12 MAR 2015 Dnipro - Ajax Europa League

[Dave the mac]

Wow, Viergever unmarked from 3 meters in front of goal somehow puts it over the bar. Sort of sums up the match so far.

[Orange14]

We are way too slow and always looking for the back pass. Just hard to watch.

[Tom_]

It's painful. What is the point of playing like this? We are so desperate to hold on to possession we would prefer to stay in our own half with the ball than try to attack. We're not going to get a shot on goal if this game goes for another two hours.

[Manneken Pis]

Can't complain.
We had our chances but I thought they were better.

[SPL]

Not a great game but we can still beat them if we actually attack more

[King Litti]

Thought we were able to improve in the second (good subs), but overall a poor performance and result. The fact that there was no away goals scored makes qualifying difficult for us even though the next game will be in the Arena. If we have any real credibility in Europe, games like these do serious damage to it. We should do better. Dnipro is no joke, but we should do better.

[Orange14]

They should have stayed in Amsterdam and phoned this one in. Absolutely piss poor, no sense of urgency, and a total regression to everything that has been bad about Ajax over the last several years. Constant back passes and a match that with few exceptions was played largely in the Ajax half. the only reasonable chance came at the end of the first half off the corner kick, Klassen couldn't put it on goal and it fell to Veltman who skied it over the bar. Fortunate to escape with a 1-0 defeat given how poor the defense performed. My dream of a run out for the rest of the season was put to rest tonight in Kiev.

Player Ratings:

Cillessen (6.5) - made some good saves and did almost save the goal as he was screened on the shot
Boilesen (4.5) - better than van Rhijn
Viegever (5) - average and no better
Veltman (5.5) - bad first have good second half
van Rhijn (4) - worse the Boilesen
Klassen (4.5) - mediocre in all aspects of the game
Serero (4) - half chance in the opening minutes and then only drew some fouls before mercifully being withdrawn
Bazoer (4) - started pointing fingers in the last 10 minutes which is never a good sign
Schöne (4) - mediocre and slow
Milik (4) - non-factor
el Ghazi (4.5) - best of the attackers which isn't saying much
Kishna (4.5) - non-factor
Sinkgraven (4.5) - had a couple of nice touches and that was the extent of the good
Zivkovic (4.5) - on late and did little

Maybe they turn it around in Amsterdam. Dnipro have three of the starting 11 suspended for the return match but they have age and wisdom unlike Ajax. I suspect they know how to grind out a result.

Away to Heerenveen on Sunday which could prove to be tricky but maybe the club was conserving energy for that match, they certainly didn't expend a lot this evening.

[Dave the mac]

Very lucky get get the 0-1 result. On paper not a bad result so anything can happen in the return leg.

I've never really criticized de Boer, but gezz try something different, player and tactics wise.

[Tom_]

Maybe they turn it around in Amsterdam. Dnipro have three of the starting 11 suspended for the return match but they have age and wisdom unlike Ajax. I suspect they know how to grind out a result.

We'll see I guess. Of course the problem is that if they score we need 3 so I give us about an 80% chance of being eliminated.

At some point you have to take a risk if you want to score a goal, but this is not how FdB and/or the technical brainfart (sorry, heart) want their football, and we seem to be so terrified of losing the ball that we don't want to go forward. Worst thing is that the matches continue to be totally F-ing boring.

[souras84]

Klaassen is either unfit or what the hell is he doing playing as a "number 6"???

[Ayman]

To be honest, if i was a Dnipro fan i would be worried about the return leg, they had chances, they didnt take them, and now they have a slender lead, going to the Amsterdam Arena is not easy, even if they only need to score 1 goal, its not exactly a mountain to climb for Ajax.

[Cruijff]

Not so spectaculair. A tall, skinny girl with dark hair and spectacular green eyes was in my train dorm, told me she lives in Lviv and was going to Kiev as a model for a body paint on the same day as our match.

I did not ask for her number or for the time of the body paint

Cruijff is probably wishing he was at the body paint tonight rather than this match!

Nooo...

Even when it's really a shit game and we're losing, you should never regret going to an Ajax match.

[Philippe]

Only one attempt on target in the whole game. We need to do better, much better.

Like against Excelsior, our fullbacks, Boilesen and Van Rhijn, were the only ones to move forward.

For the return game, I'd forget about Schöne, and bring Sinkgraven and van der Hoorn in.

[SPL]

I think Orange's asessements sum up this poor game ,apart from Cillessen who was decent as usual , the rest were poor. Our football is getting worse as the season continues, we spent too much time in our own area when 1-0 down ,sorry but what sort of tactics are those.

Klaassen is being played as a DM as he runs less and puts less pressure on his injured groin. Maybe he should be rested for the remainder of the season to get his groin right. If he is to play there then either Bazoer or Serero do not start and Sinkgraven plays with Andersen used.

We can still win the tie as we surely cannot play that poorly at home.

[Orange14]

For the return game, I'd forget about Schöne, and bring Sinkgraven and van der Hoorn in.

Do you want van der Hoorn instead of Veltman???

Regarding SPL's comment about Klaassen, I agree. It's already been noted that he is facing surgery to repair the abdominal wall problem and why not get it done sooner rather than later? I don't know about the recovery from this procedure which involves a mesh implant but the last thing the club wants is for him to have long recovery and miss the opening of next season. I suspect as long as we are still playing in Europe, Klaassen will stay in the team but perhaps if we are knocked out he will opt for early surgery.

[Philippe]

I'd play van der Hoorn instead of Viergever.

[Cruijff]

On www.ajaxfaversham.com already a small report about this long Poland + Ukraine trip....! Pictures and more photos will follow soon..!

[SPL]

enjoyed the read, I hope it wasn't you Cruijff who spent time in the police station??

[Cruijff]

Yes, it was me.

Don't worry, I directly decided to experience it as an anthropological intercultural way of spending my time adding another good anecdote to many stories I can tell.

Here you will find part 2, it still needs some editing to change it from 'Cruijffian Netherenglish' towards a proper English article:

Part 2 of to Kiev with love: Dnipro Dnipropretovsk - Ajax

The very odd club Shooters was filled with a dozen of lost tourists, tons of very pretty Ukrainian girls and some Ajax supporters with a very clear duidelijk vastberaden destination. Strange stuff to other Amsterdam lads had happened. One of them got fined for 60 euros for smoking on the street (a ontzettend illegale daad in Oekraïne, all habitants are doing had) and 4 Ajax guys had been attacked by a majority of Dynamo Kiev hooligans who were walking around looking for Dutch 'enemies' in their city.
Probably the guys got victim slachtoffer of er uitzien als looking as typical tourists. In these situations in some parts of the world de sterke arm sjaggeraars are gonna threat you like a walking ATM machine.

How should you behave in Kiev? The best advise is to pretend that everything you do is complete normal and that... especially.... bij uitstek, Ukraïne is by far the most normal place in the whole world. With that attitude Arthur left the bar Shooters walking back to the hotel not heel vast op z'n voeten on his feed anymore. Then a police car appeared, they opened their window and said: "Passport, please?" Three policemen were studying Arthurs document for quite long, about 20 minutes later they doubled their number to six.

Arthur was asked to take place in the car and they drove him to the police station. At the station they searched all his stuff over and over again asking at least 7 or 8 times. 'Narcotica / drugs, no?' 'Drinking a lot of vodka, no?'
Arthur remained to play Mister Cool Guy, was able to deny by answering the first two questions by truth and lied about the number of beers he had. 'No, not much drinking. Solo 3 pivo's.'

After about an hour he took an Ajax season ticket out of his wallet. Not the one from this season, but an old one with a picture of Jari Litmanen on the cover. Perhaps the Ukrainian policemen thought he looked like Jari Litmanen or they just did not understand a sh*t about it, but they continued with: "You sportsman? You football player?".
A couple minutes later Arthur was again in the policar which now played for taxi and bracht hem naar 't hotel zijn hotel.

Thursday... matchday!! In the Kiev city centre we were meeting up with Konstantin, the most fanatic Ajax supporter we've ever met in Eastern Europe and with Igor (not an Ajax fan but a fine guy who would use our press accreditation to shoot the pictures for SuperAjax.com), with he did brilliantly ---> link to the photos.
The game was shit, Ajax played like a handicapt guy who tries fucking without ever getting anyone to an orgasm.
Some of the fans were really teleurgesteld cynisch

[Amol]

That's too much excitement packed into one morning. Hopefully the 4 Ajax fans didn't get badly hurt after they were attacked.

[Cruijff]

That's too much excitement packed into one morning. Hopefully the 4 Ajax fans didn't get badly hurt after they were attacked.

I think they are ok.

One of them is also an Ajaxtalk member, the next day the 4 of them went on excursion to Chernobyl and even survived that....!

[Cruijff]

Time to publish part 3:

Part 3: even when we lose we're winning


Thursday... matchday in the Olympic Stadium of Kiev! The impressive over 70.000 seats accommodation of the Euro 2012 final.
Because of the war situation in Dnipropetrovsk the home team has to play their UEFA home matches here in Kiev, quite far away from their home town. In the last European confrontation Dnipro eliminated former PSV Eindhoven player Afellay with his Greek side Olympiakos Pireaus in front of 6.000 spectators, for the match against Ajax they've sold 16.850 tickets.

Ajax charged 6,61 euros for the away section, when almost getting used to Champions League prices and awful opponents from Spain, France or from Zagreb you can only say one thing: love the Europa League!!

Unfortunately one of our group got refused entrance to the away section, because the ticket was ordered on his fathers name and not on his own name. Thank you Ajax........!
Of course there was still the press accreditation, but sitting in the press stands is really boring at a match like this. It turned out to be very easy to buy tickets for the home stand, the cheapest stand for the fanatic Dnipro Ultras costed only 0,40 euro (less than 28 p with the current British Pound vs euro conversion).

So group member A watched the game between the Dnipro fans who were fanatic, but not violent. Earlier during the day when we were drinking beer in the Kiev city centre a group of Dnipro fans saw our Ajax shirts and came into the bar to shake hands and to take a photo together. Half an hour later they came back to swap Ajax for Dnipro attributes.

Like mentioned before: Ajax played like a handicapt guy who tries fucking without ever getting towards an orgasm. Many of the fans were really negative about the 1-0 result, our shaky defending and our lack of good attacks. But come on bl**dy Serero and bl**dy Viergever (!!!!!!) How hard does it have to be to just score a simple goal? Not that hard when your name is Ajax we showed 2,5 days later with a fine 1-4 win at Heerenveen.
So we're just gonna win this one in front of 52.000 spectators in the Amsterdam Arena!

Directly after the match we went to sushi and karaokebar Mafia to get a beer. Yes, the bar / restaurant is really called like this and a very succesful concept in Ukraine (http://www.mafia.ua)
After midnight we travelled with the Kiev Underground from the Olympic Stadium to the city centre with a large group of Dnipro fans who got really drunk but were, again, not violent.

After a very fine Friday in Kiev the Saturday and Sunday were spent in the city Chernihiv, only 43 miles away from the border with Russia. You can really feel the tention there. At the central point of the city centre the statue of Lenin has been removed from his plinth, other Sovjet monuments are still there but the young, mostly pro Ukraine people have removed the heads from the statues and portraits.
The older people in Chernihiv say that this is disrespectful, our host, a 34 year old really (pro) Ukranian guy who's name we'll keep anonymous, says that for him it's ok that there are still a lot of symbols that reflect to the Sovjet time, but that these things should be exposed in a museum and not exposed on the central spots in the city.

He also said that in this very religious town with, many, many churches, the church runned from Kiev, helped out the members of the Muscovite church several times during really tough episodes, but that from the institutes which are based in Moscow, you can never expect any sympathy in the opposite direction.
Memoral moment on Sunday morning when two people leaving the Muscovite church and meanwhile talking bad about Kiev, our host shouted out many insults to them on the street, most of them in Russian combined with a short, powerful 'fuck Moskow', probably to make sure that we foreigners would catch the tendency of his lecture.

One night left before going to Lviv and then back to Poland to fly back to The Netherlands in time for the return match against Dnipro in Amsterdam Arena...! Again the night train dorm was filled with three men and one lady, this time an Ukranian soldier was one of our room mates. A lucky guy travelling towards to the west side of the country from the east, a week before we saw hundreds of militaries going in opposite direction.

The Ukranian soldier was really a silent sleeper, never had an East-European roommate before who did not snore like a circular saw in the woods and made almost no noise at all. The opposite can be said about the two Ajax lads, our bowels were responding heavily after 11 days of Ukranian diners, breakfasts, beers, vodka and cognac.Off to Lviv and then with short beer breaks in the Polish towns Medyka, Przemysl, Rzeszów and Warsaw the airplane to The Netherlands to return one day before the Ajax - Dnipro match in Amsterdam Arena. What a good trip..!

[SPL]

Thanks for the posts on your Ukraine trip,interesting read.

[Cruijff]

@SPL: Thank you for reading and replying, so that I know I'm not making these reports for nothing.

If you've got any questions or if there are quotes in the report you want to ask more about, feel free to post them. Several other bizar things happened during this trip, some didn't make the report and some of it was that curious that I thought I could better not post it to avoid that people who do read the report will just not believe it.

[Dave the mac]

Cruijff - I liked reading the posts also.

Am looking forward to watching the return leg this afternoon. Reports say that four of Dnipro's regular team are out with suspensions and injuries. A big game for Ajax, would be great to get through to the next round!