Ajaxtalk

For the first time in several years, Ajax play in the season opening trophy match taking on PSV. There has been a lot of press about what sides will be put out onto the pitch. PSV had their first Champions League qualifier today and left it until late beating FC Basel 3-2 in Eindhoven. The return leg is next week and I'm sure PSV desparately wants to win that to at least assure Europa League football. Ajax have some key players who are just returning after international duty and they probably won't play. ten Hag seems to have a 'first' team set up with Varela; Dest, Blind, Schuurs, Veltman; Marin, Eiting, van de Beek; Promes, Dolberg, Tadic.

Not to be picky, but the name of the competition is the Johan Cruyff Shield -- (Johan Cruijff Schaal). Although it is also referred to as the Dutch Super Cup. From Wikipedia: The trophy is a silver plate with a 60 cm diameter. It is similar to the trophies received by the champions of the Eredivisie.....

rjf1 schreef:Not to be picky, but the name of the competition is the Johan Cruyff Shield -- (Johan Cruijff Schaal).

Made the change. Thanks!

It's possible that Onana, Mazraoui, and Ziyech will be in the selection for the Shield match according to ten Hag. He also would like to retain all the players currently on the roster and doesn't think they would need additional transfers.

Looking forward to some football! So
much so that I spent the whole day avoiding the internet so I could watch the replay, only to find the game is tomorrow (my time). Oops.

Tom_ schreef:Looking forward to some football! So
much so that I spent the whole day avoiding the internet so I could watch the replay, only to find the game is tomorrow (my time). Oops.

LOL. This reminds me of the second Benfica CL match last season when I was watching the first half of the first game without realizing it. Couldn't figure out why it was deja vu all over again.

Match is not be carried on any US streaming service so I'll have to find a reliable stream. ESPN only has rights to league matches.

I've seen the PSV attack and it is really quick! I hope the duo of Schuurs-Blind doesn't suffer much

Gol TV is showing today's game in the US!

Amol schreef:Gol TV is showing today's game in the US!

Unfortunately my cable provider doesn't carry GolTV.

Great start 36 secs for our goal.Cricfree have streams, no 1 link is GOLTV,American commentary.

10 mins to half time -- PSV have taken control of the game -- hope we can hold on and regroup for the 2nd half.

2 yellow card fouls by Hendrix after the original first one that the ref refused to call. Hendrix should have been off the field a long time ago.

We made it to the half -- we even started playing much better toward the end. Defensively we are doing quite well -- covering the lanes and matching them for pace. Let's keep it up for the second half.

Decent half of football. Dolberg looks more fit than I've seen him, good quickness and aggressive. Defense is doing enough to keep PSV from having any clear shots on goal. Passing from all the players is spot on. Dest is really fast!!

Decent so far by us although the hugh holes left by de Ligt and de Jong will be very hard to fill.Hendriks should have been sent off .

Do we get Extra time if its a draw?

rjf1 schreef:2 yellow card fouls by Hendrix after the original first one that the ref refused to call. Hendrix should have been off the field a long time ago.

Agree!!! One of the sliding tackles was even a marginal Red in my book.

Just checked its pens if scores level

Great goal by Daley.Tadic hardly touched the PSV guy.

1st trophy of the season and a comfortable win although they did create chances. Martinez looks good to me also Dest ,who is a right back , the latest one from our great Academy.Dolberg looked lively which is a good sign.

It ends 2-0, Dolberg with the match winner and a nice shot from distance by Blind to give Ajax some breathing room. Team looked in synch and defended well 95% of the time. Onana really didn't have to make a difficult save. The game really slowed down in the last half hour, likely because of the high temperatures.


Player ratings:

Onana (6) - hardly had anything to do
Dest (6.5) - speed to burn and he knows how to use it; did get beat late and pulled his man down just outside the box
Martinez (6.5) - good half of football and showed himself a capable defender
Schuurs (6.5) - decent enough
Veltman (6) - some silly fouls but OK at RB; wonder what happens when Tagliafico and Alvarez come into the team
Marin (6.5) - good control of the MF
Blind (6.5) - quick crisp passing when he was playing in the MF before dropping back to the back line
van de Beek (6.5) - industrious as always and great assist o Dolberg's goal
Promes (6) - OK but looked a step off the pace of the match
Dolberg (7) - good quickness and nice runs all match long
Tadic (6.5) - good match from the skipper
Schöne (6) - on for most of the second half and that looks like his role now
Ziyech (6) - on in the 2nd half and was a little rusty but still chased after every ball to press
Magallan (NR) - on late

All to play for starting next week with the season opener against Vitesse followed by the CL qualification. Still a bit of doubt about whether anyone leaves during this transfer window.

Saw the entire game yesterday, but didn't get a chance to post here yet. This team is coming to grips with the loss of Frenkie and Mathijs, and yesterday's display left me pretty happy.

This team has started to gel together and I've started seeing some of the automations from last year. This year's team is definitely deeper than last year and Ten Hag hopefully will be rotating them more often this year.

I thought Schuurs was slow in the game against Pana, but I think that was a one-off. He didn't seem slow yesterday.

I'm loving some of the newcomers already namely Dest and Martinez. Marin also put in a good shift yesterday. Dolberg looks healthy and hungry this year. Ziyech was having so much fun after he came in that I feel he's going to stay another season.

On a separate topic - can some of the Dutchies explain #pakschaal to me? I gather that this is related to something which Tadic said last year.

Yes. That’s what Tadic said in an interview, in lovly englishdutch: “we need to pak schaal.”

We need to grab the title (dish).

Amol schreef:Saw the entire game yesterday, but didn't get a chance to post here yet. This team is coming to grips with the loss of Frenkie and Mathijs, and yesterday's display left me pretty happy.

This team has started to gel together and I've started seeing some of the automations from last year. This year's team is definitely deeper than last year and Ten Hag hopefully will be rotating them more often this year.

I thought Schuurs was slow in the game against Pana, but I think that was a one-off. He didn't seem slow yesterday.

I'm loving some of the newcomers already namely Dest and Martinez. Marin also put in a good shift yesterday. Dolberg looks healthy and hungry this year. Ziyech was having so much fun after he came in that I feel he's going to stay another season.

On a separate topic - can some of the Dutchies explain #pakschaal to me? I gather that this is related to something which Tadic said last year.

It's still stressful, with regards to the future of van de Beek, Neres, Ziyech and even Veltman (who is very underrated, and should be mentioned), in football, things are always unpredictable, it changes in a blink of an eye! Let's just hope nobody else leaves, although it's hard to imagine that all these four will stay, the teams from the big leagues are always circulating around, until the summer is over.

Ayman schreef:
It's still stressful, with regards to the future of van de Beek, Neres, Ziyech and even Veltman (who is very underrated, and should be mentioned), in football, things are always unpredictable, it changes in a blink of an eye! Let's just hope nobody else leaves, although it's hard to imagine that all these four will stay, the teams from the big leagues are always circulating around, until the summer is over.

I really wish UEFA would standardize the transfer window! EPL window closes August 8 (before the first league match) and the remaining leagues close September 2 as the normal date of August 31 is on a Saturday. We have seen last minute losses of players because of this. Ajax will has three league matches scheduled for August and potentially four CL qualifiers. I don't want to see sudden departure of players and the transfer window really out to close August 15 across all leagues.

Let's say they standardise 8-8... If we lose someone on that day we still cannot replace em, so it seems rather arbitrary