18 Jan 2009: NEC - Ajax

The Purple Cow · Bericht door **The Purple Cow** » zo jan 18, 2009 4:37 pm

I thought Ajax deserved their win, they were just about the better team. The Gabri goal was a peach, a perfect counter goal. An in-form Gabri in midfield makes such a difference to this Ajax.

At half-time I was going to post and say how disappointed I was in Suljemani, I'm glad I didn't now!

The defense was hopeless, so no change there then. This was far from a full-strength defensive line-up so I guess we shouldn't read too much, too soon into that. The entire defense fell asleep for the second NEC goal, but there's no excuse for a goalkeeper conceding a goal like that - very soft. I've seen Stekkers do that before, when a shot heads for his head or neck region he kind of bends down, leans backwards, and tries to push the ball over his head.

All-in-all an interesting match and a just-about-deserved victory.

10 points clear of P$V now, it's usually the other way round come the end of January.

SE6Ajacied · Bericht door **SE6Ajacied** » zo jan 18, 2009 4:41 pm

Excellent 4th Ajax goal from Gabri, Steks was shaky at first but proved his worth towards the end.

Ref had an absaolute stinker though, I missed the first 2 minutes so haven't seen Dario's first yellow but if that second challenge was worth a yellow/red then at least two of their players should have gone as well.

Roll on next Sunday - live on Setanta again as well

:hupajax.gif:

SE6Ajacied · Bericht door **SE6Ajacied** » zo jan 18, 2009 4:43 pm

The Purple Cow schreef:
10 points clear of P$V now, it's usually the other way round come the end of January.

Yep - It's just unfortunate that PSV aren't second in the league as well really

SPL · Bericht door **SPL** » zo jan 18, 2009 4:53 pm

Somehow we won even though the defence was crap.The second goal
of NEC was aweful.

Sulejamni was fantastic in the second half. Overall I still worry about the defence but Steks will improve with games and Vermaelen will hopefully be back. First impression of Wielaert, nothing special and probably no better than Oleguer.

3 points is all that matters though.

dws · Bericht door **dws** » zo jan 18, 2009 5:03 pm

A point from this game would have been good; three points is absolutely fantastic.

Ajaxfanuk:

NEC are animals, one just totally knocked Steks for 6

Zomer made a challenge for the ball; nothing malicious in it, unlike fouls, each of which should have resulted in red cards, made by van beukering and Bouaouzan. This leads me to ask: how bad does a foul have to be for Kevin Blom to issue a red card?

dws · Bericht door **dws** » zo jan 18, 2009 5:09 pm

SE6Ajacied schreef: Ref had an absaolute stinker though, I missed the first 2 minutes so haven't seen Dario's first yellow but if that second challenge was worth a yellow/red then at least two of their players should have gone as well.

Roll on next Sunday - live on Setanta again as well :hupajax.gif:

Dario's first booking was for a 'hand of God' goal

Bericht door **Kowalczyk** » zo jan 18, 2009 5:26 pm

This is the type of win that can make the difference at the end of the season. Hard-fought against a good opponent in an away game... Two equalizers, but still three points. Very nice. What a spectacular game of football. Throughly enjoyable. I had a blast.

K.

Rooie · Bericht door **Rooie** » zo jan 18, 2009 5:30 pm

dws schreef:
SE6Ajacied schreef: Ref had an absaolute stinker though, I missed the first 2 minutes so haven't seen Dario's first yellow but if that second challenge was worth a yellow/red then at least two of their players should have gone as well.

Roll on next Sunday - live on Setanta again as well :hupajax.gif:
Dario's first booking was for a 'hand of God' goal

In his defense, he was being pushed in the back, otherwise he could've headed it in.

Second booking was a foul, but not a harsh one, not worth a booking, but still an unnecessary foul by Dario.

Ayman · Bericht door **Ayman** » zo jan 18, 2009 7:32 pm

Hey guys! I didnt watch the game but judging by the posts for this game, it had everything, drama, excitement and most of all a happy ending. Now I am not going to judge Wielart because it is early days, I just fear he may end up like a Verlaat-esque. I stil think we need to sign an orthodox left back, as both Schilder and Emanuelson are attacking left midfielders. I mean, One could argue we have Vertonghen, but he does well in other positions, and as for Vermaelen well he is now the linch-pin of the Ajax defense. Anyway thats my view on it. Im chuffed with the result here

DanK · Bericht door **DanK** » zo jan 18, 2009 7:53 pm

Most entertaining game so far of the season (at least the 2nd half anyway).

4-2 with 10 men. Yeah defense showed some weak points, but there were some great tackles too. I think Ajax can hold their heads high after this win. Haven't seen us fight like that for a long time.

Suarez is such a little shit, but bloody hell he is a great footballer.

saddlerian · Bericht door **saddlerian** » zo jan 18, 2009 7:55 pm

Kowalczyk schreef:This is the type of win that can make the difference at the end of the season. Hard-fought against a good opponent in an away game... Two equalizers, but still three points. Very nice. What a spectacular game of football. Throughly enjoyable. I had a blast.

K.

I totally agree with you, Ko,...great, exciting game to come back to after the break. Although the defence was......not very good..., the commitment was there for all to see, Suarez was brilliant in the way he wound the NEC defenders up!
Can't wait to get back over...only 2 wks 'til the Heerenveen game...and the multi-national meet up!!

Blind3 · Bericht door **Blind3** » ma jan 19, 2009 4:40 am

Just watched the highlights. Ajax really needs to tighten up defensively. The defense following the two freekicks was shambolic. Stek looked more like he was playing catcher than keeper on the second. Enough of the bad.

Micky played terrific. As bad as the Ajax defense was on the two NEC freekicks, that's how good Micky looked on the two Ajax freebies. If he plays like that, let him play in the center.

Can't say enough about Gabri's chip. Gorgeous counter attack, beautiful outlet, sublime chip. I could watch it all day.

We get Groningen next while AZ have De Graafschap. Thankfully the schedule will eventually even out.

Bericht door **Kowalczyk** » ma jan 19, 2009 10:34 am

Highlights!

http://ajax.aegon.nl/index.php?id=1&video=18589

K.

gordonvandekamp · Bericht door **gordonvandekamp** » ma jan 19, 2009 5:12 pm

Figure I will throw in my thoughts, albeit a bit late.

I thought Wielaert wasn't terrible, but definitely needs time to adjust. He did make one great back-tracking tackle while NEC was on the counter, which impressed me. That seemed to be the sort of play that has been lacking over the last few years (apart from when we had Stam).

Suarez is a shit and was sort of painful to watch in the second half. Regardless, I'm glad he's on our team and set up Gabri's goal amazingly.

We really need to work on putting the ball in the net and finishing from close. It seems like it's been a problem all season, especially for Suarez. We get a great chance close to the goal and blow it with a mis-kick.

Sulejmani looked very good, I've been waiting for a display like that all season, and consequently I don't think any other team can match us when Sulejmani, Suarez, and Cvitanich are all firing.

The referring was crap as well, not consistent at all, but that seems to happen more often than not. More than anything, I'm glad we got the win and think that was most important starting off the 2nd half of the season. We need to keep it up now.

Bericht door **Kowalczyk** » di jan 20, 2009 9:12 am

It remains one of the fascinating things about football... The moment Ajax went down to ten men, and NEC were numerically superior, NEC's engine seemed to jam and Ajax were the most dangerous side in the last 15 minutes. You so that so often: eleven versus ten is not necessarily a good thing. Sometimes in just doesn't seem to work for the team that still has eleven.

K.