12 MAY 2024; Ajax - Almere City; Match Day 33

[Orange14]

Posting before the NEC match today whose result could take some pressure off of Ajax. This is the final home match of the season and one that should be winnable. Fan favorite, Bergwijn returns to the selection.

[SPL]

NEC beat Excelsior so we are 2 points ahead of them but they have the better GD. Just need to beat Almere and hope Feyenoord do us a favour away to NEC. I see NEC sneeking a win and we then have to beat Vitesse in their last game in the Eredivisie and maybe their last game ever. I fear we wont beat them.

[SPL]

Akpom stays in,Bergwijn back for Godts so lets just scrape a win ,hope NEC dont beat Feyenoord and 5th place will just about be certain today .We then need to get a new coach in and start selling all the crap players from last summer

[SPL]

3-0 and Bergwijn on fire for the first time this season. Feyenoord scored just before Ht at NEC .Lets just score some more goals and finish the home season in style .

[SPL]

Oh dear its already 1-1 in NEC

[SPL]

NEC down to 10 men just hold on Feyenoord and do Ajax a favour

[SPL]

Feyenoord win 3-2 ,Utrecht lost so we are certain for 5th and Europa.Relief that we are in Europa next season Thats how bad a season it is. When NEC pulled back to 2-2 I was keeping more of an eye on that game than us .

Season over for me ,I will be at cricket next Sunday and the result wont matter .

[Orange14]

In New York for mom in law 100 birthday. Just watched the replay. First half was great, second not so much. Hato is suspended for Vitesse so his streak of starts ends

[Tom_]

What a relief, no playoffs!

We go into the second round of EL qualifiers. Can’t see Ajax winning three European ties and getting into the group stage so there’s still a good chance it will be Conference League.

One of the commentators said there is a way Ajax ends up directly in the EL group stage but it depends on results in other leagues - normally AS posts an article with all the permutations so I’ll wait and see.

[Orange14]

The best way to go to the group stage was for Aston Villa to win the Conference League but the failed. The still is a chance but it's small. Focus should be on the reboot of the club

[SPL]

We will get small teams in the first 2 rounds and might get a decent team in the final qualifier. Spurs Chelsea Dortmund Roma are all likely to be in the EL but will go direct to group stages.

[Orange14]

Germany g get five in the CL. Dortmund are already in

[Orange14]

Steven Bergwijn 3 - Almere City 0. Wonderful performance by the left winger who has disappointed so often this season. Three goals that were worthy of any outstanding striker in the world. The slalom run past three defenders was mind boggling. The rest of the match besides the 9 magic minutes was just ordinary 2024 Ajax football. Thanks to a couple offsides calls, Rulli did not see any shots go into the net; first clean sheet in a while. Hato's string of Eredivisie starts concludes with this match as he picked up a sill YC and is suspended for the game against Vitesse. Ajax secured fifth place which is a bitter consolation prize and it looks like they will have to play some qualifying rounds in the Europa League. Fortunately, they will be seeded because of their UEFA club coefficient and should only face minnows. However, let's hope next year's version is far superior to this one. Supporters gave Van't Schip a nice send off, he came into a bad situation; did not make it worse but also did not make it much better.

Player Ratings:

Rulli (6) - ordinary day at the office and if anyone wants a 31 year old keeper he's gone
Rensch (6) - ordinary today and he's going to have to battle Gaaei for a starting spot next season
Sutalo (6.5) - showed a bit more aggressiveness, too bad Ajax only have lots of left footed defenders
Kaplan (6.5) - decent and with this season under his belt should only get better
Hato (6.5) - OK as the Cal Ripken streak comes to an end
Henderson (6) - pretty much convinced that this was a stupid purchase and hope some EPL team comes calling
Mannswerk (6) - well he is better than Tahirovic (damning with faint praise) but still not certain he is right for this team
Taylor (6) - after a couple of very good games he reverted to ordinary Kenneth; still think he has quality, but some team out there might come up with lots of Euros
Akpom (5) -not a winger
Brobbey (6.5) - rating pretty much due to the great lay off to Berwijn
Bergwijn (9) - don't remember any flaw in his game and if he stays and plays like this next season Ajax could be back to scoring goals
Berghuis (6) - unlike Akpom, he is a winger but probably only has one more serviceable season
Tahirovic (NR) - he is no Silvano Vos
Gaaei (NR) - had several very good crosses; you read it here first - he just might beat out Rensch for a starting spot
Godts (NR) - had a couple of touches
van den Boomen (NR) - reads the game better than any other player and is an adept passer, alas he is too slow and cannot defend

One more game to go!!!!