18 Sep 2012: BV Borussia Dortmund - Ajax

[Van basten]

so fuc*ing UNDESERVED.

[orange goblin]

one damn poor defending, and that's it.
0-1.

My best: Poulsen, Babel and Moisander.
My worst: the wingers suffered a lot. FdB should have changed them around 60 mins. De Jong was poor, he is a (shadow) striker, without any question.

I hate loosing games like this.

[SPL]

very dissappointing not holding on to what would have been a deserved point. Moisander and Babel were my 2 best ,have to say both wingers had to go back and defend alot .
So that was the easy away game !!!!!!

[orange goblin]

both wingers had to go back and defend alot .

Yes, I agree.. just for this reason I would have changed them, to bring to the team more freshness and the possibility of counters with fresh elements.. oh shit

[Orange14]

The defense was almost good enough to steal a point tonight but finally Lewandowski put it in the net on a very clinical finish (my Internet feed was crap during the final 10 minutes going in and out so I missed the goal in real time). Ajax continued to have trouble getting the ball forward in the second half but did have some half chances to create something. Dortmund continued to press and trap and the only way forward was on quick counter attacks which were few and far between. This competition is a big step up for the club, facing an opponent that was bigger, stronger, and just as skilled on the ball. Vermeer was strong in the goal and wasn't much troubled by a very weak penalty taken by Hummels (though it's fair to say that the call on van Rhijn was equally as weak and shouldn't have been called).

I think FdB did make some decent adjustments at the half to improve the passing lanes but in the end the only real danger was with passes over the top which are a sign that the passing game is not working.

Player ratings:

Vermeer (7.5) - strong match defending but some very poor kicking takes away a half point
Blind (7) - decent enough tonight though not quite as strong a match as last weekend
Moisander (7.5) - kept his head when subjected to continued pressure
Alderweireld (7.5) - see comments on Moisander
van Rhijn (6.5) - decent enough but did get beaten on a couple of occasions and was bailed out by the central defense
Poulsen (6) - in and out of the match, some poor passing and give aways
Eriksen (6.5) - he is trying to do too much and it's hurting his game
de Jong (6) - someone needs to tell FdB that he's only marginally better than Janssen in the midfield
Boerrigter (6) - not a factor at all in the match
Babel (7) - almost a hero tonight had he scored on the break
Sana (6) - silly Yellow card and for most of the match he was getting into double trap situations before adjusting his game
Schöne (6) - decent enough coming on for Babel
Sulejmani (NR) - not on long enough

The road ahead gets much tougher now. It would have been good to steal the point as Dortmund are perhaps the weakest of the other three teams in the pool. The matches ahead will be good for the young Ajax players as they will be seeing a level of quality that they do not encounter in the Eredivisie. I'm still pulling for them!!!!!

[King Litti]

i liked the passion that we played with. We had our chances to steal the points. Eriksen was too soft at times and de Jong was invisible. A shame that we could not hold on. The last 30 minutes the players were tired. Where were the changes? Moisander ddid very well.

[paladinby]

I've watched some proper replays now - that penalty kick was complete bullshit and a dive. UEFA definately hates us for some reasons.

[afcajax73]

one damn poor defending, and that's it.
0-1.

My best: Poulsen, Babel and Moisander.
My worst: the wingers suffered a lot. FdB should have changed them around 60 mins. De Jong was poor, he is a (shadow) striker, without any question.

I hate loosing games like this.

I can agree with you for two of those three.. Babel was brilliant, Moisander was good but Alderweireld was the main man at the back. He played excellent.

But Poulsen from about 48 minutes was awful... i lost count of the amount of poor balls he did and gave away. he was also caught in possesion countless times.

I was a bit dissapointed to not get a point, but on about 83 mins i felt a goal coming, the pressure was mounting and we looked tired. especially on the wings.

Shame.

[Philippe]

I've watched some proper replays now - that penalty kick was complete bullshit and a dive. UEFA definately hates us for some reasons.

Indeed. I also noticed that the guy who scored came from an initially off side position.

The tension was mounting during the last 30 mn because the referee decided to make some subtle errors.

It was - in a away - almost funny to watch. It became clear that we were not allowed to get a result.

Dortmund is only an average CL side, basic tactics, and mediocre skills. We were better, but missed chances.

[Pablo.V]

I also think that Poulsen was really bad, especially in the second half. He lost the ball to many times, i expected something else from such an experienced player. You could really see the difference between him and Anita, Puolsen often played as a third central defender and didn't try to push forward and help the attack. The whole midfield was weak. Eriksen was really disappointing, he really have to start scoring goals and be more decisive. De Jong wasn't really on the field as usual (he is the captain and should be the leader of this team and he really wasn't). And finally Frank De Boer really should have mannaged the game differently. In the second half he really should have replaced both wingers in the 60th minute at least as they both were tired.
I understand that Dortmund is stronger than Ajax but the difference is not so big as it with Real Madrid. So why choosing for such tactics - try to defend and not really try to push the other team. We had nothing to lose in this one. Dortmund was our only chance for points in this campaign, so this is really shame.
But on a more positive note - the team really gave their all and that's also counted. We really have to learn from these kin'd of games and try to improve next time.

[Philippe]

Rather good report from The Guardian :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012 ... ons-league

[SPL]

I thought our midfield was overall weak but I can see where you are coming from with the wingers being replaced but they were having to keep coming back to help in defence and that may be the reason they stayed on ie they are better at coming back and defending than Sulejmani and Lukoki would be.Ok they are there to attack but even though Dortmund are not a big CL team they are certainly stronger and tougher than any Dutch team we are going to face and I too in the last 10 mins saw us holding on and feared a late goal.

Overall the team gave their all and were unlucky not to have got a point. This group is only about getting 3rd but with such a young squad do we really want the Europa Cup after Christmas when finishing in the top 2 in the league and getting into the CL next season is the most important goal.

On the subject of a youthful squad the only other experienced player we can bring in is Enoh as the rest of the squad are mostly all Under 21 and are nearly all last seasons youths .
I was not that impressed with Poulsen in the second half,although he has only just got himself match fit so will improve, and Enoh may well get back into the team but we do miss the little man Anita , (curse to Raiola and Newcastle ).

Moisander looks a good replacement for Vertoghen and Babel will be a big bonus and had good game.

[Tom_]

Annoying to lose, a bit of luck either way and we could have won or drawn... football eh?

Interesting about Poulsen, I thought he had a mixed game. He gave the ball away a bit in the second half, but he won LOTS of contested headers on Dortmund forward balls that Anita wouldn't have got to. I think without his defensive contributions we might have been in trouble a bit earlier than we were.

We have to beat Dortmund at home now. I don't think they're that much better than us (for example their defence looked sloppy and they played a lot of long balls) but they are physically stronger all over the pitch which is always going to be a problem for Ajax.

[Tom_]

Oh yes, thanks SPL, I forgot to mention Babel. I also thought he was pretty good, got a lot of the ball and didn't cough it up easily (unlike Eriksen and Sana). I was somewhat sceptical when we signed him but his experience can be very very useful if he continues to play like that.

[orange goblin]

Interesting about Poulsen, I thought he had a mixed game. He gave the ball away a bit in the second half, but he won LOTS of contested headers on Dortmund forward balls that Anita wouldn't have got to. I think without his defensive contributions we might have been in trouble a bit earlier than we were.

Yeah, this is what I meant about him. Agree he had a not so good second half, by the way.
Yes, he played almost as a central defender when we started the possessions, and our midfield sometimes looked weak, but I think this position of Poulsen was a precise plan of Fdb and gave our defense some needed protection.

[Orange14]

I was stunned to see the match statistics on the Guardian site that said we had 55% possession. Maybe so but 90% of that was in our own half with constant passing back to Vermeer; one of the reasons we were out shot 23-9. With Poulsen we don't have the kind of holding midfielder who can bring the ball up with any degree of confidence. Enoh is no better and this is what it will be for the remainder of the season without Anita. Unfortunately, this is a critical position when playing a 4-3-3. Also by my count eight of the Dortmund players who saw action yesterday play on their respective NTs (Hummels, Lewandowski, Subotic, and Blazcykowski all are starters). Dortmund have a proper striker who looked bad during much of the match but when the chips were down, supplied a very clinical finish. With the current state of Euro football, Ajax cannot afford a draw like this one if we want any chance of doing well in the CL. We are always going to be one of the youngest teams on the pitch and won't have the strong league competition that really is necessary to help our players progress in such competitions (do you really think that matches against the lower 2/3 of the Eredivisie toughen up a team?).

I don't know if there was anything that FdB could have done differently. The wingers had to play an awful lot of defense which maybe affected their play (this doesn't happen in league play). Perhaps that was the strategy going in, keep things close and hope for a goal on a counter. It's not quite the football that we are used to seeing but I guess for this CL group it is to be expected.

[Philippe]

I don't think it's about Eredivisie and Bundesliga (if what we saw yesterday is their best, I wonder what the lower 2/3 are like). It's about playing a crucial international away game. Then you're expected to defend. Indeed.
Anyways, we defended well, and created several clear chances.
Nothing to complain about. Until '87 mn.

[SPL]

I too thought that if they are the best in Germany what are the rest like.

[Orange14]

I too thought that if they are the best in Germany what are the rest like.

Well we pretty much know what Bayern are like.

[ajaxusa]

I've watched some proper replays now - that penalty kick was complete bullshit and a dive. UEFA definately hates us for some reasons.

Um, I agree that it was not a penalty, but... Referee decision = UEFA conspiracy against Ajax? I don't buy that.

Indeed. I also noticed that the guy who scored came from an initially off side position.

Disagree. I watched it several times. He's onside when the ball is played.

The tension was mounting during the last 30 mn because the referee decided to make some subtle errors.

It was - in a away - almost funny to watch. It became clear that we were not allowed to get a result.

What!? See above.

A wise person once said, "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by mere incompetence." Amen.

[ajaxusa]

Annoying to lose, a bit of luck either way and we could have won or drawn... football eh?

Indeed, and well said. Ajax played well, were unlucky in their finishing, and lucky in BD's finishing (especially in their penalty-taking, OMG) until the 83rd minute. No shame in this performance.