29 Aug 2010: De Graafschap - Ajax

[Orange14]

As the schedule looks now, we also play PSV at home two days before the home game against Madrid. I'd say they'll change that. Did I mention a road game at Twente three days before the home game versus Milan? Oh well, at least Ajax won't have to travel for those two CL games. Still, a pretty tough overal schedule. And I'd hate to see us do just 'ok' in the CL as well as the Eredivisie. In every single one of these cases, no matter how strange that may look on paper, the Eredivisie game is more important!

Both of those clubs will have the same problems that we have with European competition matches.

[Monkey Tonk]

As the schedule looks now, we also play PSV at home two days before the home game against Madrid. I'd say they'll change that. Did I mention a road game at Twente three days before the home game versus Milan? Oh well, at least Ajax won't have to travel for those two CL games. Still, a pretty tough overal schedule. And I'd hate to see us do just 'ok' in the CL as well as the Eredivisie. In every single one of these cases, no matter how strange that may look on paper, the Eredivisie game is more important!

Both of those clubs will have the same problems that we have with European competition matches.

For at least that one game each, yes. Haven't looked at their schedules to see how Europe might otherwise affect them. To me only Eindhoven is direct competition for the title (Twente can coast on last season's title for the next 25 years). And PSV is not in the CL and may not feel the effects as much. None of this would bother me if Ajax still had a subscription to the title. But the nonchalance about yet another national championship has made way for a need to win it this year.

Ironically, even though we're in the CL, we don't have much to gain from it, other than finances and some international experience, and maybe some prestige. For the longer term optimists could say that this is a crucial first step on the way back to the top of Europe. Cynics would reply that we don't keep our players long enough to build anything that long term; and the better our showing in Europe, the more players we could lose. I don't like the reality of today's international soccer at all. It's an absolute joke that Ajax, one of the historical top sides in Europe, has been forced into a role as selling club. But there is nothing that can be done about that in the short term. So I'm inclined to give Europe the finger, and win national championships instead. Then again, there's always the slight possibility that the team could unexpectedly rise to new heights and glory. God, I hate that hope. Or not?

Anyway, scheduling is very important to professional handicappers. Much easier to have highs and lows than to perform at a high level consistently. Especially for inexperienced teams. Just look at Utrecht this past weekend. Not a chance against Twente, just days after blowing out Celtic 4-0 (you could almost see them partying and joking around in the interval).

[Orange14]

As the schedule looks now, we also play PSV at home two days before the home game against Madrid. I'd say they'll change that. Did I mention a road game at Twente three days before the home game versus Milan? Oh well, at least Ajax won't have to travel for those two CL games. Still, a pretty tough overal schedule. And I'd hate to see us do just 'ok' in the CL as well as the Eredivisie. In every single one of these cases, no matter how strange that may look on paper, the Eredivisie game is more important!

Both of those clubs will have the same problems that we have with European competition matches.

For at least that one game each, yes. Haven't looked at their schedules to see how Europe might otherwise affect them.

There is direct overlap for the first 4 match days. Europa League is on the Thursday immediately following the Tuesday and Wednesday CL matches. Things change for the final two match days. EL matches are on December 1&2 and 15&16 (final day); CL last two match days are November 23&24, December 7&8. So PSV catch a break on the November match as they don't have an EL match that week but the week after. We also have a dicey fixture against our Rotterdam neighbors on September 19 which is four days after the first Madrid match (fortunately Suarez and Vertonghen should be well rested ). The away match against Twente on September 25 is a wash as both teams will have CL matches that week. We wanted CL football and we got it, now we have to take care of matches as they come up.

[GangstaRiB]

Good to see Ajax back on top. I haven't seen the last few games, apart from some highlights, but the scores suggest that the defense is getting better. Then again, De Graafschap wasn't exactly going to cost us the title.

Happy Ajax is in the CL, but the title has priority for me. That's a realistic prize. The CL is a dream. With that in mind, the Eredivisie schedule of games following a CL game:

Feyenoord - Ajax (four days after Real Madrid-Ajax)
Ajax - Utrecht (five days after Ajax - AC Milan)
Excelsior - Ajax (five days after Ajax - Auxerre)
Ajax - ADO (four days after Auxerre - Ajax)
VVV - Ajax (five days after Ajax - Real Madrid)
Vitesse - Ajax (four days after AC Milan - Ajax).

Only two home games. And two sets of back-to-back road games on four days rest.

As the schedule looks now, we also play PSV at home two days before the home game against Madrid. I'd say they'll change that. Did I mention a road game at Twente three days before the home game versus Milan? Oh well, at least Ajax won't have to travel for those two CL games. Still, a pretty tough overal schedule. And I'd hate to see us do just 'ok' in the CL as well as the Eredivisie. In every single one of these cases, no matter how strange that may look on paper, the Eredivisie game is more important!

The PSV game is already changed to saturday instead of sunday.

[aveslacker]

As the schedule looks now, we also play PSV at home two days before the home game against Madrid. I'd say they'll change that. Did I mention a road game at Twente three days before the home game versus Milan? Oh well, at least Ajax won't have to travel for those two CL games. Still, a pretty tough overal schedule. And I'd hate to see us do just 'ok' in the CL as well as the Eredivisie. In every single one of these cases, no matter how strange that may look on paper, the Eredivisie game is more important!

Both of those clubs will have the same problems that we have with European competition matches.

For at least that one game each, yes. Haven't looked at their schedules to see how Europe might otherwise affect them. To me only Eindhoven is direct competition for the title (Twente can coast on last season's title for the next 25 years). And PSV is not in the CL and may not feel the effects as much. None of this would bother me if Ajax still had a subscription to the title. But the nonchalance about yet another national championship has made way for a need to win it this year.

Ironically, even though we're in the CL, we don't have much to gain from it, other than finances and some international experience, and maybe some prestige. For the longer term optimists could say that this is a crucial first step on the way back to the top of Europe. Cynics would reply that we don't keep our players long enough to build anything that long term; and the better our showing in Europe, the more players we could lose. I don't like the reality of today's international soccer at all. It's an absolute joke that Ajax, one of the historical top sides in Europe, has been forced into a role as selling club. But there is nothing that can be done about that in the short term. So I'm inclined to give Europe the finger, and win national championships instead. Then again, there's always the slight possibility that the team could unexpectedly rise to new heights and glory. God, I hate that hope. Or not?

I've been thinking about this a lot as well. It seems that the football economy is in a downturn right now and this is one of the main reasons we've basically been able to keep our team intact. No one is throwing the kind of money around that we're asking these days, with the result that our players have a chance to stay an extra year, maybe more at Ajax. No longer will decent young players with potential (like, say, Maduro or Babel) be lured away.

As long as this kind of contraction is in place, we have a chance at keeping our squad together and developing a team that could make a run in Europe (not necessarily win, mind you, but get to the quarters or semis). But if we see a return to the old days, unless our management is very savvy, I'm afraid we'll start seeing foreign clubs looting our promising players again.

[Orange14]

What is truly sad to me is the teams that really do try to keep their financial house in order like Aston Villa and Everton in England. They cannot hold onto the players they nurtured through their youth system. The sugar daddy clubs like ManCity, Chelsea, and ManU seem to be able to swoop in and take these players away (I put Arsenal in a different category as they tend to go after young foreign players, a very different ethical issue). It's a vicious cycle in that the clubs loose young talent and don't have enough money or time to find suitable replacements. I hope that Platini's plan for financial solvency of clubs succeeds as it is the last hope to prevent this type of behavior.