04 MARCH 2020; Utrecht - Ajax; Beker Semifinal

[Orange14]

The first to two meetings away to Utrecht takes place Wednesday with the Beker semifinal. Ajax's struggles continued over the weekend with a loss to AZ that drew the Alkmaar team even on points. Now out of Europe, Ajax have two trophies to play for. With a tricky away match to Heerenveen coming up on the weekend will ETH rotate players. Blind looked out of sorts yesterday and perhaps moving Schuurs to the left side and bringing Alvarez into the defense is the thing to do. Ziyech left the pitch in anger and went on to the changing room yesterday. Is he fit or not? Clearly he is better in the MF and dropped off the wing for large parts of the game with Dest trying to overlap as much as possible. Maybe a Promes/Danilo pair up front is needed.

A lot of questions for ETH right now and maybe we will have some answers on Wednesday.

[kezme44]

anyone in the US showing this? doesn't look like espn+ carry the cup games.

[Amol]

Gol Tv has the KNVB Beker and are carrying today's game.

[Orange14]

Prospective Lineup: Onana; Dest, Alvarez, Blind, Tagliafico; Martinez, van de Beek, Ekkelenkamp; Ziyech, Traore, Tadic

[Orange14]

Gol Tv has the KNVB Beker and are carrying today's game.

Unfortunately, Verizon FIOS stopped carrying GolTV two years ago. I'll have to find on of the "reliable" Russian/Ukraine streams.

[SPL]

Hope I can get a stream today.Of course when I came in very late on Sunday for AZ ,and being 2-0 down after 75 mins it didn't matter,I got a good stream immediately!

I try cricfree ,firstrow or rojadirect .Are there any better ones out there?

[Amol]

Confirmed lineup -
Onana,
Dest, Álvarez, Blind, Tagliafico,
Van de Beek, Martínez, Ekkelenkamp,
Ziyech​​, Tadic, Promes

[kezme44]

aaand we are down

[Orange14]

Horrible by van de Beek

[kezme44]

almost 2-0

[GangstaRiB]

We're awful. The current run is disasterous. Forget the Cup, we're not going to be champions if this goes on. Ajax can't even get one decent attack done.

[Orange14]

Very poor defending on a set piece and Ajax again are at the short end of the score line. It's the same old story, lots of possession and passes but to many tries at the killer pass rather than shooting. Ziyech looks disinterested and probably wishes he was at Chelsea right now. Dest at least is trying to do something. Tadic is invisible along with Ekklenkamp. Blind is pushed up into MF and has 2 good passes for every bad one. Alvarez and Martinez are OK as the CD duo. Ajax almost were punished by giving up the ball to easily but Utrecht could not finish. At least this team won the Johan Cruyff cup this season. that may be the only thing in the trophy case!

[kezme44]

2 shots on goal in 45 minutes, still better than a few days ago i'm sure eth is performing mind gymnastics now for 2nd half strategy...

[SPL]

We look clueless again .Something will need to change if we are to win the league .

[Orange14]

don't know what else ETH can do. I think his approach tonight was right. Dropping van de Beek deep gave the team a good outlet along with Blind. they did not have any trouble getting the ball up but once they did there was no danger created.

[kezme44]

what a dumb penalty to commit

[Orange14]

No help from VAR for Alvarez. this one is pretty much done and dusted.

[SPL]

Cannot blame ETH because Alvarez is a poor defender. Game over now ,all we will see is KH come on.

[kezme44]

and blind gives away another ball resulting almost in a goal for utrecht

[Amol]

Down 2-0 in the 65th minute. Not looking good at all. Not watching the game and only following on twitter and here.

[souras84]

I am so frustrated. But I believe Alvarez is better as a defender. He is not as bad as we say in here. Is it time Ziyech, Tadic, Van de Beek, Blind and a couple more get BENCHED? Is there no punishment for these tragic, T R A G I C, performances?

[SPL]

What can one say ,this was pitiful to watch. In 6 days out of Europe ,out the cup , lost at home to the no 2 in the league and now only Gd on top.

Easy to say but we lost 2 outstanding players and replaced with inadequate rubbish . Veltman too slow, Schuurs a calamity of a defender,Alvarez words fail me .Spurs want this guy!!!!!! sell him .In MF we lost Frenkie and have no one there ,MF is totally invisible.

Tadic sadly would not get in the current Southampton side, Donny struggling ,Promes maybe not yet match fit . Ziyech apologies but seems to have lost it and maybe he just wants to be at Chelsea.

PS I hope to turn on Ajax showtime in the morning to read ETH has gone ,he has lost the players and the season imo.

[Orange14]

Yet another awful performance from a team that seems to have no clue how to score goals. Poor defending on a free kick and a silly penalty gifted Utrecht the match. Ajax had so many cheap give aways that they were always in danger of getting caught on a counter attack. Every cute lay off was right at the feet of a Utrecht defender. The free fall this team is currently in might see them not qualify for any European football next season. If they finish fourth I think they go into the Eredivisie play off for a EL place. I don't think we can talk of a championship season at all right now. I don't know what ETH can do short of resigning. I think he put the right players out there and dropping van de Beek back made sense. Unfortunately, none of them could do anything positive.

Player Ratings:

Onana (6) - made a couple of saves and guessed wrong on the PK
Tagliafico (6) - one of the better players on the pitch, going full bore and did put a couple of good crosses in
Martinez (5) - he really looks slow right now
Alvarez (4) - was having an OK game until the foolish penalty that he conceded
Dest (6) - like Tagliafico, decent on the night; unfortunately two good FBs are not going to win matches
Blind (5.5) - better tonight and had some good passing but also gave the ball away cheaply
van de Beek (5) - horrible on the free kick but worked hard all night long
Ekkelenkamp (4.5) - saw little of the ball and didn't move quickly enough in the MF
Promes (5) - average and nothing more
Tadic (4.5) - must really wonder where last year's magic went
Ziyech (5) - neither good nor bad and looking for the first plane to London
Hunelaar (4) - sad to see him out there missing some good chances
Marin (NR)
Danilo (NR)

The exciting thing is that Ajax get to play Utrecht yet again, making up the postponed league match. Away to Heerenveen on the weekend. Will this team score?

[SPL]

Hi Orange I agree, as I nearly always do with your ratings . I am laughing as you said Alvarez was having an Ok game but he scores a 4 making him our worst player.No problems I dont rate the guy. Who do they pick for RCD.???

[Orange14]

Hi Orange I agree, as I nearly always do with your ratings . I am laughing as you said Alvarez was having an Ok game but he scores a 4 making him our worst player.No problems I dont rate the guy. Who do they pick for RCD.???

I don't have a clue. I hope that one of the youth defenders can make rapid progress.