24 MAY 2017 Ajax - Manchester United Europa League Final

[Ayman]

Dollberg has been invisible, he needs more movement

[Orange14]

Is ManU even playing football tonight? They are really quite poor. They capitalized on the poor throwing from Riedewald and the unfortunate deflection of Pogba's shot by Sanchez gave Onana no chance. the only other decent effort was from Valenci but Onana had it covered. ManU are playing a very defensive 4-2-3-1 (and if memory serves, Mourinho played the same formation when Inter won the CL with Wesley Snjeider). Ajax are having a lot of possession and getting the ball across and into the middle of the attacking area but they can't break anyone free.

I expect we will see much more of the same in the second half.

[Orange14]

I had to turn the sound off as we have these two American announcers who are so pro-ManU it isn't funny.

[Amol]

Will need to play a lot better to win this .Most seem nervous(not deLigt though) and too many passes going astray.
Riedewald having a dreadful time , poor throw in lead to their goal.

Agreed. I thought the boys would need 10-15 minutes to settle down and I thought they were almost out of that period safely until we gave up the goal.

We need more movement in mid-field. I know we're better than this.

The field is really slippery which isn't helping either.

[Amol]

I had to turn the sound off as we have these two American announcers who are so pro-ManU it isn't funny.

Are you watching it on Fox? Alexi Lalas, who is one of the dumbest pile of crap, is commenting over there.

[Orange14]

I had to turn the sound off as we have these two American announcers who are so pro-ManU it isn't funny.

Are you watching it on Fox? Alexi Lalas, who is one of the dumbest pile of crap, is commenting over there.

Yes, and you are right he is awful. Good to see Mario Melchiot in the studio though!

[SPL]

Not for the first time this season there is little movement from midfield

[Tom_]

Not much you can do when a team with 10x your salary budget decides it's gonna park the bus. Cowards!

[SPL]

2 down game over

[Amol]

...and a Veltman yellow card. Shocking!

[SPL]

Dolberg off, not ready for a big league yet.

[Amol]

At least Bosz's substitutions make some kind of sense. Doesn't leave you scratching your head like with De Boer.

[zeux]

Dolberg off, not ready for a big league yet.

That's the one lesson from this game: many players not ready yet. Not sure they will realize that themselves though...

Not a big shame this loss. 350+ million versus 18,5 million. The real shame is the cowardice of Mourinho, his signature style. Playing such a game with such surplus on the field. Effective, but shameful.

[Tom_]

Yeah, I don't feel like you can blame Bosz or the players at all for this one. Man U didn't want to play football; they got a goal off a deflection and one off a set piece. Bummer, but it happens.

[Amol]

I don't know who I dislike more - Mourinho or his biggest fan Alexi Lalas.

Alexi just said 'I love you Jose Mourinho'. Ridiculous.

[Tom_]

Do people think he's tactically good or something? This is not especially clever, it's just 'lowest common denominator' type stuff...

[zeux]

Do people think he's tactically good or something? This is not especially clever, it's just 'lowest common denominator' type stuff...

It works. And gets him cups. (And saves his ass. Losing this final to Ajax would have really put pressure on him back home).

[Tom_]

I know, but it's pretty obvious isn't it? It's like calling a chef a genius because he puts cheese on a pizza ;)

[Amol]

I'm going to take positives from this game. We have to keep the core of this team together for the next 3-4 years along with Bosz.

This game will help us keep a couple of the players a year or two longer. This will keep the hunger alive.

[SPL]

Have to say that was a dreadful game of football. Manu too strong and experienced but oh so boring. Effective but if Ajax played like that the fans would boo.

Of our talents Sanchez will now be off ,far too good for dutch football. de Ligt was superb never gave Rashford a look in.

The time is now for v d Beek and de Jong to start . We have a bright future and hope Dolberg will realise he is no way ready to leave our club.

[Orange14]

One team came out to play football; the other team came out only to keep a clean sheet and hoped that they could snatch a cheap goal along the way. As it often happens, the anti-football team prevailed by a 0-2 score that flattered their doleful performance. If this is how the second richest football team in the world wants to play football, count me as an anti-fan. One goal off of a weak Ajax throw in and the other off a luck kick at a headed ball, yucky goals to be sure.

Ajax tried their best with probably 70% of the possession much of it in the ManU half of the pitch. Unfortunately, they couldn't come up with the penetrating pass and former AZ keeper Romero had just catching practice tonight. The 4-2-3-1 defense was packed in too tightly. Other than the two week goals the Ajax defense stood tough. ManU players were easily dispossessed and both Sanchez and de Ligt acquitted themselves well. Their 19 year old wunderkind Rashford was no threat at all.

Player Ratings:

Onana (7) - no chance on either goal
Riedewald (4) - a bit harsh but the throw in that led to the goal really had to be better
de Ligt (8) - wonderful game
Sanchez (8) - hustled all over the field and came back hard to deny a goal with a 50-50 challenge
Veltman (7) - turned out he didn't need to do much defending and I don't know what he could have done better on the 2nd goal
Schöne (6.5) - decent enough
Ziyech (6.5) - OK game but there really were few passing lanes
el Capitan (7) - put in a strong shift in what might have been his last Ajax game
Younes (7) - just couldn't beat a packed in defense
Dolberg (5) - saw little of the ball and was no factor at all
Traore (7) - worked hard but there was no way through to goal
van de Beek (7) - did a nice job getting free in the box but the off foot shot was easily saved
Neres (7) - gave a spark of life but again no way through to goal
de Jong (6) - good play coming on late

It was great to get to the final of a European competition. The win was not to be but Ajax kept true to their history, working hard, passing and trying to attack. Let's hope that the key players stick around for next season and that we can make it through to the group stage of the CL. There is a lot of future here.

[Orange14]

I'm heading out now. My daughter's chamber choir is singing the national anthem at the Washington National baseball game tonight and we have tickets. I'll catch up tomorrow with some more thoughts on the game and the season in general.

Forza Ajax - They stayed true to their style of play.

[SPL]

My pal is a real Manu fan ,goes all round Europe but said watching them in the league this season was truly aweful .They will take the cup as its CL footy but if Ajax played like that I would not be posting this as I wouldn't watch.This is not going to happen as we have to play one way the Gospel according to Cruiff.Thank goodness.
Bosz will stay and we will improve as its a really young group.

Hope never to watch a Mourinho team again.Anti football and alien to everything I love about this game.

Ajax you are still beautiful and oh so special.

[Orange14]

Here are my further reflections on the match after watching the replay this morning. It's always the little things that matter in football as even a minor mistake can be magnified and change the course of the match. I looked at how Reidewald was signaling the players to move further up the pitch on the poor throw in. I wonder if it didn't slip a little when he threw it as he was looking to throw it a lot further than he did. Then you had Klaassen who was just a shad off of Pogba on the shot and then the deflection by Sanchez. On the second goal I ran the replay several times to see that Felani gave Dolberg a little shove so he couldn't jump properly and contest for the ball. He might not have won the ball from Smalling but we won't know. Anyway, they were two pretty light weight goals but enough to decide the match.

ManU's tactical defense was just right for a team whose midfielders just cannot pass quickly enough. Spaces were always at a premium with a back four and five sitting in front of that. The ManU back four cleared every single high ball driven into the box. Additionally, you had Fellani in the middle of the front bank of players and his height further obstructs things. Ajax had 17 shots on goal but only three on frame and those were all easily saved. The best chances came with Traore's shot in the first half from some nice play by Younes; van de Beek getting free in the box and taking a left footed shot; and finally Neres breaking in on goal only to chip the defender but leaving the ball a little too far to get a shot off. There were some attempts at touch passes and back heels but too many defenders were in the way for those to be effective. In a game like this one, Ajax really needed to score first so that ManU could not execute their hunker down defense.

Looking at the player performances, Klaassen had a poorer match than I rated him at yesterday. Ziyech was a non factor and Schöne was a little better. I thought Younes was more than decent in the first half and just OK in the second. Traore tried to make things happen but is too one-footed and cannot go to his right. He's not good enough for Chelsea and it will be interesting to see which EPL team he goes to (certainly Kluivert and Neres have far more promise than he does). This was a game where Dolberg would never have any impact given the slow passing of Ajax; he also showed that he is at least two years away from playing at a top tier team.

The back line played extremely well when they were challenged. de Ligt was amazing and I don't think he made a single bad play the entire match. Sanchez was excellent and coming back to push Lingard off the ball on the late breakaway was good to see. Veltman and Riedewald were seldom bothered and managed to acquit themselves pretty well when players came down the wing (though Valencia did beat Riedewald but Onana made a nice save on a very hard shot).

What happens now? Certainly Tete will be leaving unless something dramatic by Overmars happens. Klaassen should leave both from the perspective of his own ambition and the need to find a proper balance in the MF. Veltman may leave but who will pay money for him other than some mid-table team. Sanchez showed that he can play at a very high level but is he ready for a team such as Barca right now? I would like to see him at Ajax for another year but don't think it will happen (but we should get top € for him). I was hoping Ziyech would come up big yesterday but that didn't happen. I'm not sure what his long term value is at this point.

The club now goes into the third qualification round for the CL with a two leg match in late July. the Turkish and Greek leagues still are not finished so two of the possible Ajax opponents are not known. We do know that Steau Bucharest, Young Boys, or Nice might be opponents. We will know for sure on July 14 when the draw takes place.

Congrats to Bosz and the staff for molding this team and getting them to the final of a Europe competition where they had to take on a team with far greater financial resources. They also came in a solid second, missing out on the league championship by a narrow margin. For me it was a successful season and a harbinger of good things to come.

[souras84]

I'd like to say so many things... Maybe in the coming days.

Orange14, the Greek team will be Paok again .