17 Aug 2010: FC Dynamo Kyiv - Ajax

[Orange14]

A very unsatisfactory performance. Bonehead play by Vertonghen to let his man get behind him on a goal kick. Too many long passes that go for naught. I wonder if Jol thinks he has moved on to Fulham and is play EPL brand football. How can we be up a man and not score. Suarez shows the lack of match fitness because of his suspension. All in all a pretty pathetic display. They better come out to play next week or they'll be heading straight to the Europa league. YUCK!

[jamcocteau]

Jol's got to make a decision.....Suarez CANNOT play with El Hamadoui....just doesn't work! The latter did absolutely nothing to help the cause tonight!!!!

Let's hope for a win next week!!!!

90 mins playing together and thats it - jesus - give them time.

[SPL]

Dreadful defending again to let in a goal . At least we have a draw and an away goal . Somehow have to stop letting in bad goals .

[SE6Ajacied]

I can live with 1-1 I suppose though disappointing in the circumstances (going 1-0 up/10 men etc).

Haven't actually seen their goal yet as was typing here and missed it.

[Amol]

90 mins playing together and thats it - jesus - give them time.

Yeah I agree. I mean seriously - this was their first game together.

[Julius]

oh come on now! No optimistic people at all, around here?
We got an away goal, and I have a good feeling that we can make it in the return leg. Its up to us now. DK are nothing special.

I am of the belief that once we get ourselves in the C.L group stage, these lads on the current team can give us a lot of excitment.

[Blind3]

If someone told me Ajax would come home from Kiev with a draw , I'd be happy . That said, I'm not happy. A real yuck performance . Happy that we're still in with a chance, but that's about it.

[SPL]

Would agree DK are nothing special and surely we should win next week .

[saddlerian]

]
90 mins playing together and thats it - jesus - give them time.

Well, unless Jol changes the system......I can't see it happening!!! Suarez looked sharp enough but El Hamdaoui looked sluggish again....he might be a goal scorer, but if he can't fit into a system with Suarez, while we still have him:

Might only be 90 minutes together.....but what's the "day-time" job? I think they call it "TRAINING"....there seemed tobe little communication between them....poor old Louis was stuck on the wing!!!

let's see what next week's game has to offer, especially as Suarez is out again at the weekend!!!!

[Rooie]

Suarez out? His suspension is over.

And Suarez has played as a winger for a whole season now...

[Cedric]

I would have signed beforehand for such a result, but now I'm simply disgusted.
How the hell can they ruin a game like that ? (once again !)

[jamcocteau]

]
90 mins playing together and thats it - jesus - give them time.

Might only be 90 minutes together.....but what's the "day-time" job? I think they call it "TRAINING"....there seemed tobe little communication between them....poor old Louis was stuck on the wing!!!

let's see what next week's game has to offer, especially as Suarez is out again at the weekend!!!!

Big big difference between training and playing a match, jesus there is a big difference in any job between training and the coal face.

Anyway wasted enough time on this - I would have accepted this result before the game but wee bit disappointed now, all to play for next week and all in our own hands again.

[saddlerian]

Suarez out? His suspension is over.

And Suarez has played as a winger for a whole season now...

Ok, I apologise...the third game is conditional.......so he can get back to his "natural" postion on the wing! Funny that, I've always considered him to be a wide-ish striker...cutting in to score....not an out and out winger!!!!

[Rooie]

He isn't, but he always comes from the wing, just like today.

[saddlerian]

Oh well, I'm not going to argue.....each to his , or her, own opinion! That's what makes life exciting!!!

Let's see good performance against Roda...no holding back for the home leg!!!

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

This one will be a battle in Amsterdam but to be honest Dynamo showed shit, to my surprise Ajax were the better team even when it was 11 against 11. When tha draw came out i thought Dynamo was going to bury us....but not anymore. I really think we can actually make it through.

The arena better be shaking in the return leg, the lads are going to need all the motivation they can get.

Dynamo are crap, we can beat them at home if we just stay focused !!!!

[paladinby]

Dynamo has a lot of problems these days, they were a lot better in CL last season.

We typically wasted lots of good chances, El-h was crap today. Let's just hope he won't become a second Machlas or Sonck here and will be able to adapt to our system.

Ajax got a good result in hostile environment. I'm happy with that and optimistic about the return leg.

[cdnajaxfan]

We should have put this tie away but Jol made a bonehead move by putting on 'Wannabe West Ham Boy" and moving Emanuelson to the back. I know he wanted to go for the jugular but he should have gone for the clean sheet.

Other than that and the shaky defending on their goal, I thought we were definitely the better side overall. We will win at home and that will be it.

[Monkey Tonk]

Ajax just look so unprofessional to me these days. Take the 1-0 lead, lock up the game against ten men, and let Kiev be the vulnerable team in search of a goal. Do that, and you're practically in the CL.

But what do these geniuses do? Basically the same as in the second halves at Paok and Groningen. Try to dictate the game and open up the back. When the game is in hand, and there is absolutely no need to go for another goal and expose the extremely vulnerable transition defense. Jol can not be this stupid. I don't believe I've ever seen an Ajax coach having such an impossible time learning such a simple lesson.. Kiev had more chances with ten men than with eleven. But it just doesn't seem to ring any bells with Jol. He's just buying more players we don't need. How about some life-or-death coaching in transition defense instead?

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

Ajax just look so unprofessional to me these days. Take the 1-0 lead, lock up the game against ten men, and let Kiev be the vulnerable team in search of a goal. Do that, and you're practically in the CL.

But what do these geniuses do? Basically the same as in the second halves at Paok and Groningen. Try to dictate the game and open up the back. When the game is in hand, and there is absolutely no need to go for another goal and expose the extremely vulnerable transition defense. Jol can not be this stupid. I don't believe I've ever seen an Ajax coach having such an impossible time learning such a simple lesson.. Kiev had more chances with ten men than with eleven. But it just doesn't seem to ring any bells with Jol. He's just buying more players we don't need. How about some life-or-death coaching in transition defense instead?

Thats just tha ajax way my friend, this team just cant defend, they dont know how....the only thing they do know is how to atack. Ajax does not know how to close shop...plain and simple.

And that style of play is the dutch style of play...always on the atack...never in catenaccio mode.

[Orange14]

I take issue with the last several posts. The team defended quite well today. It was a bonehead play on two parts that gifted the goal. Vertonghen let his man get behind him and then Urby did not come over quickly enough to cut him off; other than that (and it's a big THAT as they got a goal) I have no complaints. We defended set pieces quite well and really did not give them many opportunities to create. My main problem with the team is that we still don't have a solid playmaker. Maybe Eriksen is that player I don't know but de Jong is more of an attacking midfielder rather than someone who can create. Maybe this is why we tend to play so many long balls to the forwards and try for the slotted pass forward since we really haven't had anyone since Sneijder who could find someone open and get the ball to them.

Jol took off Anita as he was on a yellow card and quite frankly Urby wasn't doing anything on the left wing for the most part. I don't have any argument with that substitution. I thought Sulejmani was OK and it's clear that he's in a tough position. He worked hard out there today and unlike last season he appears to be fit. Whether he fits in with Jol's plans is anybody's guess at this point. We'll see this weekend how the Suarez, el Hamdaoui partnership progresses. I think we can keep a clean sheet in the rematch as Dynamo really haven't shown much but it would be really nice to get a quick goal and kill the match off. We need to be more clinical!

[Kowalczyk]

Very good and fair assessment from Orange 14 (in reply to a couple of not-so-good and not-so-fair ones above it).

100% agreed.

By the way: did you see how important Enoh is? His presence in midfield makes the defense more solid. He takes a lot of pressure off of them.

K.

[Monkey Tonk]

Ajax just look so unprofessional to me these days. Take the 1-0 lead, lock up the game against ten men, and let Kiev be the vulnerable team in search of a goal. Do that, and you're practically in the CL.

But what do these geniuses do? Basically the same as in the second halves at Paok and Groningen. Try to dictate the game and open up the back. When the game is in hand, and there is absolutely no need to go for another goal and expose the extremely vulnerable transition defense. Jol can not be this stupid. I don't believe I've ever seen an Ajax coach having such an impossible time learning such a simple lesson.. Kiev had more chances with ten men than with eleven. But it just doesn't seem to ring any bells with Jol. He's just buying more players we don't need. How about some life-or-death coaching in transition defense instead?

Thats just tha ajax way my friend, this team just cant defend, they dont know how....the only thing they do know is how to atack. Ajax does not know how to close shop...plain and simple.

And that style of play is the dutch style of play...always on the atack...never in catenaccio mode.

Ajax defended well until the red card (and immediate goal). After that, Ajax thought they should play on the opponent's half. Kiev didn't mind that one bit. Suddenly, they got easy chances. And plenty of them. The problem is the transition defense when the ball is lost. Ajax is far too slow and nonchalant in that transition, and the results have been disastrous (although, miraculously, they are still unbeaten). Two late goals and a penalty at Paok, two late goals at Groningen, and a late equalizer against ten men in Kiev. That is not the Ajax style, my friend. That is running forward in the blind hope of being Ajax, but not being able to back it up when the ball is lost. It comes down to a lack of organization. Do you see Ajax players pointing at each other or at spaces on the field? No. The Dutch style you refer to requires a team to self-correct during the game. Weak spots are quickly identified and corrected through communication on the pitch. They are not left out there for an opponent to exploit over and over.

[Philippe]

Anyways, very good result. Let's not blow it now.

[cdnajaxfan]

I thought that what we were lacking was obvious. We need a natural winger. Urby did the best he could to fill that void but we need to get a winger. Also agree abut the playmaker role. De Jong is not the man and made quite a few giveaways today.

Enoh was good but he had me worried he was going to get sent off. I am glad that they took both him and Anita off as I thought the ref might try to even things up a bit.

Don't agree about putting Miralem on though. Should have swapped Anita for a defender instead of putting tired legs back there. Coaching mistake, IMO.

Other than that, I thought we looked pretty good for a team with a max of 4 competitive games under our belt. I think we can win at home and progress!