03 May 2006: FC Groningen - Ajax

[Ayman]

If I was Blind I would hand in my resignation after the gatorade cup, rather then face the humiliation of being sacked. Then again, he will get a fat redundancy packet, because as I believe his contract runs until 2007.

[Stevie Super Samba Skillz]

Yeah same here (as Menno), I mean it shouldn't be even close with a team of Groningen's budget etc. Ajax should not be scrapping for CL qualification rounds with provincial teams, it should be top of the pile. Considering Ajax is the richest club in Holland, I don't think that's an unrealistic expectation.

This result means we go into the CL qualifiers at least, and at the same time the result isn't so great so that Blind goes (in order for a better manager to come). And before anyone says, How can you wish Ajax not to win?, I would say: I'd rather they lose one match in order to win thirty down the line. I have great respect for Blind though, he's a good guy. But he's not the right man for the job.

[aveslacker]

The only thing I feel right now is embarrassment.

No euphoria. No joy. Not even relief.

Only embarrassment.

K.

Nice goal by Sneijder, though.

[BPBlueSox]

That it was. :xyxthumbs:

[dws]

The only thing I feel right now is embarrassment.

No euphoria. No joy. Not even relief.

Only embarrassment.

K.

Was late getting home so only caught the latter stages on Radio 1. I can't comment on how you are feeling, but may understand when I see the full 90 of the game.

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

The only thing I feel right now is embarrassment.

No euphoria. No joy. Not even relief.

Only embarrassment.

K.

Chill out Ko, i understand what you feel, our play was horrible. But this is the best scenario for everybody.

1) We are in the champions league.... do we deserve it ??? well no, but neither did Groningen.

2) This abysmal performance just showed why Danny Blind should and will leave the team, any chance of him staying was just wiped out by today's performance. He can at least go with his head up high cause in the end we still obtained something in this horrible campaign. Ten years from now people will remember Blind as a coach who in his brief stint qualified us twice to the pre-champions league and maybe won us a Gatorade Cup.

3)We might not be able to compete in the Champs league right now but let's remember that next season Stam,Perez and a few more players will be aded to the squad making us a better team all around who can get far in the competition.

4)Dont let history fool you, we all knew this Groningen wasnt the same one we were used to beating in rescent years. Groningen dominated us,totaly dominated us, should we be ashamed ??? No, they dominated AZ a team that we all know at this particular time is better than us.The Euroborg might just become the new "New Galgenwaard" for us.

5) We have strucken gold out of nothing, absolutly nothing. That in itself is a reasond to be happy.

Cheer up my good friend, things can only get better from here ;) .

[Kowalczyk]

I'm sure you're right, Venezuelan Friend...

Yeah. You are, actually! :D :cheer:

K.

[dws]

If I was Blind I would hand in my resignation after the gatorade cup, rather then face the humiliation of being sacked. Then again, he will get a fat redundancy packet, because as I believe his contract runs until 2007.

They're making the post of Ajax head coach redundant???!!!! ;)

Might be a good idea given the last couple of coaches. :yes:

[BPBlueSox]

Chill out Ko, i understand what you feel, our play was horrible. But this is the best scenario for everybody.

1) We are in the champions league.... do we deserve it ??? well no, but neither did Groningen.

2) This abysmal performance just showed why Danny Blind should and will leave the team, any chance of him staying was just wiped out by today's performance. He can at least go with his head up high cause in the end we still obtained something in this horrible campaign. Ten years from now people will remember Blind as a coach who in his brief stint qualified us twice to the pre-champions league and maybe won us a Gatorade Cup.

3)We might not be able to compete in the Champs league right now but let's remember that next season Stam,Perez and a few more players will be aded to the squad making us a better team all around who can get far in the competition.

4)Dont let history fool you, we all knew this Groningen wasnt the same one we were used to beating in rescent years. Groningen dominated us,totaly dominated us, should we be ashamed ??? No, they dominated AZ a team that we all know at this particular time is better than us.The Euroborg might just become the new "New Galgenwaard" for us.

5) We have strucken gold out of nothing, absolutly nothing. That in itself is a reasond to be happy.

Cheer up my good friend, things can only get better from here ;) .

Great, great, great post! :headbang:

[dws]

Ultrasuid's highlights of the second leg are ready for download.
www.ultrasuid.com

Should get a taste of what was upsetting Ko. :D

[aveslacker]

Chill out Ko, i understand what you feel, our play was horrible. But this is the best scenario for everybody.

1) We are in the champions league.... do we deserve it ??? well no, but neither did Groningen.

2) This abysmal performance just showed why Danny Blind should and will leave the team, any chance of him staying was just wiped out by today's performance. He can at least go with his head up high cause in the end we still obtained something in this horrible campaign. Ten years from now people will remember Blind as a coach who in his brief stint qualified us twice to the pre-champions league and maybe won us a Gatorade Cup.

3)We might not be able to compete in the Champs league right now but let's remember that next season Stam,Perez and a few more players will be aded to the squad making us a better team all around who can get far in the competition.

4)Dont let history fool you, we all knew this Groningen wasnt the same one we were used to beating in rescent years. Groningen dominated us,totaly dominated us, should we be ashamed ??? No, they dominated AZ a team that we all know at this particular time is better than us.The Euroborg might just become the new "New Galgenwaard" for us.

5) We have strucken gold out of nothing, absolutly nothing. That in itself is a reasond to be happy.

Cheer up my good friend, things can only get better from here ;) .

:dancing:

[SE6Ajacied]

Bloody hell, just watched the highlights on Talpa, we were truly terrible right up till when Wesley scored...could have been much more than 2 down by then. When our goal went in they did a close up on Blind's face/eyes - I have to say I really felt for the man, looked like he was going to break down at any moment.

At least after tonight no-one can say Boukhari isn't willing to get stuck in to help his team mates - looked like he ran half the pitch to get involved after the "tackle" on Charisteas - he was already running off before the ref showed him the card.

They had the match stats up as well, shots on goal/target is especially telling......

Possession - Groningen 52% AFC Ajax 48%
Shots on Goal - Groningen 16 AFCA 9
On target - Groningen 7 AFCA 5

I think Talpa have it about right, just as I'm typing this Gullit (I think - typing not watching) was asked to sum things up "Ajax = Houdini" was his response.

At least we got there in the end anyway, don't despair people HUP HUP HUP AFC AJAX

[dws]

Watched the highlights(Talpa and Ultrasuid) ... must have been a lot of sweaty arses and shit stained underware in the Ajax section of the ground. :D

[jamcocteau]

They had the match stats up as well, shots on goal/target is especially telling......

Possession - Groningen 52% AFC Ajax 48%
Shots on Goal - Groningen 16 AFCA 9
On target - Groningen 7 AFCA 5

I think Talpa have it about right, just as I'm typing this Gullit (I think - typing not watching) was asked to sum things up "Ajax = Houdini" was his response.

At least we got there in the end anyway, don't despair people HUP HUP HUP AFC AJAX

Kind hard really to describe how I am feeling at moment after watching game. Probably easier to analyse in morning - at moment just glad we are through but dont really want to look at individual performances the now.

Funny thing about stats is that about 40 mins through first half, the possession was 66 per cent in favour of Gro, was like bloody hell

Anyway well off to bed, just glad to be in CL

:D

[English Eagle]

Sometimes the result is far more important than the performance,i think tonights reaction is more down to continuous bad performances than the result.At the end of the day we havent won the league but we are in next years Champions League,& i have to be honest & say i wouldnt have bet on that at Christmas.Fair play to Groningen for putting up such a fight,& when you look around the world & see how often the big clubs get knocked over by the little clubs then perhaps we should have expected it.Weve got out of jail & at the end of the day its job done,so lets look forward to next season & hope that Blind has the good grace to consider his future over the next week.


Now gentleman can i just remind you that Crystal Palace are in the play offs for a place in the Premier League.If i can ask you to keep your fingers crossed for their games against Watford(Saturday & Tuesday) i would be very grateful.Cheers :xyxthumbs: .

[ZoefdeHaas]

Crap play by Ajax, but chilax guys, Sneijder's goal was good, and it may be forshadowing we'll have a good season from him next yr (thats if no1 buys him after the WC)

[DanK]

My hats off to Groningen, they played (almost) the perfect game. Patient and agressive. Actually they played like we should. Good luck to them for next season. May they finish 2nd, and us 1st.

Now to us...crap. crap and more crap. I am happy to be in the CL (well OK the CL qualifiers), nice goal by Sneijder as well, but we were totally outplayed. Groningen where also unlucky not to have a penalty from Johnny's handball in the 2nd half.

But all's well that ends well I guess. May we kick PSV's arse on the weekend.

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

I really cannot say we had a "Man of the match" i mean yeah Sneijder came in and saved the day and if it wasnt for Stekkie it would have been 5-0 by halftime but i will give this award in a very personal way to CHARISTEAS, i think he ran his butt off the whole game and played very well at a position he has never played in, out off a pile of shit he was the one who stank the least. I hope he stays here next season.

Blind can take Bouckhari with him, for all i care.

Good night guy's.

[orange goblin]

I really cannot say we had a "Man of the match" i mean yeah Sneijder came in and saved the day and if it wasnt for Stekkie it would have been 5-0 by halftime but i will give this award in a very personal way to CHARISTEAS, i think he ran his butt off the whole game and played very well at a position he has never played in, out off a pile of shit he was the one who stank the least. I hope he stays here next season.

:yes:

[Philippe]

The only thing I feel right now is embarrassment.

No euphoria. No joy. Not even relief.

Only embarrassment.

K.

I feel really depressed too : CL again ....

:xyxthumbs: :bis: :applaus: :kjh: :toppie:

[Manneken Pis]

CHARISTEAS, i think he ran his butt off the whole game and played very well at a position he has never played in, out off a pile of shit he was the one who stank the least. .

Agreed.
This was a painful game to watch.
We were a shower of shite, except for the one second where Scheijder scored.
Like I said before, I don't actually look forward to Ajax games anymore as I know I'm going to suffer (the Fword playoffs were a pleasant surprise I will admit). They defend poorly, lack imagination in midfield, have no flair upfront and look leaderless and without a plan most games. At least Charisteas runs his balls off.

This "hurray all is well; were in the CL" just doesn't cut it for me.
If it was just the result that counted I'd follow Ajax on Teletext.

[Kowalczyk]

Match report is up, people...

http://www.ajax-usa.com/matches/m05-06/ ... l-2-1.html

There's something strange with the system, I believe... I published the match report, but the homepage won't accept any changes, so the links to the report don't seem to appear on the homepage... But the report is up. Just go there via the link in this post.

K.

[Kowalczyk]

This "hurray all is well; were in the CL" just doesn't cut it for me. If it was just the result that counted I'd follow Ajax on Teletext.

Which is what some of the 'hurray people' do, is my impression sometimes... All's well that ends well... Yuu can't seriously mean that when you've actually been forced to watch them play this season...

K.

[Blind3]

Not feeling any emotion except relief.Relief that the nightmare of 05-o6 is finally going to end in 3-1/2 days.I am glad for the additions of Stam and Perez, but hope the most important additions will be HEART and GUTS.Enough with the "Night of the Living Dead" sequels week after week.

[aveslacker]

Now gentleman can i just remind you that Crystal Palace are in the play offs for a place in the Premier League.If i can ask you to keep your fingers crossed for their games against Watford(Saturday & Tuesday) i would be very grateful.Cheers :xyxthumbs: .

Sorry, brother, but I'm pulling for Watford. :X