10 Feb 2013: Ajax - Roda JC

[Kowalczyk]

Eredivisie 2012-2013. Matchday 22.

Kick-off time at the ArenA: 14.30 CET.

Interesting fixture on the Saturday evening: Vitesse vs PSV.

On Sunday: Feyenoord v AZ and PEC Zwolle vs FC Twente.

K.

[ofey]

So our former mate Theo saw RED
BUT Vitesse did us a real favour by holding PSV to a 2-2 draw!
Gotta make it count!

[Orange14]

I turned the match off in disgust just after Theo was sent off and missed the equalizer. I thought Vitesse might snatch a win as they were playing quite good football until PSV got the 2nd goal. Let's take care of business tomorrow!!!!

[Amol]

Very interesting to see Cuenca in the starting lineup today

Team: Vermeer; Van Rhijn, Alderweireld, Moisander, Blind; Schöne, Poulsen, Eriksen; Cuenca, De Jong, Fischer.

Subs: Cillessen, Sigthórsson, Boerigter, Serero, Lukoki, Veltman, Dijks.

[King Litti]

Yes, excited about Cuenca. Serero makes a comeback after injury and playing for South Africa in the African cup of nations. Have not followed the tournament much. Serero did get some playing time but not sure how well he played.

Malki sure can score goals if given space, but if we play at our own level we should take care of business.

[SPL]

just hope for a win today

[rjf1]

Any sopcast streams today? Unbelievably 13thstream is showing feyenoord instead of ajax.

[King Litti]

Undeserved goal. Now they will park their bus in front of their goal even more tightly. We have to work harder and move the ball quicker. This might get frustrating but there is still time to turn this around.

[Tom_]

Yeah, typical game vs. this sort of opponent. They had 11 men in their third for most of the half then scored from one of their two counter attacks.

We've had plenty of chances, I'm confident we can get goals.

[Orange14]

Decent ball movement but it's still proving difficult to get some clean shots on goal because Roda are dropping everyone behind the ball. The one time the club got caught on the break they couldn't clear what should have been a simple ball and Vermeer couldn't deal with the deflected ball. I expect that Sigthorsson comes on for Poulsen (who is really redundant in a match like this one) with Schöne dropping back as the controlling midfielder. Blind probably should have done better with his two chances.

[SPL]

Poor goal to give away and I think this will be hard .Siggy should be put on as we need a striker up there. Blind in the area shooting with his right foot !!! The only time they threaten and Poulsen cocks up .

[rjf1]

Pitty pat football -- what more can you say.

[rjf1]

I don't feel Poulson cocked up -- he was playing to cut the ball off from the guy who was going to cut in front of him and the ball came in just behind him -- he could barely get a touch to it from the position he was in -- it was unfortunate that the only touch he was able to get fell fortunately to the Roda player coming in behind him, but there was not much else he could do. Personally, I saw it as karma for being so complacent in that meaningless pitty pat style they were playing.

[paladinby]

Any team can have troubles with beating 10 defenders formation. But whatever, just go out, score some goals and win!!!

[Tom_]

I don't have any problem with our approach against a team with 11 defending. Both Moisander and Alderweireld were getting forward and van Rhijn, Eriksen, Schöne and Blind all had decent opportunities to make it 1–0. Roda got lucky on their counter.

[Amol]

I'll put the blame on Toby for this one. He was just jogging back and let go of his marker.

[rjf1]

Nice goal by Blind -- and nice to see them stop with the pitty pay and start playing more directly -- it definitely paid off.

[King Litti]

Wherer's the luck? It just wont go in.

[Tom_]

This is classic 21st-century Ajax. We must've had close to thirty shots and they've had ... less than 5?

[Van basten]

fucking unbelievable. we dropped 2 very very very important points today. we did it again!

[King Litti]

We really should have seized the opportunity to get right behind PSV, but you just don't get points for ball possession and chances created. We could have done better, but I would say we were also a bit unlucky at times.

[rjf1]

Much better second half -- even though luck was against us and we didn't get the second goal at least we had the sense to change the style and started playing the way you have to against a park the bus defense.

[Jojo]

Same old story. They park the bus, hit us on counter and we can not score. But we were playing a man down as Siem was invisible today

[SPL]

probably was a bit hard on me blaming Poulsen for what was their only shot on target in 96 mins. I quess it says it all when your best player was the left back and that was for his attacking .Cuenca did very well to set up our goal and in comparison Lukoki just has speed and not much else. Ceunca could well be important for the rest of the season.

I thought we only started looking like scoring when they bought Siggy on . I do not agree with de Jong playing as a striker .

Anyway 2 points dropped and we are still 3 behind PSV.

[Orange14]

An opportunity lost and now Feyenoord draw even on points. The problem was a lack of handling speed and not the tactical approach. Playing against a packed defense the ball has to be moved a lot faster than we are capable. I guess Cuenca was disappointed that he could not find Messi when he looked to the center of the pitch. I was disappointed with Lukoki when he came on as he again showed that he only has one approach to the game and that is to beat his man to the end line. Opposing teams don't have to be worried at all that he would decide to change tactics and cut in to the middle. Lots of shots on goal and I thought Eriksen's right leg would fall off because of all the corner and free kicks (none of which were particularly dangerous). Roda did well keeping their shape and managing to do just enough to keep the ball out of the goal.

Player Ratings:

Vermeer (6.5) - had very little to do, scrambling to save one when he was out of position; can't fault him on the goal as there was a deflection
Blind (7) - solid match and good to see him get the goal but could have done better on one of the other chances
Moisander (7.5) - quietly had maybe the best match of the day, really pushed forward with purpose trying to create a mismatch
Alderwiereld (6.5) - poor choice in taking some of the shots brings down his rating
van Rhijn (6.5) - went forward maybe a little too much in the first half forcing Cuenca into some tight spaces
Poulsen (5.5) - really should not have been in the starting 11 as we needed better handling speed as FdB should have known Roda would park the bus
Eriksen (6) - another so so match, poor free kicks and as the key playmaker should have created danger but did not
Schöne (6) - decent enough but again couldn't create the dangerous situation
Fischer (6) - mixed bag today, some wild shots and some good ones but at this level consistency is key and he doesn't yet have it
de Jong (6) - lost the ball a little too much for me
Cuenca (6) - nice first start and his ability to keep the ball alive and pass to Blind was beautiful
Sigthorsson (6) - really needs to be in the starting lineup as he's the only real threat in the middle
Lukoki (5) - did little to impress coming on at the hour mark

On to EL football on Thursday and it's disappointing to drop points today as our European adventure is likely to take something out of the team. Of course we have to remember how unpredictable the Eredivisie is these days and we are likely to see things go down to the final match day yet again. This was a tough one to take.