01 Oct 2013: Ajax - AC Milan

[Tom_]

Unbelievable! PLOP!

[Tom_]

Oh man. So close to a very lucky three points... ouch.

[paladinby]

That Moisander injury cost us 3 points. Such a stupid foul by van der Hoorn. ***** ****** which injured Moisander should have been sent off.

Edit from Kowalczyk: Let me make one thing clear, once and for all. Racist remarks will not be tolerated. Please regard this as a very serious warning. A yellow card. Dark yellow.

[kezme44]

motherfucker

[saddlerian]

That Moisander injury cost us 3 points. Such a stupid foul by van der Hoorn. That monkey which injured Moisander should have been sent off.

I agree, should have been sent off....but try and keep the racism to yourself!!!!

[SPL]

Gutted really fed up to be denied like that.

[Van basten]

You stupid as fu*k Mike!!! He's fu*cking terrible. If Moisander injury is serious, we're fu*ked, because van der horn is a disaster. Can't believe that we bought him as a replacement for Toby.
P.S: FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tom_]

So lucky to be ahead, so unlucky to concede that penalty. Balls!

[GangstaRiB]

You stupid as fu*k Mike!!! He's fu*cking terrible. If Moisander injury is serious, we're fu*ked, because van der horn is a disaster. Can't believe that we bought him as a replacement for Toby.
P.S: FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All hail to Overmars. He has a real eye for talent... Van den Hoorn should be playing at Feyenoord.

[paladinby]

This wasn't luck at all. We scored like half of our goals from set pieces last CL run. Generally it's our only chance to score. But that stupidity by van der Hoorn is crap. Balotelli dived for sure but that moron with the whistle didn't even gave a yellow for intentional injury to our player.

[saddlerian]

OK, you're all disappointed....but at least it's one point more than many people thought!! Yes, Ajax did deserve all 3 points, and it was a crap defender who gave the game away....(pay his contract up)....but the positives were there to see!! A vast improvement from a few weeks ago...

[Tom_]

I'm not disappointed, we did much better for 60 minutes than we did against Barça. The mistakes started to creep in and we were looking tired, couldn't hold onto possession for about 25 minutes before scoring out of nowhere. I thought we were going to get away with it for about 90 seconds...!

[SPL]

Toby's place in the team has been taken by Denswil who looks a good player,took his goal well.He actually controlled a ball with his arm in the box but got away with it .

The foul on Moisander was a red and Milan were typical Italian ie. if Ajax started playing football like that I would soon stop following them.That goodness for Cruyff's influence.

[Orange14]

What a terrible way for this one to end. We all know that Ballotelli will go over easy with any contact and when you have a hold of his jersey in the box, what do you expect would happen. Sure it's a very weak call by the match official but by the rules of the game it's a clear penalty. To bad for van der Hoorn as he did a decent job coming on for an injured Moisander. The club stood up to the pressure pretty well in the second half as Milan finally decided to play some football. Cillessen had a couple of very nice saves.

Player Ratings:

Cillessen (7.5) - saved everything except for the penalty and his tip of Ballotelli's drive to the crossbar was especially good
Blind (7) - didn't have much defending to do and found it difficult to go forward much as he was constantly being double teamed
Denswil (7.5) - got the goal and his passing in the back was sublime, kept his head on defense as well
Moisander (7) - solid game in the back and we'll never know if things would have been different if he didn't have to come off
van Rhijn (6.5) - beaten badly twice by his man but did make one excellent goal line save after his man got free
Poulsen (6.5) - solid defensively but some ill-advised passes were easily intercepted
Duarte (6.5) - much better match, kept control of the ball and found to open man when necessary
de Jong (6.5) - still too static for my taste but decent match none the less
Fischer (6.5) - active first half and absent second half
Sigthorsson (6.5) - solid shot from a tough angle in the first half, worked hard all evening
de Sa (6.5) - really tough job as he was constantly double teamed when he tried driving forward but overall decent match
Schöne (6) - a couple of bonehead passes when he should have done better but did create some opportunities
Andersen (5.5) - tough coming on against this defense and he didn't seem to know what to do with the ball when double team approached
van der Hoorn (5.5) - really unfortunate on the penalty call but you can't grab a shirt and hope that nobody is looking

I hope the team bounces back from this one. Match this weekend and then the break for WC qualifying. I'm damn proud of the effort these guys put in tonight but gutted by the final result but as we all know anything can happen (and usually does).

[souras84]

Still, our greatest problem remains. We have no creativity or way through the middle... Depending only on the flanks, which is predictable or ineffective against strong defending teams. We need a number 10. That's one of the biggest differences between us and lets say barcelona.

P.S. Maybe Duarte can play holding midfielder?

[King Litti]

bullshiiit! There isn't anything i hate more than divers. Yes, there was 1%contact, but if that was a penalty there should be a penalty to every corner. We got robbed by the ref. Such a light contact in addittional when the guy has been jumping to the ground all night. He should have been red carded out by then. Fuuuuck!

[Orange14]

Some have commented on Moisander's getting injured by Muntari. The Russian feed showed about five replays and personally I don't think it was a foul. It was one of those unfortunate things that happens in games.

[Tom_]

By the way Celtic 0–1 Barça if anyone didn't see, Fabregas scored in the 76th minute.

van der Hoorn looked like he was on the verge of tears in the post-match interview, although he was still claiming it wasn't a foul...

[Van basten]

Some have commented on Moisander's getting injured by Muntari. The Russian feed showed about five replays and personally I don't think it was a foul. It was one of those unfortunate things that happens in games.

Me too. There definetely wasn't an intentional foul.

[saddlerian]

I think that is a matter of opinion!!! In many countries, Muntari would have been arrested!! It was a horrible challenge!! another example of totally inept refereeing!!! How many other officials were present!!!!!!

Bad challenge......do a Real Mad and play de Hoorn against them next time...target, Mauntari in hospital before 10 minutes is up!!!

[Van basten]

By the way Celtic 0–1 Barça if anyone didn't see, Fabregas scored in the 76th minute.

van der Hoorn looked like he was on the verge of tears in the post-match interview, although he was still claiming it wasn't a foul...

He was lucky that the ref didn't gave a penalty before, when he was grabbing Baloteli by the neck.

[afcajax73]

By the way, if we play like that against Celtic, and they play like they did against barca, we're proper fecked

[SPL]

I too did not think it a penalty agree with Litti every corner would result in a penalty.

[Orange14]

I too did not think it a penalty agree with Litti every corner would result in a penalty.

There was a directive to all international referees to clamp down on shirt grabbing in the box. I've seen this type of thing called several times in CONCACAF WC qualifying. We may not like it but we would be screaming bloody hell if Zapata had done the same thing to de Jong. If van der Hoorn had just kept a straight arm there would have either been a no call or a dive on Ballotelli.

[Tom_]

I guess in a strict interpretation it was a penalty. Remember there's that extra official behind the goal line who would've seen the shirt-grab very clearly and probably communicated that to the ref. That sort of thing goes on at every corner, so it was unlucky to be given, but that's football.

Yes, it's also possible that Balotelli could've been given an earlier yellow for simulation. But he's pretty crafty at knowing just how far he can push it before the card comes out. I'm not saying I condone it, but some players are happy to look like idiots to get any advantage they can, and so long as there are no retrospective suspensions based on video evidence, it's also part of the game.