UEFA Cup opponents 2008-2009

[Kowalczyk]

Most of you will be in the 'Euro 2008 mood', so perhaps you don't give a rat's arse about Ajax and their upcoming UEFA Cup safari, but I just wanted to share the following. This is from Ajax Netwerk:

In spite of Ajax's disappointing results in 'Europe' of recent seasons, Ajax will have one of the higher UEFA rankings in the draw for the first round of the UEFA Cup and will therefore have the status of a seeded team. The Amsterdammers will be paired with an unseeded side in the first round. If Ajax make it to the second round (group stage) they will be the 'group head' in their group, that is: if the major sides in the third preliminary round of the Champions League make no mistakes.

The UEFA Cup participant with the highest UEFA ranking is AC Milan, followed by Sevilla, Valencia, CSKA Moscow, Tottenham Hotspur, Hamburger SV and Ajax.

If you really want to read all the details, check this:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uef ... c2008.html

K.

[Kowalczyk]

By the way: the draw for the first round of the UEFA Cup is on Friday 29 August, 13:00 CET in Monaco.

K.

[Kowalczyk]

Right then - today's the day: UEFA Cup draw at 13:00 CET.

Ajax are a seeded side, which means we can't be paired with any of the following teams:

AC Milan Ita 119.934
Sevilla Spa 102.837
Valencia Spa 83.837
Benfica Por 77.176
Schalke 04 Dui 67.078
CSKA Moscow Rus 59.437
Tottenham Hotspur Eng 55.996
Hamburger SV Dui 52.078
VfB Stuttgart Dui 52.078
Ajax Ned 51.610
Olympiakos Piraeus Gri 51.525
Deportivo La Coruña Spa 46.837
Everton Eng 43.996
Club Brugge Bel 41.810
Rapid Bucuresti Roe 41.398
Besiktas Tur 40.469
Spartak Moscow Rus 40.437
Paris Saint-Germain Fra 37.380
Sparta Praha Tsj 36.496
Dinamo Bucuresti Rom 36.398
Heerenveen Ned 35.610
Rosenborg BK Nor 35.400
Udinese Ita 34.934
Feyenoord Ned 33.610
Sporting Braga Por 33.176
Levski Sofia Bul 32.644
Austria Wien Oos 31.840
Slavia Praha Tsj 31.496
Manchester City Eng 30.996
Galatasaray Tur 30.469
Sampdoria Ita 28.934
Hertha BSC Dui 27.078
Partizan Belgrade Ser 25.527
AS Nancy Lorraine Fra 25.380
Portsmouth FC Eng 24.996
Aston Villa Eng 24.996
Racing Santander Spa 24.837
Stade Rennais Fra 24.380
FC København Den 23.748
Hapoel Tel-Aviv Isr 21.197

Instead, we'll be paired with a non-seeded side. Could be one of the following...

Borussia Dortmund Dui 21.078
Napoli Ita 19.934
Brøndby IF Den 18.748
Litex Lovech Bul 18.644
Vitória Guimarães Por 18.176
Dinamo Zagreb Kro 17.836
AS Saint-Étienne Fra 17.380
FC Zürich Zwi 16.993
VfL Wolfsburg Dui 16.078
Wisla Kraków Pol 15.973
Maritimo Funchal Por 15.176
Vitória Setúbal Por 15.176
Standard Liège Bel 14.810
FC Twente Enschede Ned 14.610
FK Moskou Rus 14.437
Petrzalka Bratislava Slo 14.070
Unirea Urziceni Roe 13.398
FC Timisoara Roe 13.398
FC Vaslui Roe 13.398
NEC Nijmegen Ned 12.610
SK Brann Bergen Nor 12.400
Baník Ostrava Tsj 11.496
Kayserispor Tur 11.469
Motherwell Sch 11.013
Metalist Kharkiv Oek 10.932
FC Salzburg Oos 10.840
Young Boys Zwi 7.993
AC Bellinzona Zwi 7.993
Cherno More Varna Bul 7.644
Lech Poznan Pol 6.973
FC Nordsjælland Den 6.748
Borac Cacak Ser 5.527
Kalmar FF Zwe 4.518
MSK Zilina Slo 4.070
Slaven Koprivnica Kro 3.836
APOEL Nicosia Cyp 3.327
Omonia Nicosia Cyp 3.327
Honka Espoo Fin 3.176
FBK Kaunas Lit 2.640
St. Patrick's Athletic Ier 2.420

So, could be Borussia Dortmund, Napoli or... Dinamo Zagreb.

K.

[Blind3]

Wow, the competition is absolutely loaded. Hope we don't get a Wolfsburg or St. Etienne .

[Kowalczyk]

Let's have St. Patrick's Athletic, is what I say.

The weaker the better.

K.

[Duke]

According to the UEFA-site it will be one of these clubs:

BV Borussia Dortmund (GER)
Wisla Kraków (POL)
FC Moskva (RUS)
FK Borac (SRB)
MŠK Žilina (SVK)

[Kowalczyk]

Not too pleased with that... Borussia Dortmund would be one of the strongest we can get, and even the weaker ones are the relatively stronger 'weaker ones' (Serbia and Slovakia... that's something different than Luxembourg, Malta or Iceland).

Could have been a lot better.

K.

[Duke]

Agree, although Borac and Zilina seem te be quite weak, according to their UEFA-coefficient. We still could be lucky.

[Kowalczyk]

Agree, although Borac and Zilina seem te be quite weak, according to their UEFA-coefficient. We still could be lucky.

Never heard of Borac, but Zilina were in the Champions League a few years ago. 'Slavia Prague caliber'.

Looking at this 'draw group' we're particularly unfortunate with the number one (Borussia Dortmund, the 'best of the non-seeded') and the two 'weak ones': those two from Serbia and Slovakia could have been teams from Luxembourg and the Faeroe Islands.

Borac are the dark horse of this pot. Never heard of them. Dortmund would be a bit of a disaster in this stage, just like Celtic in 2001 (CL qualifier). They, too, were the top non-seeded side.

K.

[Kowalczyk]

Right. It's FK Borac. I guess we can't complain. Could have been Dortmund, Krakow or Moscow. Home game: Thursday 18 September. Return leg: Thursday 02 October.

For the record: FK Borac are from the town of Čačak in Serbia, 140 km south of Belgrade. They play at the Čačak Stadium, a ground with 6,000 seats.

Club was founded in 1926. They finished 4th in the Serbian league last season. They play in red and white: red shorts and a horizontally striped red and white shirt. Nickname: The Zebras. Their away kit is identical to the home kit of De Graafschap (same as the home kit, but in blue).

All of their players appear to be Serbs. Well, okay, all-but-one: they have one bloke from Montenegro. I took a look at the squad, but I don't seem to know any of 'em.

They made it to the 1st proper round of the UEFA Cup by eliminating FC Dacia Chisinau (Romania) in the first qualifying round (1-1 and 3-1), followed by Bulgaria's Lokomotiv Sofia in the second (1-0 and 1-1). Eliminating Lokomotiv Sofia is not a bad achievement, I must say.

K.

[Philippe]

just as easy as it can be :hupajax.gif:

[Kowalczyk]

They made it to the 1st proper round of the UEFA Cup by eliminating FC Dacia Chisinau (Romania) in the first qualifying round (1-1 and 3-1)...

... and here are the goals from the latter game...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrohIxij ... re=related

K.

[saddlerian]

Well Ko....are we going to pass the first hurdle this year???

[Kowalczyk]

Yes, we are.

By the way: THIS is the type of fans that will visit Amsterdam on the 18th of September.

Nice.

K.

[saddlerian]

Looks like more visitors like the Slavia hard core.......not nice people!! The canals could be busy that night!!

[Philippe]

currently number 7 in Serbia :smallgrin.gif:

[gordonvandekamp]

I'm pleased with the draw, could have been much worse and this is a team we should beat. I just hope we can make a good run this year.

[Blind3]

Borac. Sounds like the detergent some of those pictured use to clean their sheets and hoods. Re: the tie, on paper it sure beats a trip to Moscow or Dortmund.

Looks like the police could earn their money if those thugs are allowed into the country.

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

The first thing that came to mind when i heard off the name was this...http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/2007/ ... on0109.jpg mind you i was a little off but still the name is similar.

[acab]

actualy, in serbish, like in bulgarian, borac meen fighter or wrestler. I watcj their game with loko sofia and i must say, that these serbs are pitty. Thay elliminated loko just becouze the referee gave them a penalty, no one nows why. Dont worry, 10:0 in aggregate

[Kowalczyk]

Ajax have announced that the away game at FK Borac (Thu 18 Sep) will be played at the stadium of Partizan Belgrade. Borac's ground does not meet the requirements of the UEFA. Kick-off time for the away leg in Belgrade: 21:00 CET.

Kick-off time for the return leg in Amsterdam (Thu 02 Oct) is 20:30 CET.

K.

[AjaxPDX]

Couldn't find a thread devoted to him, so thought I'd put this quote here in the UEFA Cup thread. This is what Dennis Gentenaar had to say today after being left off the squad for the match tomorrow (Vermeer will take his place on the bench):

"This sort of behaviour is what you see at the amateurs. [Van Basten] told me that Vermeer is nearing my level, but that I’m still the better goalie. The only reason why he opts for Kenneth now is to prevent him from being unhappy. This is really unbelievable, a manager should pick the best players. He’s thinking about how Kenneth feels, but doesn’t care about how this decision affects me. My current deal expires at the end of the season and a contract renewal was an option before this decision. However, I want to leave as quick as possible now and even a transfer in January is an option."

Wow. With comments like that I'd be surprised if he ever gets named on the match squad list again. Bye bye.

[Cedric]

"This sort of comments is what you see at the amateurs."

He's dropped for 1 game and starts complaining. Nice...

[DanK]

"This sort of comments is what you see at the amateurs."

He's dropped for 1 game and starts complaining. Nice...

Well he is an Ajax player after all...

[aveslacker]

Let's see how long it takes him to back off from that. Then again, I'm sure Marco is willing to call his bluff and let him go in January.