Ajaxtalk

Saturday 13 July was a bit of a milestone in Ajax history: for the first time ever the first team played two full friendly games on one day, at RKC Waalwijk (1-5) and De Graafschap (0-3). Ajax fielded two different line-ups in both towns.

The club decided to do this because they want all the players to see the same(-ish) amount of action, preferably on the same day, so that - at any given moment - all players are in the same stage of their pre-season build-up.

Hope that makes sense.

So, the following players played in Waalwijk, against RKC:

Vermeer, Ligeon (60 Sporkslede), Alderweireld (46 Van der Hoorn), Denswil (60 Gravenberch), Boilesen (60 Kuipers), Poulsen (60 Lobotka), Klaassen (46 Bazoer), Eriksen (60 El Hasnaoui), Sana (60 Lukoki), Hoesen (60 Bojan), Boerrigter (60 Lazic).

Krkic and Van der Hoorn made their unofficial Ajax débuts. Goals: Boerrigter scored a perfect hattrick in the first half. Ligeon and Lazic netted after the break.

This was in the afternoon. In the evening, the other 50% of Ajax's pre-season squad played De Graafschap in the following formation:

Cillessen, Van Rhijn (46 Nieuwpoort), Veltman, Moisander, Blind (46), Schöne, De Jong, Serero, De Sa, Sigthórsson, Fischer.

Line-up from the 63rd minute onwards:
Opstelling na 63 minuten: Cillessen; Nieuwpoort, Gravenberch, Kuipers, Koppers; Sporkslede, De Kamps, Lobotka; Moses Daddy, Hendriks, Höner.

Goals (all scored in the second half): Sigthórsson, Fischer and Moses Daddy.

Quite obviously, Moses Daddy is one of the best footballer's names in the world :-)

July 19th will once again be a 'two-match day'. Opponents: Osasuna in the afternoon, Werder Bremen in the evening, in Emmen (Holland) and Meppen (Germany) respectively.

K.

I managed to watch the last 20 mins or so of RKC and Lazic took his goal very well imo. Bazoer looked very comfortable on the ball in defensive midfield given he is only 16 and has not played much this year ,having been banned from competitive games since leaving PSV. Several youngsters made their unofficial debut ,Kuipers,Lobotka,El Hasnaoui,Lazic,Gravenberch,de Kamps,Moses Daddy,Hendriks and Honer I believe.

One little point I noted that 6 players who were used as subs at Waalwijk then went off to be subs v de Graafschap and indeed Sporkslede,Gravenberch,Kuipers and Lobotka actually played in both games. A little bit of history playing 2 seperate games in a day. There was only 2 hours between the games finishing and starting and a 120 k journey to Doetinchem.