39 year-old topscorer, Roger Milla. They added ' colour' to the tournament. I think the total number of goals scored during the tournament still stands as all-time low.

Also very remarkably: the 'big man' of Italia '90 was Italy's Salvatore 'Toto' Schillacci. Topscorer and revelation. But he never really made it after the World Cup. It seemed like he disappeared completely and the World Cup was like his fifteen seconds of fame. Here's an interesting story:
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/050422/1/3j0y.html

K.

Excellent read as always Ko. I didn't start following football until WC '94 here in the States. I picked out Oranje as my team (favorite color) and Rijkaard as my player. I was very lucky to follow Rijkaard during his last year at Ajax but whenever I asked people about him the first thing they would bring up was the spitting incident with Voeller. It seems that he's been a class act his entire footballing career as a player and a coach. It's a shame that this is what he seems to be the most famous for. Or is it? How much did this incident tarnish his reputation?

tarnish it? i think a lot of dutchman love him for it :xyxthumbs:

Not too much, I think.

It's true that some Dutch football fans really hate Germany, and the two most hated Germans at the time were most definitely Matthäus and Völler. It was suggested that Völler made a racist remark, and that that 'inspired' Rijkaard.

But make no mistake: the Dutch press and the large part of the Dutch football fans did actually think it was a complete disgrace and a shocking case of mishbehaviour. However, most Dutchies regarded it as an incident, a sort of 'black-out' from a player who otherwise was always a gentleman.

By the way, did you know Rijkaard and Völler were in a TV ad together, years later?

It was an ad from a brand of butter that calls itself 'Real Butter'. The pay-off of their campaign was 'Met Echte Boter krijg je ze weer aan tafel', which literally means 'Real Butter will get them back at the table'. In Dutch that expression also stands for 'getting them back on speaking terms'. It was a series of TV ads and for each one they would bring two people together who had been involved in some sort of public conflict. You'd see them sitting at a table in the garden, dressed in morning robes and slippers, having breakfast in the sun.

Rijkaard and Völler also did one, which I thought was great. It showed that they're grown-up people who can laugh about their own mistakes. It put the whole incident in a different perspective when the two guys involved did that ad. It was their way of saying: oh well, shit happens.

I remember they also did one with some Dutch singer or actor (forgot who it was), who had sued a number of Dutch 'gossip magazines' for besmearing his reputation and disrespecting his privacy. In the ad he had breakfast with some of Holland's most notorious paparazzi photographers.

Funny thing was: in many cases these folks actually 'signed peace' with their 'enemy' on the set of that Real Butter ad.

K.

I can't remember the full advert or the joke involved but Chris Waddle and Gareth Southgate (who missed penalties for England against West Germany and Germany) also did an advert in the same sort of context (for Pizza Hut I think)......This one didn't go down quite as well for obvious reasons :nooo:

Help me out here...the ad was very famous so some of the English guys are sure to remember it.

Yeah, in my former life selling pizzas (before becoming a Rollercoaster Tycoon) I worked for Pizza Hut. The ad was in '96, and the joke was about England's penalty misses in various tournaments (can't remember the punch line. Waddle talked about it in an interview with FootballUnlimited's "Small Talk":

Small Talk: Chris, you look to be in fine fettle. That Pizza Hut ad you did a few years back; did it really take Gareth Southgate 27 takes to get his one line right?

Waddle: [Laughs] I remember it was a very long day but I'm not sure it was 27 takes. I thought we'd be done in a couple of hours but it ended up taking eight or nine to get right. Gareth's quite an intelligent guy so I'd be surprised if it was 27, but me and Stuart Pearce were too busy eating pizzas to keep count.