07 OCT 2018; Ajax - AZ; Match Day 8

[Orange14]

Time to take a deep breath and remember that Ajax still have some ground to make up on PSV. AZ come to the Johan Cruyff Arena on Sunday to greet our colleague SPL and this could be a tricky fixture. ten Hag changes tactics as often as a chameleon does colors so we'll see what tricks he has up his sleeve.

[rjf1]

IMO, if we don't get 3 points from this one, the season's over as far as winning the title is concerned. The way PSV is playing, I don't see us making up that much ground if we fall further behind than we are now.

[souras84]

Yeah, can't see PSV losing more than 3 points in the first half of the season

[Ayman]

Good to see van de Beek starting.

P.S. For the first time in over 5 years at least, less than half of the starting line up are Dutch.

[rjf1]

Now that's the way to start a game!

[Orange14]

This match should have been signed, sealed and delivered with at least three goals in the first half. AZ have been poor with the ball; lots of turnovers in their own defensive area. Ajax had some very nice chances in addition to the van de Beek goal. Tadic looks a little winded and Neres should come on for him at the half.

[Orange14]

Disappointing play from AZ in all facets of the game led to a relatively easy 5-0 victory heading into the international break. Only downside was the apparent hamstring injury to Ziyech in added time. Let's hope he doesn't miss any matches. Pressure and attacking style of play were dominant for Ajax today and certainly they deserved a couple of more goals in the first half. Other than a couple of slipups on turnovers, Onana had little to do.

Player Ratings:

Onana (6) - had one nice save but nothing much else to do
Tagliafico (7.5) - spectacular bicycle kick almost beat the keeper
Wöber (7) - very good game with two niggling turnovers to drop his rating down a notch
de Ligt (8) - not one single bad play all match
Mazraoui (7) - solid game going forward
Schöne (7.5) - very nice match in the middle of the MF
Blind (8) - superb on the ball and lost the goal to a deflection that became an own goal
van de Beek (7.5) - got the match winner early on and had some good darting runs
Tadic (7.5) - very good on the day with a much better 2nd half than 1st
Dolberg (7.5) - one well taken goal on the spill and is volley was denied by the keeper which would have given him a brace
Ziyech (8) - all over the field until a hamstring injury brought him down in the 91st minute
Huntelaar (6) - decent shift as a sub
Neres (6.5) - sparkling on the ball and his dummy gave Tadic a clear shot on goal
Schuurs (NR) - on late for Wöber

Herenveen are up next in two weeks followed by a key CL match with Benfica

[Orange14]

SPL really got a great match to take in today!!!

[Amol]

Only saw the last 25 minutes or so. Looks like it was a fairly straightforward win.

Worried about Ziyech's hamstring. He does get a break till the 20th - but not sure how bad it is.

[Cruijff]

SPL really got a great match to take in today!!!

Yeahhh in sunny Amsterdam he got an opening goal quick, then that spectacular bycicle kick from Tagliafico that almost went in and in the 2th half many scoring opportunities to make (more than) 6 or 7.

But what about this... Just before the kick-off there is an Ajax tradition with a youth player and 10 year old Sean Steur broke the record and set in on 2.245.

In Johan Cruyff Arena the radio dj started playing Opus - Live is Life and then Sean had to stop because the game was about to start
https://www.ajaxfanatics.nl/nieuws/sfee ... -keer-hoog

[Cruijff]

Tadic (7.5) - very good on the day with a much better 2nd half than 1st

True.
But what a great pass that was he gave to put Donny van de Beek in position to score 1-0.

[Cruijff]

In this weekend where the Boston Red Sox crushed the Yankees with 1-16 at their own Ball Park it was nice sunny weather in many cities so some of you might have missed the Ajax - AZ game.

The Highlights of the game are over here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDsQO13jnEE

Or quickly just the goals at the English section of the Eredivisie website:
https://eredivisie.nl/en-us/highlighted ... az-alkmaar

[Amol]

In this weekend where the Boston Red Sox crushed the Yankees with 1-16 at their own Ball Park it was nice sunny weather in many cities so some of you might have missed the Ajax - AZ game.

Wow - didn't expect to read about last night's Yankees loss here. Our starting pitcher (Severino) apparently thought the game was later in the night, so came to the game later than expected. That affected his warm up and then he gave up 7 runs.

Can't believe this stuff happens in professional sports at these levels. I mean these are the Yankees and not some small town AAA baseball team.

[Cruijff]

Wow - didn't expect to read about last night's Yankees loss here.

Haha, well we also have a MLB topic over here. It's 145 pages long:
http://www.ajaxtalk.nl/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=6854

Ok, we took many years to get these pages, but still...

Our starting pitcher (Severino) apparently thought the game was later in the night, so came to the game later than expected. That affected his warm up and then he gave up 7 runs.

Can't believe this stuff happens in professional sports at these levels. I mean these are the Yankees and not some small town AAA baseball team.

haha.
a week ago some Ajax season ticket holders said they would prefer clear communication about the starting times of the matches. because these times are often different.
then some people concluded the real fanatic followers would find ways to now this at any occasion.

You would also expect this from professional baseball players like Severino, yes.
Probably many of the athletes in the present time are distracted a lot by Instagram and other social media. They become a millionaire in a very early phase. A lot of these sport millionaires spend more time in getting more online followers and being a celebrity than improving their sport game.

[SPL]

Back from Amsterdam and what a game to go to. Our Dutch pal Cruijff had a spare ticket so my wife and I had a lovely weekend in this unique wonderful city where bikes rule.We also spent Monday in Edam,which we have fallen in love with,small canals real old Dutch houses and very quiet.And only 40 mins from Central station.

Cruijff (he may not want me to call him by his real name on the MB) was easy to spot waiting in cafe on the Nieuwmarkt.He was wearing an original no 14 of the 1971 . He had a book about Rinus Michels to show me .It was a pleasure to spend the afternoon with him and I sat next to him during a good game. The 2nd half of course was superb but we missed the Blind goal as we had someone wanting to get by us.

Sat in Vak 406 ,ie top tier in line with Ten Hag ,a brilliant view.I should add Cruijff is fitness fanatic and as well as making me run up stairs to change metros we walked up about 100 steps to our seats.I was not out of breath and at 67 I think he was impressed with my fitness.I will be going out on my bike later.

My only complaint I told him I want to be here every home game. To us Ajax fans from abroad we would all like to be in the JC Arena every game.There is no experience like it.

I did go to a shop owned by Johan's brother, in the Jordaan area and there were pictures of Ajax in the 60's.I went to the club shop in the middle of the city.The assistant,about aged 30 so young, wore a 34 shirt .We chatted about Appie and he said all the real fans will never let Appie be forgotten.I told him I will certainly never forget this beautiful footballer and human being. He summed it up and said Appie was loved by all and was a very humble loving kind person who really did only ever wanted to play for Ajax.We both stood there and asked why this happened to Appie.

So a hugh thank you from me to our mate Cruijff. Thanks for making this an unforgetable day watching our beloved Ajax live. I will have to repeat it sometime in 2019.

[Cruijff]

Good to hear you had such a good time SPL!

Back from Amsterdam and what a game to go to.

Cruijff was easy to spot waiting in cafe on the Nieuwmarkt.He was wearing an original no 14 of the 1971. He had a book about Rinus Michels to show me .It was a pleasure to spend the afternoon with him and I sat next to him during a good game.

Small correction.
It was the 1972 shirt. The 1971 shirt I also own. That one has a rounder turtleneck:

We sat in Vak 406 ,ie top tier in line with Ten Hag ,a brilliant view.I should add Cruijff is fitness fanatic and as well as making me run up stairs to change metros we walked up about 100 steps to our seats.I was not out of breath and at 67 I think he was impressed with my fitness.I will be going out on my bike later.

Haha.
Yeahhh at the moments I let you run for metro 51 and later for metroline 50 I forgot you're already 67 which is about twice my age. Also taking all the 104 steps to get at the 406 stand in Johan Cruijff Arena wasn't necessary as there is also an escalator, but you've managed well!

[Cruijff]

my wife and I had a lovely weekend in this unique wonderful city where bikes rule.We also spent Monday in Edam,which we have fallen in love with,small canals real old Dutch houses and very quiet.And only 40 mins from Central station.

Cruijff (he may not want me to call him by his real name on the MB) was easy to spot

Thanks for taking care of my privacy.
A forum member most of us here still know said the following stuff was public information on Facebook so also allowed to share, our Ajaxtalk mate Kowalczyk had a very nice afternoon too!


He now has two kids and it was time to bring the oldest one to the stadium for the first time. Also nice that the social media team of Ajax welcomes a child with a small gift bag when they spot online at #Ajaxdebut / #Ajaxdebuut that a child comes for the stadium for the first time!








With SPL and this young debutant bringing in so much positive energy into the stadium, Ajax can only win with 5-0. And don't forget to check out what this little kid this just before kick off time!
https://www.ajaxfanatics.nl/nieuws/sfee ... -keer-hoog