14 Sep 2011: Ajax - Olympique Lyonnais

[Orange14]

No complaints about the first half. Lyon seem content to play 8 behind the ball and look for a counter. I suspect they will be happy with a 0-0 draw. Boeriggter was able to beat his man to get a couple of decent crosses in and we had a couple of chances to snatch a goal. Defensively we are doing just enough since they don't look too adventurous on offense. Janssen is lucky he didn't get carded on the tackle that conceded the free kick. I suspect a Dutch referee would have given him a Yellow card. We need to make sure that we are positionally aware when transition play begins since this is the only way I see them getting a scoring opportunity.

[paladinby]

That was a good half. Sulejmani missed a good opportunity on diving header. We just need to continue our game!

[souras84]

Orange 14. I'm glad we are watching the same game

[ajaxcolombia]

We had possession advantage but not that many clear chances. Lyon was dangerous on the counter attack, and should have scored on two chances. We can win this though. is bulykin in the selection? most of our attacks have com down the flanks and from crosses, we could benefit from having a very tall striker like him.

[Orange14]

We had possession advantage but not that many clear chances. Lyon was dangerous on the counter attack, and should have scored on two chances. We can win this though. is bulykin in the selection? most of our attacks have com down the flanks and from crosses, we could benefit from having a very tall striker like him.

It's going to be difficult as they are really closing down the middle with the center backs and midfielders. Even Zlatan would have troubles with this defense.

[ajaxcolombia]

holy crap!!! saved by vermeer

[ajaxcolombia]

lyon are playing much better now.

[ajaxcolombia]

great play by van der wiel, eriksen with the shot, and lloris saves it!!

[souras84]

we're playing better. and i am afraid that the bad thing is gonna happen

[paladinby]

That was a good game from our young team. Final 10 minutes were a bit threatening however.

[Orange14]

A disaster is averted as Van der Wiel pokes the ball away after a ball watching Anita (?? couldn't really tell on the Sopcast stream) thinks the ball is going out of touch only to be surprised and beaten badly. Vermeer was also quick to push the ball away with his hands. We had some decent chances but Lloris only had to make one really good save; everything else shot at him was either too weak or right at him. 0-0 is probably a fair result given that we could not figure out a way to unlock their defense from the run of play and were able to stifle their counters (albeit with some luck).

Vermeer had little to do since almost all Lyon's shots were way wide of the goal. He did have one very poor clearance kick that only traveled about 15 meters right at the foot of a Lyon player. Alderweireld and Vertonghen were solid on defense and Vertonghen did have a couple ventures into the offensive end trying to break through the middle. Van der Wiel was a rock on defense and probably had the best overall game. Boilesen still loses his position but recovered well and pushed forward. Janssen was largely silent as was de Jong. Eriksen was solid and had a couple of good passes and shots. Sulejmani was active but clearly winded by the 80th minute. Boerrigter beat his man consistently and got some crosses in (most were not too troubling). Sigthorsson was bottled up since Lyon clogged the middle effectively (he needs to figure out how to stay up high and then release quickly for an over the top pass the way David Villa does; this would have been effective here but I don't think Ajax work on this). The substitutes other than Anita were not on the field long enough to make any judgement.

Madrid only beat Zagreb 1-0 away so this is going to be a difficult group.

[Orange14]

Marcello is suspended for our match as he picked up two Yellow cards in Zagreb. Don't think this will matter much but at least one dirty player will not be playing.

[SPL]

A good game by our young team , Sulejmani should have scored but they had chances . Would rather have Anita starting than Siem though .
At least we did not give away a silly late goal.

[souras84]

I dont see why Siem is always in the equasion. Or what can happen in the midfield 3?
Also, what the hell is it with Vermeer's clearings!?!?!?!?! His major problem
Could end 1-0 and we would be happy

[ajaxcolombia]

Funny how we couldn't keep a clean sheet in the eredivise, yet we finally did it in the champions league.

[orange goblin]

I think we had a good first half and a more instable second period. some thoughts:
1-our defense made some mistakes, but makes me feel pretty solid. also sightorsson is solid, the guy does a lot of work. very good offensive presence by our R&L Backs.
2-our wingers had too much ins and outs.
3- I still believe our midfield is the part to improve. is too light and sometimes slow. siem is inconsistent in that position, use him as a supersub or even as a "10", but not there.
4- hey: janssen is better as left midfielder than as defensive one. he has not the pace. field anita or the poor enoh there, and leave theo more freedom!
5- after all we lack just in one more thing: someone who has creativity. genius. someone unpredictable. a class player. it was suarez. it might have been the moroccan training with the reserves. it could be eriksen, but still it isn't for 90 mins.. same goes for sulejmani: he has to improve his continuity, as he has the skills.
after all those games are very important mainly for this reason: to make the guys grow, isn'it?

[Blind3]

Got to love Bing Translator :" Boer het punt tevreden: grote klasse voor personeel en spelers " becomes " Farmer happy with the point: Great class for staff and players' . " . I must say that I agree with Coach Farmer . We had several chances , but so did Gomis and Bastos for Lyon. Our defense was pretty solid. I think many of us feel that further participation in europe beyond the group stages, whether CL or more likely EL , depends on results vs. Dinamo. That hasn't changed . Now, hoping PSV receive a work out tomorrow and Ajax can get focused on Sunday afternoon .

[ofey]

I'm happy with the point.
We've had some really bad starts in Europe. We deserved more but its better to come out with something.

We need to get the point back in Lyon and beat Dinamo both ways. Anything we can get against Real would be a bonus.

To be honest, I hope Frank tells the boys to have a real go at Real in both games. I'd rather see us get whipped by them whilst attempting to do something instead of defending deep and still getting whipped.

[aveslacker]

I dont see why Siem is always in the equasion. Or what can happen in the midfield 3?

I think every single person on this board wonders these same things, kale mou phile.

[Manneken Pis]

We did ok I thought, given the number of young players.
Lyon have lost a lot of players over the summer due to transfers, and they had injuries, so if we were going to beat them, this was the occasion.
We could have won, because we had the chances, but then again they had the counter attacks that could have been fatal ....

I think our chances of reaching the last 16 have been greatly dimished, but hey it's not impossible and my expectations were limited from the start in the CL.

When you play in Europe against the bigger teams they tend to fill the last third of the pitch and wait for the counter. That's exactly what Lyon did and we only managed to find a way to goal a few times, and then when we did we couldn't make it count. As mentioned above, when you don't have a group with exceptional talent (like the team of '95) you need someone world class to make the difference (like Zlatan or Suarez), and we just don't have that at the moment.

Oh well... two wins against Dynamo and a small miracle away at Lyon is now needed ... who knows...

[Philippe]

Here are a few thoughts :
We were better, Lyon missed several key players (bear in mind that O.Lyon’s budget is twice as big as ours), and should have won this one,
It seems clear that Franck has not made up his mind about Janssen’s position, and whatever the difficulties are, he is responsible for this,
Sulejmani was very mediocre and missed two chances, he should be replaced by Ozbiliz,
Very good save by Vermeer at the very end.