General Football Discussion

[ajaxusa]

Wow. Liverpool handed a soft (severe understatement) penalty at the death of added time. Pretty criminal; Athletico played a brave match, defended well, and got less than they deserved...

[Amol]

Wow. Liverpool handed a soft (severe understatement) penalty at the death of added time. Pretty criminal; Athletico played a brave match, defended well, and got less than they deserved...

Yeah - apparently going for the same ball as Gerrard is a horrible foul.

[SPL]

Well I have had a good moan about the lucky penalty that F word got against us but that was nothing compared with last night. No idea why it was given but pleased it was not our old friend Heits who gave it away.

[ajaxusa]

Good read... about current form of Ajax and the Eredivisie in general.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/20 ... visie-ajax

[SPL]

Ihave posted about lack of Ajax shirts in the shops of Brighton ansd Worthing before but today in Brighton in a large sports shop I was pleasantly surprised to see they had on sale not only our famous shirt but also this seasons away shirts. About time we sold our shirts in the Uk as we are a famous name and our shirt is very well known.

[Van basten]

Good read... about current form of Ajax and the Eredivisie in general.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/20 ... visie-ajax

See page before

[ajaxusa]

Good read... about current form of Ajax and the Eredivisie in general.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/20 ... visie-ajax

See page before

Oops.

OK, OK, let me make up for it with this one. (Not really about football, but it is about Ajax, and anything on this subject just makes me so happy right now...

http://www.independent.com/news/2008/no ... cain-ajax/

Na na na na... na na na na... Hey hey hey, goodbye...

[Blind3]

Somebody should tell the troll who wrote the Guardian article that, while Ajax will never look like 94-95 even with our injured 11 back and playing, it's a tribute to the new found grit that we're grinding out results.

[SPL]

Well put Blind 3.

[SE6Ajacied]

Nice little article on AFC Wimbledon who we were discussing a few weeks back...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 704913.stm

[SE6Ajacied]

Interesting that instead of Bergkamp Pompey have gone for another Dutchman......Metgod obviously got fed up with the team of losers he was working for and jumped ship....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 722646.stm

[Blind3]

Wow , the move speaks volumes. John Metgod was a fixture in Dutch football for eons. Guess even he can't stomach F-word.

[Kowalczyk]

Good read... about current form of Ajax and the Eredivisie in general.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/20 ... visie-ajax

See page before

I find the observations (or shall we say: accusations) of the authot a bit unfair, to say the least.

Firstly (but this is my personal opinion), what's the definition ugly football? If ugly 'football' = 'defensive, physical football', yes, then Ajax's win in Enschede was 'ugly'. My definition of 'ugly football' however, is football by a team absolutely incapable of playing the game according to plan.

Last season's Ajax team played ugly football, in my opinion. In theory they played in a 4-3-3 and tried to attack. In practice, however, they couldn't string more than two proper passes together and seemed to have absolutely no clue whatsoever. There was no structure, no idea of any kind and - in practice - no system (offensive, defensive, 4-3-3, 4-4-2, whatever - I didn't recognize any formation or plan in Ajax's football in the first place).

Now that's what I call ugly. You may not like Italian catenaccio, but the mighty Italian sides that played catenaccio with style, calm and a certain cool, were most definitely not uglier than the sorry lot that called itself Ajax last season. I like it when a team very clearly have a plan (offensive or defensive) and the power to impose their will on the opposition and dictate the game. Football can never, absolutely never be 'pretty' or 'beautiful' when something goes wrong every ten seconds (Ajax, last season).

That's why I actually enjoyed Twente vs Ajax. Ajax did not have the personnel to attack properly and even their defending was not flawless, but they had a plan, they were the underdogs (mind you: ten injured, one suspended) and they refused to be overrun. There was a formation, everybody had their own instructions - and they went for it, with a passion that I hardly ever saw last season. I prefer that over last season's so-called offensive football. A team that can not play a game according to plan is not 'offensive' (?) or 'defensive' (?), but simply shit.

Also: Ajax did not play this ugly against Roda and Groningen. They did not play this ugly in De Kuip and at home against Vitesse. In those games they attacked, and they did it reasonably well. In all of those games they could have scored three, four more goals they they did.

But for the two games in the east (Heracles and Twente away) the list of injured players was getting so f*cking insanely long that Van Basten decided: hey, we're gonna do it in a different way this week, we're not gonna walk into the old trap with eyes wide open. And I loved it, because I saw team spirit (which is not something you get to see every weekend, as an Ajax fan).

No, I don't want Ajax to play like they did in Enschede every week. But I totally understand what Van Basten was thinking in this specific case. Last season we played Twente four times - and never beat them. This time we were without our 'star player' (Suárez) and also without the 'creative forces' that we purchased (Sulejmani, Aissati). And that's only three of the players we were missing, out of eleven.

Come on. Give us a break. Even against Twente we weren't as ugly as PSV in their average game...

K.

[aveslacker]

That's why I actually enjoyed Twente vs Ajax. Ajax did not have the personnel to attack properly and even their defending was not flawless, but they had a plan, they were the underdogs (mind you: ten injured, one suspended) and they refused to be overrun. There was a formation, everybody had their own instructions - and they went for it, with a passion that I hardly ever saw last season. I prefer that over last season's so-called offensive football. A team that can not play a game according to plan is not 'offensive' (?) or 'defensive' (?), but simply shit.


K.

Totally agree. I think you need look no further than Urby's play against Twente for proof of Ajax's fighting spirit. He wasn't great, but he got stuck in and fought like a lion. If he continues playing with that kind of spirit, he can be the guy that we saw against Inter a few years ago.

[SPL]

Seems as if UEFA are meeting Sports ministers at EU to ban under 18's being transfered between countries.

This would mean no more robbing of Holland's 15/16 year olds by Chelsea and Arsenal but all teams do it.

Ajax's idea of going abroad for 15/16 year olds in recent years involves a trip 10 miles into Belgium to Antwerp!!

Vertonghen Vermaelen and Alderweireld all come from Antwerp.

This is aimed at the big 4 in England and means they will have to bring through more local kids just like every other team does.

[Kowalczyk]

The Mother Of All Dives.

Football league of Colombia.

http://www.ajaxlife.nl/video/detail/179

If the referee thought that was a foul, he should have sent the defender off, too...

K.

[Orange14]

The Mother Of All Dives.

Football league of Colombia.

http://www.ajaxlife.nl/video/detail/179

If the referee thought that was a foul, he should have sent the defender off, too...

K.

Saw it yesterday. Given the violence that has historically affected football in that country, one suspects that the official received a phone call before the match telling him who was to win. Pretty dangerous way to live ones life.

[aveslacker]

UEFA Cup scores:

HT Aston Villa 1 - 2 Zilina

HT Slavia Prague 0 - 1 Hamburger SV

What we really want is both games to end in a draw, or both Villa and Hamburg to win. If the current results hold, Ajax will need to draw with Slavia to go through.

[gordonvandekamp]

UEFA Cup scores:

HT Aston Villa 1 - 2 Zilina

HT Slavia Prague 0 - 1 Hamburger SV

What we really want is both games to end in a draw, or both Villa and Hamburg to win. If the current results hold, Ajax will need to draw with Slavia to go through.

Hamburg won 2-0 converting a penalty at the end.

Zilinia held on 2-1 at Villa with 10 men. I guess our performance there doesn't look quite as good now.


Edit, Group Standings:

Code: Selecteer alles

Clubs	    Pld  W   D   L  GF   GA  Pts
Hamburg		3	2	0	1	4	2	6
Aston Villa  3	2	0	1	4	3	6
Ajax		   3	2	0	1	3	2	6
Zilina		 4	1	1	2	3	4	4
Slavia	 	3	0	1	2	0	3	1

[aveslacker]

UEFA Cup scores:

HT Aston Villa 1 - 2 Zilina

HT Slavia Prague 0 - 1 Hamburger SV

What we really want is both games to end in a draw, or both Villa and Hamburg to win. If the current results hold, Ajax will need to draw with Slavia to go through.

Hamburg won 2-0 converting a penalty at the end.

Zilinia held on 2-1 at Villa with 10 men. I guess our performance there doesn't look quite as good now.

I think I might have gotten it wrong. As it stands, Ajax, Villa and HSV all have 6 points from three games, Slavia has 1 from 3, and Zilina has 4 from 4. If that's the case, then Ajax are already through, since Zilina has played all of its games and Villa and HSV play one another in the next round. Neither Slavia nor Zilina can catch Ajax now, I think.

Can anyone confirm?

[Orange14]

Too many things to quote. Yes, we are through to the next round. What I don't know is how UEFA will seed teams in the knockout round. Aston Villa, Hamburg and Ajax are all even on points and Villa play at Hamburg next Wednesday. With a victory Ajax clinch at least a tie for first and perhaps an outright win if Villa and Hamburg draw.

[gordonvandekamp]

Yeah we're through as the top 3 in the group advance. Even if we lose against Slavia we have enough. Results worked out pretty well for us today.

[saddlerian]

We ARE through......Zilnia have finished on 4 points; Slavia can only get 4 points, even if they beat us. If we win and Villa/Hamburg draw, we top the group.....as long as we win...we avoid 3rd place!!

[dws]

Zilinia held on 2-1 at Villa with 10 men. I guess our performance there doesn't look quite as good now.

22 Bradley Guzan
20 Nigel Reo-Coker
16 Zat Knight
24 Carlos Cuéllar
2 Luke Young
26 Craig Gardner
17 Moustapha Salifou
27 Isaiah Osbourne
7 Ashley Young
14 Nathan Delfouneso
9 Marlon Harewood

Substitutes
1 Brad Friedel
5 Martin Laursen
6 Gareth Barry
8 James Milner
11 Gabriel Agbonlahor
19 Stiliyan Petrov


Villa's bench pretty much sums up why Zilina was able to win the match.

[jackson]

We got their A team. Zilnia got the reserves.