03 Feb 2009: Ajax - Heracles Almelo

bluedaddy19 · Bericht door **bluedaddy19** » wo feb 04, 2009 11:11 am

jamcocteau schreef:Just back from the ArenA and being honest I thought we were lucky to even get a point. Heracles could have been easily 3 or 4 up at half time esp after one amazing save from Stekks from a superb volley.

And if Sulemani is worth Eur 16m then I am a horses arse. There is nothing in his general style of play which leaves me excited about him or shows a brilliant future ahead. I honestly do hope the lad proves me wrong but at this particular moment in time he is not showing anything like a player worth the money paid in terms of skill, speed or even being able to read a game.

Ref has admitted on TV that made a mistake and should not have disallowed goal but fuck it lifes a bitch sometimes.

1- A bit harsh, no? Suarez could have had a hat trick in the first 9 minutes.

2- While surely not on top form, Mickey has seven goals and five assists in 14 games, so let's not overdramatize.

3- The player was not even remotely close to offside. I don;t think the refs make as many "mistakes" in AJAX matches as they claim.

Bericht door **Kowalczyk** » wo feb 04, 2009 11:24 am

Oh well. Let's do Fiorentina then.

K.

jamcocteau · Bericht door **jamcocteau** » wo feb 04, 2009 11:27 am

We are all entitled to our opinions and we could easily have been 3 down at half time and just as easily been winning. In 6 years of attending games at the ArenA that 1st half was as bad as I can remember against a team we should hammer.

Re Mickey there is no over dramatization as far as I am concerned. For a player we have paid Eur 16m for, his overall skill level and contribution to a game is not what I would expect. He even admitted himself 3 weeks ago after the Nijmegen game that MvB felt he had not been performing to his full potential and had told him as much. Well maybe just maybe he is performing as good as he can and Ajax have paid away over the odds for him. I do hope he comes good but at the moment there is nothing there to suggest that he will ever be worth the money paid. A good player maybe, but for Eur 16m worth then he is going to have to perform a hell of a lot better overall in a game to justify his transfer fee.

Think we all agree it was a goal but what can you do about it, its happened he disallowed it, life goes on I am afraid.

SPL · Bericht door **SPL** » wo feb 04, 2009 12:13 pm

I see Siem de Jong broke his collarbone, I did see he walked off holding his shoulder so hope he recovers soon but it could be the last we see of him this season.

After last night we have to concentrate on finishing 2nd , if PSV win tonight they will be 4 points behind so we have a battle on our hands.

DanK · Bericht door **DanK** » wo feb 04, 2009 12:18 pm

Amazing to think though that if (when) AZ win the league, it will be the first time (since they themselves did it) one of the "Big 3" haven't won it since 1981.

SPL · Bericht door **SPL** » wo feb 04, 2009 12:25 pm

Just one more thing on last night ,Lindgren was sub again but did not come on. He is clearly a superior player to Anita and has been injured but how can you put someone on the bench if they are not fit? If there was no cahnce of him coming on then Marco should have put Bodul on the bench, to give him experience (and he could not have been any worse than Cvitanich or Leo)

Bericht door **Kowalczyk** » wo feb 04, 2009 1:28 pm

Yeah, Lindgren... From team captain to bench warmer behind Vurnon Anita of all people...

Marco sometimes moves in mysterious ways.

K.

Bericht door **Kowalczyk** » wo feb 04, 2009 4:15 pm

Highlights, including the goal that should have stood...

http://ajax.aegon.nl/index.php?id=1&video=18623

K.

DanK · Bericht door **DanK** » wo feb 04, 2009 5:45 pm

Kowalczyk schreef:Highlights, including the goal that should have stood...

http://ajax.aegon.nl/index.php?id=1&video=18623

K.

Well all I can say is that we won the highlights, by about 6-2.

Van basten · Bericht door **Van basten** » wo feb 04, 2009 9:50 pm

MVB after the match: "We did our utmost to turn things around after the break and were rewarded with the 3-2 in the 90th minute. Nevertheless, the referee disallowed the perfectly valid goal for offside," said Van Basten to Eredivisie Live.

"I'm furious with the referee. He told me that he never meant to frustrate us, but it's not the first time they p**s us off with a wrong decision. It's really worth considering video help."

gordonvandekamp · Bericht door **gordonvandekamp** » wo feb 04, 2009 10:15 pm

Van basten schreef:MVB after the match: "We did our utmost to turn things around after the break and were rewarded with the 3-2 in the 90th minute. Nevertheless, the referee disallowed the perfectly valid goal for offside," said Van Basten to Eredivisie Live.

"I'm furious with the referee. He told me that he never meant to frustrate us, but it's not the first time they p**s us off with a wrong decision. It's really worth considering video help."

Not that he's wrong, but how about getting a team out there to play the full 90 minutes and not just the 2nd half? We shouldn't have to struggle and come from behind against a mid-table team with a -12 goal differential, especially at home.

I think that's been a lot of fans' frustration, this team gets itself into positions it shouldn't even be in, and then struggles to get out. That and the inconsistency are both troubling.

martinkohout · Bericht door **martinkohout** » do feb 05, 2009 4:07 am

gordonvandekamp schreef:Not that he's wrong, but how about getting a time out there to play the full 90 minutes and not just the 2nd half? We shouldn't have to struggle and come from behind against a mid-table team with a -12 goal differential, especially at home.

I think that's been a lot of fans' frustration, this team gets itself into positions it shouldn't even be in, and then struggles to get out. That and the inconsistency are both troubling.

Well put! I'm hoping that it's part of the learning process of a young team; I don't want to write off this season completely, but perhaps going through this now means we won't have to next year?

DanK · Bericht door **DanK** » do feb 05, 2009 11:25 am

If you had said to me before the start of the season we would finish 2nd, as much as I would want to win the league, I think I would have been reasonably happy considering our past few seasons. But I have seen glimpses of what this team is capable of, and its disappointing to drop points at home, especially against Heracles.

I still think next year will be better, provided the board doesn't do anything stupid. The biggest problem will again be AZ, who if they get the confidence of winning the league, will be harder to beat next year.

gordonvandekamp · Bericht door **gordonvandekamp** » do feb 05, 2009 5:19 pm

DanK schreef:If you had said to me before the start of the season we would finish 2nd, as much as I would want to win the league, I think I would have been reasonably happy considering our past few seasons. But I have seen glimpses of what this team is capable of, and its disappointing to drop points at home, especially against Heracles.

I still think next year will be better, provided the board doesn't do anything stupid. The biggest problem will again be AZ, who if they get the confidence of winning the league, will be harder to beat next year.

That's pretty much my thoughts on the year too.

SPL · Bericht door **SPL** » do feb 05, 2009 8:29 pm

The ref and linesman have been banned for 1 game and the ref admits it was a goal.This makes it worst as we still ended up with1 point.
The sooner there is goalline technology for football the better.

In cricket they have been doing this for years also Tennis.

bluedaddy19 · Bericht door **bluedaddy19** » do feb 05, 2009 9:25 pm

gordonvandekamp schreef: Not that he's wrong, but how about getting a team out there to play the full 90 minutes and not just the 2nd half? We shouldn't have to struggle and come from behind against a mid-table team with a -12 goal differential, especially at home.

I think that's been a lot of fans' frustration, this team gets itself into positions it shouldn't even be in, and then struggles to get out. That and the inconsistency are both troubling.

aha! but there are two things going on here:

1-we didn't play well enough

2-the linesman flat stole 2 points from us

even had numbnuts kept his flag down, we'd still be complaining they should play better

as is, we have both to whine about; we may have played semi-crap, but we STILL should have properly won 3-2, and this is definitely something to whine about

Orange14 · Bericht door **Orange14** » do feb 05, 2009 9:42 pm

SPL schreef:The ref and linesman have been banned for 1 game and the ref admits it was a goal.This makes it worst as we still ended up with1 point.
The sooner there is goalline technology for football the better.

In cricket they have been doing this for years also Tennis.

So this makes the second match that an officials error has cost us (wasn't the Feyenoord match also blown by a bad call?). Probably won't impact the race for first place but I sure hope we don't finish third by one or two points!

DanK · Bericht door **DanK** » do feb 05, 2009 10:44 pm

And of course lets not forget we wouldn't have the 2002 Cup from a few years back with our offside winner from Wamberto...be careful what you wish for.

SPL · Bericht door **SPL** » vr feb 06, 2009 11:49 am

I would be very happy with 2nd place at this moment with Psv now breathing down our necks and Twente still picking up points consistantly

Philippe · Bericht door **Philippe** » vr feb 06, 2009 12:47 pm

Some fans are losing their temper : today invading the training pitch, demanding to talk to the players, closing down the entrance ....
Bij de training van Ajax vrijdagmorgen werden de spelers van Ajax door de eigen aanhang uitgescholden. Een groep supporters van de harde kern van de Amsterdammers betrad het trainingsveld en eiste een gesprek met de spelersgroep. De fans sloten het hek dat toegang biedt tot het veld af.
I share their concern and dispappointment with the recent performances, but this should not go too far. We have to respect MvB.

aveslacker · Bericht door **aveslacker** » vr feb 06, 2009 2:53 pm

bluedaddy19 schreef:
gordonvandekamp schreef: Not that he's wrong, but how about getting a team out there to play the full 90 minutes and not just the 2nd half? We shouldn't have to struggle and come from behind against a mid-table team with a -12 goal differential, especially at home.

I think that's been a lot of fans' frustration, this team gets itself into positions it shouldn't even be in, and then struggles to get out. That and the inconsistency are both troubling.

aha! but there are two things going on here:

1-we didn't play well enough

2-the linesman flat stole 2 points from us

even had numbnuts kept his flag down, we'd still be complaining they should play better

as is, we have both to whine about; we may have played semi-crap, but we STILL should have properly won 3-2, and this is definitely something to whine about

Agree. Imagine if you needed heart surgery and you the surgeon didn't do his job properly, so you die of a heart attack. Your family wouldn't say, "Gee, that sucks that the surgeon didn't fix his heart, but maybe he shouldn't have eaten so much bacon." They would say, correctly so, that the surgeon didn't do the job for which he is paid.

Sure, Ajax didn't play as well as they should have, but they played well enough to score three valid goals and only concede two. It is entirely correct to blame the professional officials for not doing their jobs properly. Just as two years ago, it is completely correct to blame Jan Wegereef for Ajax failing to win the title, regardless of how well Ajax did or didn't play.

SPL · Bericht door **SPL** » vr feb 06, 2009 4:00 pm

As poor as we have played in these last 3 games we still created enough chances to have beaten Heracles and draw the other 2.

4extra points would still leave us 7 behind Az but ahead of Twente and 8 clear of PSV. A goal machine like KJH would have buried some of those chances.