24 Sep 2011: Ajax - FC Twente

[Kowalczyk]

Eredivisie 2011-2012, matchday 7.

Another big one, after PSV and three days prior to Bernabeu...

This one must be won.

K.

[Blind3]

From Ajax Nieuws via Twitter via translator (uh - oh ) : Ajax hopes that Saturday during the home game against FC Twente still possess Miralem Sulejmani. The attacker made a speedy recovery from the hamstring injury that he last week during the game in the Champions League with Olympique Lyon rose. "He is back on the practice field Thursday and will be retested," said coach Frank de Boer on Wednesday Sulejmani. "I got him for Saturday has not written off."

The Amsterdam club enlisted Sulejmani Wednesday without a spot in the third round of the KNVB Cup. For the amateurs of the Noordwijk, 1-3.

Translation = , but ....

[ajaxusa]

ESPN3: 9/24 2:45 PM EDT Eredivisie - Ajax vs. Twente Enschede

[souras84]

We need the victory tonight!!!

[ajaxcolombia]

MICKEY!!!

[paladinby]

The ref saves Twente from 2-0.

[__earth]

Wow. This is total domination. I had expected something like PSV last week, but no. More goals please!

[paladinby]

One of the better halves by Ajax this season. Hopefully we can maintain this play in the second half.

[Orange14]

Not a bad 1st half offensively. Can't believe the far side assistant called Vertonghen offside when he was at least two meters on. All he had to do was use the top of the penalty box as a reference point as that was where Jan was when he received the ball and Tiendali was only a meter from the end line. Just terrible and I hope it doesn't impact the match. Twente's midfield is quite poor and has no one who can make a play. Our only worry on defense is being caught out on the break as happened twice and we were fortunate that they could not convert. If Van der Wiel's cross was better, Sigthorsson would have scored as well. Just keep the same style of play in the 2nd half and we should pick up another goal or two and keep heads up on defense.

[ajaxcolombia]

What I saw: We dominate possession, but the players who are always on the ball are vertonghen and alderweireld. Our midfielders almost never get it and we end up playing long balls that we lose. Sigthorsson now has to play more like a battering ram than like finisher. Whenever Janssen, Eriksen or de jong get the ball it's almost always to play the ball back. Anita's passing game hasn't been great, a couple of times very risky and I believe it has something to do with him being right footed and having to turn his back in order to play with his dominant foot, don't know if that makes sense. And finally, the Kaiserweireld came up big twice defending, once to deny willem janssen a chance on goal and then to block a shot by bajrami.

[Dubbel]

We started great I thought. Clearly the better side. At only 1-0 the second half could be a toughie seeing as how these Twente games have a habit of turning around. Hopefully we'll see some more of the play we saw in the first 20 minutes.

Awful off-side call on the would be 2-0. The linesman almost had to look around the last defender to even be able to see Vertonghen so it's very hard to figure how he could have missed that defender to call Jan off. What a dimwit, bad luck for Ajax.

[ajaxcolombia]

It's obvious Adriaanse will use Janko and probably Ola John to have a quicker player against van der wiel. However if he uses Janko we could benefit from having more space in midfield if he sacrifices one of the midfield three, or if he takes a away Dejong he'll have a player with much less ball skills.

[ajaxcolombia]

Great chance for theo!!

[Dubbel]

Yup. And Sulejmani and now Sigi. Time for a 2-0!

[ajaxcolombia]

it was finally siem taking it, bette angle for a right footer.

[Dubbel]

Twente is about to crack. Just be careful for a counter please.

[ajaxcolombia]

Strange substitution. Enoh for Mickey, probably he is still not a hudred percent and de boer is being cautious with him.

[Dubbel]

Strange substitution. Enoh for Mickey, probably he is still not a hudred percent and de boer is being cautious with him.

Exactly. De Boer said 'I need you un Tuesday'.

Great save Vermeer btw.

Time for Ola John if I were Co...

[Dubbel]

Ouch! 87 min, 1-1 Luuk de Jong. Bad defending, he could head in without anyone close by.

[paladinby]

Thank you ref for stealing a victory. Otherwise that was a good display of football by Ajax.

[SPL]

we should have been given that 2nd in the first half but for the second week in a row V d Wiel has cost us 2 points . Last week was bad enough but watching that cross come over with him behind Luuk de Jong was woeful .
2 points utterly chucked away .

[Manneken Pis]

Well that was predictable from the moment the linesman flagged off-side for the second goal. I'm not surprised he made the wrong decision, his view of the goal was blocked by the Twente defender ....

What upsets me isn't the poor refereeing ... in the Eeredivisie I'm used to that. It was the incomprehensible way in which Ajax abdicated leadership of the match and invited Twente back into this game. I told my sons Twente would equalize and we would give away two points at the the begining of the second half because you could already see what was going to happen ...

It's really annoying to have to watch 42 minutes of crap to be proven right...

[Manneken Pis]

Well that was predictable from the moment the linesman flagged off-side for the second goal. I'm not surprised he made the wrong decision, his view of the goal was blocked by the Twente defender ....

What upsets me isn't the poor refereeing ... in the Eeredivisie I'm used to that. It was the incomprehensible way in which Ajax abdicated leadership of the match and invited Twente back into this game. I told my sons Twente would equalize and we would give away two points at the the begining of the second half because you could already see what was going to happen ...

It's really annoying to have to watch 42 minutes of crap to be proven right...

By the way, Real Madrid won 6-2 with ten men tonight...

[Dubbel]

Well that was predictable from the moment the linesman flagged off-side for the second goal. I'm not surprised he made the wrong decision, his view of the goal was blocked by the Twente defender ....

I was surprised, I am surprised and still am after seeing the replay. The defender is almost on the goal line and mayby 15 feet in front of the linesman. No clue how he could have missed it. Before the next Ajax game let's all apply some lube. If we're going to get fucked we might as well be prepared.

[Orange14]

Poor clinical finishing, poor defending when it counted, a poor call by the assistant referee, and poor team management by FdB all equally contributed to the match today. FdB needs to ask himself the hard questions now. Why substitute a holding midfielder for a winger when you have a one goal lead with too much time on the clock? This was a particularly poor decision in light of what happened last week when we played without a true right winger. The field narrows, making it easier to defend. It's evident now that the midfield of de Jong, Janssen, and Eriksen is totally dysfunctional. Either Janssen or de Jong needs to go and we need a true holding midfielder out there. I still think Janssen is the liability and should not be playing. Eriksen is as good a free kick taker and de Jong at least offers some hope of stealing a goal out there.

There was a lot of finger pointing on the Twente goal which is never a good sign from a team. Maybe it was Vertonghen's fault (he did a lot of watching today and on at least one other occasion gave Twente a free look at goal) by not covering forcing Alderweireld to come over and pick up Janko leaving Luuk free, I really couldn't tell as it happened so fast and on ESPN3 we didn't get a great look at it on the replay. The way the team was playing in the last 15 minutes seemed like they thought they could defend like the Milan or Juventus teams of old. Answer in short, is NO THEY CAN'T. Going defensive like they did and looking for a counter is just wrong (though Anita should have done much better when we had the break away with five minutes to go).

Vermeer came up big on several occasions (though he was lucking on Landzaat's shot since it was right at him). Van der Wiel defended well and went forward OK. Alderweireld had a very good game and the screamer that he launched from the top of the box almost beat Mihailov. Vertonghen had some very good and very bad plays during the match. Anita was a solid left back but the fact that he is right footed caused him some problems at points going forward since he can't cross well. Janssen was a non-entity and should be benched. de Jong had a couple of chances to score but couldn't convert. Eriksen is hampered by the other two midfielders but otherwise played well. Boerrigter did well setting up Sulejmani and causing a lot of problems for Twente down the left side. Sigthorsson was OK did keep the Twente central defenders occupied. Sulejmani scored but also showed that he was somewhat tentative coming back from his injury. Enoh and Bulykin did little good or bad coming on as subs.

In short, this was a match that should have been won 3-0. Twente are not a very good team and with three static midfielders, they only posed problems on the break when we did not cover well.