UEFA competitions (CL, EL)

[Cedric]

32 penals ?

In the end, Oranje won 13-12. Never saw this before...
That's deserved I think, England just didn't want to play...

[aveslacker]

not GREECE!! They're animals...

long live Europe !

You'd have a great time in Greece. Even if the AEK fans are a little crazy, Greek footie fans have a huge amount of respect for Ajax, and you'd generally be treated very well.

Wish I still lived there...

[Kowalczyk]

Yeah, but Ian's point is valid: it is never easy to play Greek teams in Greece, because things get so hectic over there. I don't think Ian was saying that he hates Greeks; just that it wouldn't be his favourite draw in the qualifiers, because they're "animals" that can give you a very hard time.

K.

[Philippe]

Man is the most dangerous game, and the most vicious animal. (van Zaroff)

[aveslacker]

Yeah, but Ian's point is valid: it is never easy to play Greek teams in Greece, because things get so hectic over there. I don't think Ian was saying that he hates Greeks; just that it wouldn't be his favourite draw in the qualifiers, because they're "animals" that can give you a very hard time.

K.

I didn't think that Ian hated Greeks. What I'm saying is that because Ajax (and possibly a few other teams) is highly-regarded in Greece, Ajax fans (and possibly those of a few other teams) are not as likely to encounter problems outside of the game. For example -- I once visited a friend who lived in a notorious Panathinaikos neighborhood while wearing my Ajax kit. Had I been wearing another kit containing the color red (red being the color of rivals Olympiakos) I could have been in for quite a hard time. Instead, I got comments about how great Ajax was (they still remembered the time they got beat in the CL final by Ajax all those years ago). It didn't hurt that Charisteas was playing for Ajax at the time either.

IIRC, a few years ago Liverpool came to Athens for a CL group match, and they were some problems. Then again, it is Liverpool.

One of the times I attended the Panathinaikos - Olympiakos derby I sat (well, stood) right on the edge of Gate 13 (which is where the real ultras sit, on one end of the pitch). They were pretty fucking crazy. And if Ajax drew AEK, one could expect the match itself to have a pretty intense atmosphere (AEK fans, according to some, have a reputation for being crazier than Olympiakos or Panathinaikos fans). However, outside of the match, I don't think things would be that bad, in fact, it would be a pretty good time.

Also, it wouldn't be bad to draw AEK because I don't think they're that good.

[666]

Ajax has drawn greek teams in the european cups 6 or 7 times, and we only got kicked out once, way back in the early 80s when anyone could have beaten us.

As far as the players are concerned, that famous intense atmosphere is all bark and no bite.

[ZoefdeHaas]

Dutch U21 won 4-1 against Serbia!!!

Babel scored, and former Ajax man, De Ridder, gave three assits!

Good job to them, De Ridder deserves a good club (but not our rivals ofcourse) since Celta is relegated. :hupajax.gif:

[kraz11]

Dutch U21 won 4-1 against Serbia!!!

Babel scored, and former Ajax man, De Ridder, gave three assits!

Good job to them, De Ridder deserves a good club (but not our rivals ofcourse) since Celta is relegated. :hupajax.gif:

The most beautiful assist was Babbel's to Richters
when he passed his defender a la ronaldiniho and gave a great ball in to
Richters.

[Philippe]

Dutch U21 won 4-1 against Serbia!!!

Babel scored, and former Ajax man, De Ridder, gave three assits!

Good job to them, De Ridder deserves a good club (but not our rivals ofcourse) since Celta is relegated. :hupajax.gif:

who said De Ridder was not good enough for Ajax ?

[Kowalczyk]

who said De Ridder was not good enough for Ajax ?

Danny Blind...

K.

[Manneken Pis]

who said De Ridder was not good enough for Ajax ?

Danny Blind...

K.

Gotcha......

[Frans]

who said De Ridder was not good enough for Ajax ?

Danny Blind...

K.

Well, to be fair it looks like he's not rated in Spain either. He made just 3 substitute appearances in the spanish league for a team who got relegated. (also a couple of games in the UEFA cup) I don't know if he's been injured but 5 games in a season doesn't exactly say much about the manager's confidence in you.

Mind you, he did play well in that final.

[Kowalczyk]

Indeed, he was seriously injured this season.

Besides: 12 games would mean "never became a starter". 5 games means "was never given a chance". I think the manager who landed him got sacked after a few months, if I remember it correctly.

I haven't followed Ridders since he moved to Spain, but at the time I fundamentally disagreed with Danny Blind's viewpoint that Tom De Mul is the better footballer of the two.

I'm not just saying this based on a couple of good games for Holland U-21. That wouldn't make sense.

K.

[Philippe]

who said De Ridder was not good enough for Ajax ?

Danny Blind...

K.

even Blind can make mistakes

[Manneken Pis]

This info is probably available somewhere on the site or forum, but I can't find it. When will we know the dates and opponents for the Champions League qualifying round?

[GangstaRiB]

This info is probably available somewhere on the site or forum, but I can't find it. When will we know the dates and opponents for the Champions League qualifying round?

August 3rd will be the draw.
Third qualifying round, 1st leg 14/15.08.2007 (away)
Third qualifying round, 2nd leg 28/29.08.2007 (home)

[Manneken Pis]

This info is probably available somewhere on the site or forum, but I can't find it. When will we know the dates and opponents for the Champions League qualifying round?

August 3rd will be the draw.
Third qualifying round, 1st leg 14/15.08.2007 (away)
Third qualifying round, 2nd leg 28/29.08.2007 (home)

Merci...

[Kowalczyk]

Hang on... Ajax.nl reported that the draw for our qualifying round will be tomorrow at noon (27 July)...

K.

[GangstaRiB]

Hang on... Ajax.nl reported that the draw for our qualifying round will be tomorrow at noon (27 July)...

K.

On Uefa.com its august 3rd.

Executive Office
2007/08 Draw and match calendar
Thursday 14 June 2007
e-mailPrint

The dramatic events of Athens and Glasgow may live long in the memory but already attention is turning towards the road to the 2008 UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup finals in Moscow and Manchester.

Full list
The full list of club competition draws and match dates is listed below.

2007/08 UEFA club competitions draw schedule

29.06.2007
12.00CET Nyon UEFA Champions League
First and second qualifying round

29.06.2007
13.30CET Nyon UEFA Cup
First qualifying round

03.08.2007
12.00CET Nyon UEFA Champions League
Third qualifying round

You can see the full list here: http://www.uefa.com/uefa/keytopics/kind ... 51134.html

[Philippe]

I would like to understand why Benfica, Celtic, Rangers made it while we failed again. They don't belong to bigger leagues do they …
Not to mention P$V persistent good results in Europe : even more embarrassing !

[Kowalczyk]

I would like to understand why Benfica, Celtic, Rangers made it while we failed again. They don't belong to bigger leagues do they …

Exactly.

Also: I don't know all of yesterday;s final scores, but when I last checked (at some point in the second half) Ajax were literally the only seeded team that was losing to a non-seeded team.

Again.

It's not just that we always crash out against teams of higher or similar quality; we also keep f*cking up against teams from smaller leagues, with smaller budgets, a lower UEFA coefficient, etc. etc.

If you look at the last few seasons there is only one (sad) conclusion: the only teams that we will confortably beat are the very, very, very weakest of 'em all (IK Start, FC Thun, Zulte Waregem). We only beat the smallest of the smallest.

If the opposition is a little tiny bit better than that, we're in trouble - and are not at all unlikely to crash out.

That's a fucking disgrace. And it really depresses me.

K.

[Over Pasanens Head]

That's a fucking disgrace.
K.

100% Agree.

There is a comfort zone that the current version of Ajax inhabit in that they believe that all they have to do is turn up and the other team will just roll over for them. Well guys its time to wake up so that we can at least have a really good go at winning the UEFA Cup thingy and the Eredivisie.

What I am finding hard to work out is that HtC's tactics appear niave at best and crap at worse when he was the one that was credited with being the real power in deciding etc. Barca's tactics. Strange one.

When is the UEFA Cup draw?

[Philippe]

That's a fucking disgrace.
K.

100% Agree. its time to wake up so that we can at least have a really good go at winning the UEFA Cup thingy

don't even think about it : just like last season, we will finish third of the group stage and get destroyed right after that

[dws]

I would like to understand why Benfica, Celtic, Rangers made it while we failed again. They don't belong to bigger leagues do they …

Exactly.

Also: I don't know all of yesterday;s final scores, but when I last checked (at some point in the second half) Ajax were literally the only seeded team that was losing to a non-seeded team.

Again.

It's not just that we always crash out against teams of higher or similar quality; we also keep f*cking up against teams from smaller leagues, with smaller budgets, a lower UEFA coefficient, etc. etc.

If you look at the last few seasons there is only one (sad) conclusion: the only teams that we will confortably beat are the very, very, very weakest of 'em all (IK Start, FC Thun, Zulte Waregem). We only beat the smallest of the smallest.

If the opposition is a little tiny bit better than that, we're in trouble - and are not at all unlikely to crash out.

That's a fucking disgrace. And it really depresses me.

K.

The similarities with the early 80's European failures are quite striking. Then we had no trouble racking up big scores in the league but we couldn't beat middle order European teams such as: Glasgow Celtic, Olympiakos and Bohemians Prague.

Think back to Olympiakos in particular. We couldn't score in 180 minutes of
of normal time( we lost 2:0 in extra time), yet we had put 8 goals past Feyenoord in the lead up to that tie.

Back then we had a more talented group of players than we have now ( van basten, ronald koeman, silooij, de wit, rijkaard, van't schip, vanenburg and jesper olsen amongst others), but like now we failed miserably against the European middle order.

I think Ronald Spelbos hit the nail on the head when he remarked that the Ajax he was part of may be too talented to succeed. In other words - talent alone does not win big games.

This ajax has to learn how to turn failure into success in the same way the Ajax of van basten, silooij and rijkaard did. The question is ... can they do it?

[Blind3]

I question whether the players are all that loyal to Ajax or just view them as a stepping stone. Do enough to get noticed , not too much as an injury might occur , and move on to something more lucrative. All about the I and less about the club. I also question whether the players take on the " we're Ajax " swagger without, in reality , ever having done much . That is , Except be a best of the rest club which is consigned to the playoffs and put in a position where it's Dutch Cup or nada.

Inglorious Failure . How fucking depressing .

It used to be I'd jump through hoops to scrounge cash for an Ajax holiday. But for a club who seems content to flick the light switch of performance on and off , chokes under pressure , and seems to content to play with an oft times lackadaisical attitude , I'll save my $$ . They can choke on their 12 league goals. I'd sooner trust my worst enemy than trust that Ajax will not be a carbon copy of last years model . And the year before. At least at home , the food is free and there are no lines for the toilet.