29 Aug 2010: De Graafschap - Ajax

[ofey]

Luis with the hat-trick!

Terrible defending though... .

[Van basten]

Suarez hits his 3rd

[Kowalczyk]

2nd half is awful so far -- they are all over us

Hang on a minute... Are we watching the same game...?

Second half is boring as hell. Tepid affair from Ajax and De Graafschap.

K.

[rjf1]

DeZ could have taken a shot but unselfishly gives the ball to Suarez for his hat trick -- 4-0 now. That third goal seems to have broken DeG's back.

[Tom_]

Are you familiar with newsgroups (binaries)? Usually an Ajax game get recorded in HD and then put on a binaries server. I don't know about every single game, but Ajax-Kiev is avail for example. If one of you guys are interested, I can look up the particular newsgroup where the file is posted.

That would be great! Yes please and thank you.

Send you a PM

I would also be interested to hear about this, for replays...

[ofey]

Eriksen on as a sub for Demy and he gets a goal!

Low drive from the edge of the area... .

We're done. 5-0!!

It'll be remembered for Christian's first ever eridivisie goal...
Luis picks up the match ball for his hat-trick!

59% possession with 15 shots on goal... . Think we did ok... .

[Van basten]

Erikssen!!! Finally he scores!

[Van basten]

Erikssen!!! Finally he scores!

[Blind3]

First, THANK YOU for suggesting and providing the link . It worked impeccably. Second, I'm all out of superlatives for Captain Fantastic. Seven hats in 12 months is massive. Today could've been a real minefield after the emotion of this week . About the Captain potentially leaving, I noticed that the commentator quickly backtracked on the remark. Great to see Eriksen get a goal after his uneven performance on Wednesday. Love the clean sheet . Mickey showed good motion and work level out there. Liked his driving to the endline . Glad to see Florian Jozefzoon add to his game experience.

[rjf1]

2nd half is awful so far -- they are all over us

Hang on a minute... Are we watching the same game...?

Second half is boring as hell, but we were never in trouble...

K.

For the 1st 15 minutes of the 2nd half we had trouble even getting out of our own end and quickly lost the ball when we did -- that's what I was talking about.

[Kowalczyk]

De Graafschap were not as poor as the result might suggest, but what the hey: five goals, clean sheet, well done.

On to the next one: which will be in two weeks' time, at home against Willem II.

Stekelenburg is turning into a seriously great goalkeeper, by the way...

K.

[Kowalczyk]

Our last four visits to De Vijverberg:

0-5
1-8
0-6
0-5



K.

[ajaxcolombia]

I'm really eager to see a game were Stekelenburg is just invisible. But oh well, 0-5 not a bad result against the super farmers.

[ajaxcolombia]

Can anybody make an evaluation on how each guy performed today?

[Blind3]

THANK YOU Benji for the great link to the match. It was crystal clear. THANK YOU Azeri for " PSV against Den Haag today will be without Toivonen and Engelaar... and Affelay of course. So they have to drop points today... i think " . I wouldn't have gone out on that limb . Have you get tonight's lottery numbers by any chance ?

[Azeri]

Blind3
Unfortunately I can't make profits of my predictions But I don't complain... let it be that way

[SPL]

been out today at my cricket but great to see we had a big win

[Amol]

Are you familiar with newsgroups (binaries)? Usually an Ajax game get recorded in HD and then put on a binaries server. I don't know about every single game, but Ajax-Kiev is avail for example. If one of you guys are interested, I can look up the particular newsgroup where the file is posted.

That would be great! Yes please and thank you.

Send you a PM

I would love to get in on this as well.

[GangstaRiB]

Can anybody make an evaluation on how each guy performed today?

Only Steek and Suarez stood out. Ajax played at 70% and they easily won the game. After such a hard game against Kiev, this was the perfect match to regain some energy.

[Kowalczyk]

Can anybody make an evaluation on how each guy performed today?

Normally I'd be happy to, but in this particular case I have to admit I didn't pay 100% attention. I was on the couch with my laptop, writing.

There's a few things I can say, though.

Stekelenburg was superb. Absolutely flawless. He's very concentrated, he had a few great saves again and some of his weaknesses from the past (high balls, communication, command) seem to have disappeared completely. At the moment he's a very all-round and a very great goalkeeper.

Suárez was... well, Suárez. Brilliant. Tremendous work ethic. Enormous fighting spirit. And so much individual class. He plays in a 'trial and error' kind of way, but today not that much went wrong for him.

Van der Wiel: got into trouble a few times, especially in the first half and the first 15 minutes of the second. His lack of concentration is a problem. But he had a few great crosses, including the assist for Suárez's opening goal, which was a very good cross.

I love the fact that Enoh is back. He didn't stand out, but you can tell he very impostant: he takes a lot of pressure off the defense. I also thought De Zeeuw had a pretty good one (he was really poor in a number of recent games; today he was alright).

It's hard for me to say who had a bad game, but El Hamdaoui wasn't really in it today. I'm not saying he was shit (I didn't pay enough attention to have the right to judge on people like that), but he didn't have that touch today. As far as I can remember he never looked like he was going to score.

Siem de Jong: I expected him to get a goal today, I am a Siem fan. But I have to say: he doesn't have that golden touch that he had in the latter weeks of the previous season. He's struggling a bit at the moment. Luckily, he's still useful, because he's a no-nonsense player and a hard worker.

That's it, I guess. I didn't see enough of some of the others.

All in all I can agree with GanstaRiB: Stekelenburg and Suárez stood out. The others were, well, half-decent. Good enough on this day.

K.

[ajaxcolombia]

Thanks, I'm really a big Siem fan too, and mostly I was asking to know how he did. I think we really need him to be the player that monopolizes possession in midfield so we stop having such long periods of time in our own half of the field.

[aveslacker]

Also, Boy Waterman stood out for sucking. If they had a real keeper we might only have won 3-0. I think he should have stopped both Suarez's third and Eriksen's goals.

[GangstaRiB]

Gents, I have send a couple of PM's to the persons that are interested in downloading recorded Ajax games from newsgroups. I hope that you know a little about the basics of newsgroups, because it is a bit difficult to explain the whole process in a PM (hope you understand).

The 2 newsgroups that have the Ajax-Kiev game on their server, should also contain the regular Ajax matches if they are uploaded (we are depending on others to record and to upload the game...). So check the groups 2 or 3 days after the game was played and big chance you will find it there.

[Amol]

Thanks GangstaRiB. Will try to figure out a way to use newsgroups.

[Monkey Tonk]

Good to see Ajax back on top. I haven't seen the last few games, apart from some highlights, but the scores suggest that the defense is getting better. Then again, De Graafschap wasn't exactly going to cost us the title.

Happy Ajax is in the CL, but the title has priority for me. That's a realistic prize. The CL is a dream. With that in mind, the Eredivisie schedule of games following a CL game:

Feyenoord - Ajax (four days after Real Madrid-Ajax)
Ajax - Utrecht (five days after Ajax - AC Milan)
Excelsior - Ajax (five days after Ajax - Auxerre)
Ajax - ADO (four days after Auxerre - Ajax)
VVV - Ajax (five days after Ajax - Real Madrid)
Vitesse - Ajax (four days after AC Milan - Ajax).

Only two home games. And two sets of back-to-back road games on four days rest.

As the schedule looks now, we also play PSV at home two days before the home game against Madrid. I'd say they'll change that. Did I mention a road game at Twente three days before the home game versus Milan? Oh well, at least Ajax won't have to travel for those two CL games. Still, a pretty tough overal schedule. And I'd hate to see us do just 'ok' in the CL as well as the Eredivisie. In every single one of these cases, no matter how strange that may look on paper, the Eredivisie game is more important!