18 Aug 2013: Ajax - Feyenoord

[Orange14]

A little lucky to get the penalty call; nice kick by Sigthorrson

[ofey]

2-1 to Ajax
Great header by Siggi!!

As I mentioned earlier, Ligeon's been great.
He provided the cross from the right.

[Tom_]

Nice header. We should be all over them, they're really looking weak. Apart from that lucky Pelle goal and a couple of corners they weren't in the match at all.

[Orange14]

Finally a goal from our striker in the run of play!

[Tom_]

Well, we're still not looking great, but responded well rather than crumble like we sometimes do. Yes we were lucky to get that penalty (although I think there was contact), but Feyenoord were lucky that Pelle's attempt to trap the ball ended up in the back of the net. Nice to see him celebrate like he thumped it in from 30 yards, too.

Hopefully put a chance or two away in the first 15 minutes of the second half and get some breathing space.

[SPL]

After giving away a poor goal we did get lucky with the penalty ,think he stood on Fischer's foot! Great header by Siggy.

Fword do look poor and I too see ared card from Fword.

I have firstrow.org but after about 15 mins of Dutch that went off so its Italian for me.

[Orange14]

Very poor opening 15 minutes and the goal should not have been conceded. Don't know how much Vermeer could have done as it was one of those lucky bounces after a failed clearance. Good to see the team take charge and dominate play the rest of the way. Eriksen made some wonderful passes. Is Bojan playing today? (yes, I know he is but he's had maybe one or two touches total). Fischer got the penalty but just barely as it was the lightest of touches (maybe he went to Portugal over the summer to take some lessons). Ligeon has lots of pace and delivered some good crosses but he failed to track back on the final Feyenoord run at end of the half and was lucky nobody could deal with the cross.

Need to stiffen the defense and get a couple of more goals before I will breathe easy.

[rjf1]

Can't really blame Vermeer for the goal -- the ball pinballed around too fast to follow -- it was behind him before he could catch up. They finally started playing the ball forward and dominated because of it. Eriksen -- who I usually criticize for not looking to play the ball forward, did a complete turnaround and made a number of excellent plays going forward, which had them reeling -- an excellent half by him, which really made the difference in the momentum.

[SPL]

Just got the dutch link back(Link 12 on firstrow.org) and they were showing the penalty.Fischer's heel was just about touched
and we were lucky a lot softer than last weeks pen by V Rhijn. I would say Fischer dived and thought thats not allowed at Ajax ,under the gospel of Cruyff!!!

[ofey]

Watching a Fox Sports online stream and our old friend Kenneth Perez was just mentioning how poor the pitch has been... .

[Tom_]

Don't know if it's the pitch but we are making FAR too many mistakes. Misplaced passes, getting caught in possession, losing out one-on-one... we're easily the better team but just not keeping the ball. If we don't sharpen up we will only have ourselves to blame when Feyenoord pinch a goal.

[SPL]

well we held on ,feared Fword would pinch a goal.we were the best team overall but had our luck with that penalty.Last week we lost on a soft penalty today we won on an even softer one which shows in football everything evens up. .

[Tom_]

Happy to win but wow, what a terrible match! Was it the pitch? It was like watching a second division game

[SPL]

well it was not as bad watching Jong v MVV the other night

[Orange14]

Some dicey moments in the last 20 minutes when Feyenoord really were pushing forward but the defense held up. Vermeer was really strong in the box today, not passive at all. Good to get a win in a closely fought match. Some good and bad ball movement. There is still a problem getting good shots on goal.

Player Ratings:

Vermeer (7.5) - commanded the box well and his kicking wasn't too shabby; don't think the goal was his fault at all
Blind (7) - defended decently stripping Schaken a couple of times and moved forward well
Moisander (7) - pretty quiet all match but did the job
Alderwiereld (6.5) - I think he could have cleared Voormer's cross
Ligeon (6.5) - good going forward and delivered some nice crosses but gave the ball away in some bad situations and lost his man on a couple of occasions
Poulsen (7) - solid as the holding midfielder
Schöne (6.5) - OK game but had some chances to do better
Eriksen (7.5) - really good today, nice passes and tried to keep things going forward
Fischer (6.5) - good but lost width too much, there were some crosses from the right and he wasn't there to do anything with them
Sigthorsson (7) - nice header to win the match, pretty solid play holding the ball up
Bojan (5.5) - really did nothing at all in the match, subbed off; I hope this doesn't turn out to be a waste of €s
Hoesen (6) - came on for Bojan and had a couple of shots on goal
Serero (6.5) - nice play coming on, didn't make any mistakes which is paramount at the end of the match
van der Hoorn (NR) - came on to defend Pelle in the final 4 minutes but wasn't needed and didn't have any impact on the match

[Tom_]

Is Bojan really a winger? For a winger, he seems to spend an awful lot of time in the centre of the pitch. It made lots of room for Ligeon today, but if Feyenoord had been playing with wingers Ligeon probably wouldn't have been able to get forward like that.

I'm a Vermeer fan and I'm not blaming him, but he missed the ball on the Feyenoord goal. The defence was at fault for not clearing the ball. He was unlucky—he came out quickly to try to close Pelle down and stop him getting his shot away but Pelle's uncontrolled touch snuck past him into the back of the net.

[souras84]

OMG, that was one of the worse performances in a while. Any good would have punished us! Wrong passes, players not running (I don't know how hot it is in Amsterdam). Bojan is somewhere else. Hoesen couldn't make a decent control. I was praying whenever the ball was in the air over our defence

[rjf1]

2nd half was as bad as the 1st half was good -- problem is we were too worried about them getting their 2nd goal over the top so we defended too deep and let them have the run of the midfield and they were able to scoop up every loose ball and keep the pressure on us. Essentially, we killed our own momentum and handed it over to them. The bright spot, though, was that we did successfully defend against the long ball -- unlike in the game last year -- and in the end we can be thankful for the points.

[saddlerian]

Caught the whole game in internet cafe, nice owner cleared the decks and put the match on for me. Impressed with the growing control in the first half, despite some crap defending....well deserved lead at Half Time. The audience gradually grew as they knew who was on the screen...bar manager was happy.....but when many left in the second half, that tells you how crap they were!
Impressed with Ligeon....but, as agreeing with others, what's Bojan's role?
Eriksen played ok, again...just hope we don't lose him after his solid start. Still not impressed with the slowness of the play as we haven't got anyone who can break down the defence...still, three points in the bag, and after watch PSV last night, (they got 3 points and played badly)...seems as though the only team playing well is Zwolle!!!

Let's hope that this is just an early season blip as the form isn't there...yet!!!

[SPL]

The hot weather has evidently been blamed for the poor turf .

Fischer has said he did not dive and never would.