13 Mar 2005: NEC - Ajax

[Kowalczyk]

Ajax vs AZ called off... on to the next one!

K.

[DanK]

Ajax vs AZ called off... on to the next one!

K.

surely 3 points... :blub:

[Kowalczyk]

We're doing very well in away games (seven wins in a row 'on the road'), but we're not in the position to take any thre points for granted. A few months ago I would have added: 'except, perhaps, against the very weakest of the lot, including De Graafschap and Den Bosch'. But even against Den Bosch we required a last minute goal...

Last season we drew 0-0 in Nijmegen, the season before that it was a hard-fought 1-2 win and four years ago they beat us. I suggest we take every game seriously...

K.

[Kowalczyk]

Minor change of plan...

NEC vs Ajax has been made two hours earlier. The new kick-off time is 12:30, due to Canal+ live broadcast.

Not much of a difference to most of you. For me it means getting out of bed early instead of at a more or less reasonable time for a Sunday... Oh well.

K.

[Blind3]

Ajax haven't been playing well enough that they can look past any side,even with the home fixture v. PSV on the horizon.A definite potential landmine.

[Kowalczyk]

Some random news facts about the game...

* For the second time ever an Ajax game in the Eredivisie will be led by a Belgian referee, Mr Joeri Vandevelde, as part of the exchange project of the KNVB (Holland) and the KBVB (Belgium). The first time was not exactly a pleasant experience for Ajax: Ajax vs Heerenveen (1-3). Referee Verbist couldn't be blamed for that one, by the way...

* NEC will certainly miss one of their better strikers, Frank Demouge, due to injury. Alexander Prent will also be unavailable (but he's not normally a starter anyway).

* As for Ajax: the game in Nijmegen may mark the return to the Ajax-1 squad of Steven Pienaar, Hans Vonk and Zdenek Grygera, who have returned to the squad after their respective injuries and seemed ready to go. Which means that Tomás Galásek is Ajax's only remaining (serious) injury case. Angelos Charisteas and Nigel de Jong were recovering from minor serious and would probably have missed Ajax vs AZ, but are expected to be fit in time for NEC.

K.

[Kowalczyk]

The latest team news...

Rafaël van der Vaart (who would have been on the bench again) will not be in the squad for today's match at all. He will stat at home after having sustained a wrist injury in training on Saturday.

A few Ajacieden must make sure they will not pick up a yellow card today, as that would cost them the game against PSV. They are: Sneijder, Pienaar, Escudé and Boukhari.

NEC have a striker problem: Frank Demouge has been out due to a bad knee injury for a long time now and the man signed up to replace him (Bart Van den Eede, formerly of Den Bosch and NAC) was injured also last week. His availabilty is uncertain.

Expected line-ups according to NEC-Nijmegen.nl:

NEC
Dennis Gentenaar; Muslu Nalbantoglu, Peter Wisgerhof, Arjan Ebbinge, Jeffrey Leiwakabessy; Rob Wielaert, Edgar Barreto, Saïd Boutahar, Björn van der Doelen; Bart van den Eede (or Romano Denneboom), Andrzej Niedzielan.

Ajax
Maarten Stekelenburg; Hatem Trabelsi, Johnny Heitinga, Julien Escudé, Maxwell; Rasmus Lindgren, Hedwiges Maduro, Wesley Sneijder; Mauro Rosales, Angelos Charisteas, Nourdin Boukhari.

K.

[Ramona]

Latest news..

Expected line-up NEC according to http://www.forzanec.nl/home.asp : Gentenaar; Nalbantoglu, Wisgerhof, Ebbinge, Leiwakabessy; Wielaert, Barreto, Vd Doelen; Denneboom, Niedzielan, Tininho.

[carcajou]

Latest news..

Expected line-up NEC according to http://www.forzanec.nl/home.asp : Gentenaar; Nalbantoglu, Wisgerhof, Ebbinge, Leiwakabessy; Wielaert, Barreto, Vd Doelen; Denneboom, Niedzielan, Tininho.

Final Result : 1-0

Goal by Maduro according to Ko.

[666]

Sneijder missed a penalty shot, Maduro scored from the second rebound. Next minute a NEC goal was denied by the ref.
Five minutes after Stekelenburg got injured NEC should have scored from a penalty but Lobont saved the day.

Rosales out for De Ridder, Lindgren replaced Sneijder, De Jong got booked and if Ajax keeps playing like this PSV will rip us to pieces next week.

[carcajou]

Sneijder missed a penalty shot, Maduro scored from the second rebound. Next minute a NEC goal was denied by the ref.
Five minutes after Stekelenburg got injured NEC should have scored from a penalty but Lobont saved the day.

Rosales out for De Ridder, Lindgren replaced Sneijder, De Jong got booked and if Ajax keeps playing like this PSV will rip us to pieces next week.

Yes they'll do..... I watched them on TV against Monaco. They don't have anything special, but damn are they solid and working as a team. No brilliance here just hard-working, rude-on-tha-man players like Alex, Bouma, Venegoor of Hesselink and Van Bommel. If you add the speed of this Korean guy and Beasley, then you have a pretty good and over all rock solid team. Monaco (last year's finalist and 3rd in the French League never stood a chance). Let me tell you they're getting me worried for the title and for that game.

[Kowalczyk]

We've now reached the point that we're so bad it's just getting silly...

Let's face it: we're absolutely shit and we should all spend the upcoming week praying for a miracle. Without a miracle we'll be in for a historic hammering next week. If we play like this next Sunday we will be destroyed.

K.

[ferry]

I hardly dare to even think about next weeks game... One has to be some kind of masochist to go to the stadium! (okay I admit it, I will go...)

As they play like they did in Nijmegen today we will get beaten seriously. Normally I can handle that but not when the opponents name is psv!! I will prepare for a tough Sunday.

[Blind3]

A pathetic 3 points.If we play as described,I see losses v. PSV, AZ, and F-Word in the future.And that's at a minimum.Glad I'll be in Seattle next weekend..3,000 miles from following Ajax.I'll probably be on a sight-seeing boat next Sunday. Either way,Ajax or bouncing around on Puget Sound,I sense feeling sick to my stomach as an end result. :pukey: As bad a our home form v. PSV has been, I never thought we'd most likely need a miracle to earn a result.

[Kowalczyk]

Blind3, you are right. The only reason why the club's not in a state of total panic yet is the fact that the results are actually quite good: eight away wins in a row - how on earth is it possible...?

But this can not continue. PSV, AZ and possibly even Feyenoord will definitely do what NEC and Roda failed to do: punish Ajax for their poor play. Do the business and score the goals.

Don't let the fine results in the last eight away games blind you. We're playing worse than ever... as bad as in the Wouters era, actually. I am genuinely worried about next week's game. If we could formally agree a 0-1 defeat with them I would seriously consider it. I am sincerely afraid that we will get stuffed. Yes: I am afraid of PSV - and that's not the way an Ajax supporter is supposed to feel... X'C

BTW: match report is up...
http://www.ajax-usa.com/matches/m04-05/ ... c-0-1.html

K.