11 JAN 2025; Ajax - RKC Waalwijk; Match Day 18

[Orange14]

2nd half of the league season kicks off on Saturday!!!!

[SPL]

Only Sutalo is missing , has had bad flu and is training. No new players and no one left ,which is no surprise.

[SPL]

Berghuis Brobbey Godts up front so Akpom Traore and Weghorst subs . Klaassen starts so no Fitz-Jim. I would prefer F-Jim and Traore starting . Should get a win today.

[SPL]

So far so good, that penalty was a bonus.Plenty of chances ,with Brobbey again missing a sitter with that poor header. Godts very lively but not his finishing.They had a couple of chances so lets hope for a quick 3rd which should settle it hopefully

[SPL]

Dreadful 2nd half once the likes of Hato,Henderson ,Taylor and Godts went off, the subs weakened the team. Wijndal ,appears injured but he, Akpom and V d Boomen should all be gone not good enough . Unless we get a back up left winger and a good attacking MF we will not finish 2nd.

[Orange14]

Ajax did everything wrong in the second half and made this match interesting, escaping with a 2-1 win after going down to 10 men with a late injury to Wijndal. Two goals in the first half and some good play seemed to point to an easy win over the bottom of the table club but it was not to be. A late goal by Ihatteran when Ajax were woeful in getting back made things tight and without Henderson to help steel the defense, I was waiting for the goal that would have split the points. Taylor's goal which a better keeper would have saved ends up being the match winner. Berghuis with a very early spot kick following what had to be one of the stupidest defensive plays that I've seen in some time when Brobby who presented no danger at all was taken down on the right side of the box right near the edge. What was the defender thinking??

So Ajax start off the second half of the season with a win which is good and now will wait to see what happens in the PSV-AZ match.

Player Ratings:

Pasveer (6) - made one good save and had little to do as RKC were not pressing so he didn't see a lot of back passes come his way
Rensch (6.5) - decent enough game both defensively and going forward
Rugani (6) - had one poor play in the first half but generally good defending the rest of the way
Baas (6.5) - good play but then the quality of the opponent was quite poor
Hato (6.5) - played one half and did a nice job
Henderson (7) - really controlled things in the defensive end and had several good long passes
Davy One Goal (6) - put in a decent shift
Taylor (7) - one of the better players along with Henderson, got the match winner while stumbling and could have easily fluffed it
Berghuis (6.5) - looked better tonight and made sure of the PK
Brobbey (6.5) - hold up play and passing was quite good and looked peeved when he was subbed off
Godts (6.5) - very active with lots of shots that were blocked and a couple that were well saved
Wijndal (6) - looked good with some very nice runs and crosses unfortunately, it looks like his knee injury might be serious
Weghorst (5.5) - just pretty much average
Fitz-Jim (5.5) - had no impact coming on
van den Boomen (5) - nothing special
Akpom (NR) - on late

Away to AZ in a cup match mid week.

[SPL]

Wijndal ok going forward but cannot defend and was upfield when RKC broke down the left side and scored.Hope his injury is not too bad,frankly I dont want to see him or v D Boomen playing again for us. Both earn 2.5m pa a joke. They are average footballers for a mid table team.Akpom on left wing,words fail me.

[Orange14]

Good result for Ajax in the late game as PSV draw at home with AZ.

[Tom_]

Godts gets man of the match for waggling his foot over the ball then dribbling into the defence half a dozen times. Says it all really!