11 NOV 2018; Excelsior - Ajax; Match Day 12

[Orange14]

Ajax are on the road Sunday with a match at Excelsior. Top of the table PSV are away at De Graafschap so barring any major upsets the point margin is likely to stay at 5. After this Sunday, there is another International Break for the Nations League competition in Europe. A number of Ajax players are expected to go to their National Teams for duty. Let's hope they all return injury free.

Following the break, the group stage of the Champions League will wrap up with an away match at AEK in late November followed by the home game against Bayern. A win in Athens coupled with Benfica dropping points to Bayern will mean Ajax are through to the knockout stage of the CL. Of course we want Ajax to top the group and the match against Bayern will be decisive in this regard.

[Cruijff]

Payed 35 euros to sit tomorrow in between of 'the best friends of mine', about 4.000 Rotterdammers.
The Woudestein stadium capacity is not much higher and of course some the "stadium" is reserved for Ajax fans.

[rjf1]

PSV won their game earlier (so what else is new), which means this is another MUST win situation. It's going to be hard enough to catch them the way things are -- falling any further back will make things impossible.

[SPL]

Dolberg starts ,Neres on the bench so Donny starts also. A must win game as PSV never look like dropping a point.

[Orange14]

A must win game as PSV never look like dropping a point.

PSV visit Feynoord in December right after their CL match against Barcelona. That's about the only game left on the first half of the schedule I can see them dropping points. The Eredivisie is really a very weak league outside the top three teams this season and the Ajax loss in Eindhoven was indeed unfortunate. If PSV is not in Europe after the break, they only have league matches to play as they crashed out of the Beker.

[Orange14]

Nice goal by van de Beek and wonderful free kick from Schöne should pretty much lock this game down. Ajax have been good at rotating the ball and there was a nice 1-2 between Dolberg and Tadic but when Dolberg got in on goal his first touch was poor otherwise he would have had a good shot on goal.

[SPL]

Well taken goal by Donny and a lovely Schone free kick. 2-0 and the game should be over now provided we dont give away a stupid goal , and we have given 2 x OG in the last 2 years ,de LIgt was a really bad one.

[rjf1]

well, two goals to none at the half, but otherwise not a very inspirational display of football. Play characterized by slow and plodding development with the old "stop and bring the ball back" style of attack coupled with something less than spectacular passing.

[Orange14]

Training ground football for much of the 2nd half and Ajax end up with an easy 1-7 win. de Ligt had a chance to be the first field player to start ten straight matches where Ajax kept a clean sheet (injured for the PSV debacle) and would have joined Edgar Davids and Marc Overmars who did it in the historic 1995 season. It wasn't to be as he messed up with his challenge allowing the Excelsior player to get in on Onana's goal. There was some more sloppy defending later in the match and maybe ten Hag's habit of not rotating players is having an effect. No match next week because of the international break.

Player Ratings:

Onana (6.5) - didn't have much to do and the conceded goal was well taken
Tagliafico (7) - did some good offensive work going forward
Blind (7) - decent enough on the day
de Ligt (6.5) - good other than the one poor challenge
Mazraoui (6) - just above average in the one half of football he played
Schöne (7) - very nice free kick and the pace of this match suited him well
de Jong (7) - looks like he hurt the same hip he injured mid week against Benfica
van de Beek (7.5) - two well taken goals for my MOTM
Tadic (7) - solid game again
Dolberg (7) - looked very good up front
Ziyech (7) - nice match
Kristensen (6.5) - still not convinced he is a good defender but he is more than decent going forward
Neres (6.5) - good to see him on the scoreboard for the first time in league competition
Huntelaar (6) - did everything right in his short stint at the end of the match

Away to NAC in a fortnight and then the big away CL game with AEK with an opportunity to lock up a knock out match place, something we have not seen in over a decade.

[SPL]

Everyone must be speechless we actually did today what we should have done v Feyenoord and Willem and score loads of goals.At the end 4 of them were trying to go for the ball to get an 8th .

de Ligt clearly doesn't like Excelsior , couple of years ago he gave away a bad og and today he lost the ball and basically gave away the goal. On around 75 mins he gave a short back pass to Onana which could have seen a problem.I mention this because Onana was criticised for Benfica goal but he was initially put under pressure by a de Ligt back pass ( should have said this on Weds.)

Our pal Cruijff will say that was a well spent 35 euros going to Rotterdam today.

2 week break now but I will watch Holland 's 2 games

[SPL]

Orange, would point out Davids and Overmars had 10 games without conceding in 1995 not 1985! I did not know that fact but I think they would have been about 12 years old in 1985!!

[Orange14]

Orange, would point out Davids and Overmars had 10 games without conceding in 1995 not 1985! I did not know that fact but I think they would have been about 12 years old in 1985!!

Thanks!! Corrected in the original post. The match announcer on the ESPN feed that I watch mentioned this. I certainly would not have known this!!

[SPL]

I had a stream on cricfree which was ESPN + ,commentator was English not American.I do curse sky giving up Dutch football as elevensport have only shown about 6 or 7 live games and Ajax just v PSV and Feyenoord. They seem to show the big 3 only in full the next day.

[Orange14]

I had a stream on cricfree which was ESPN + ,commentator was English not American.I do curse sky giving up Dutch football as elevensport have only shown about 6 or 7 live games and Ajax just v PSV and Feyenoord. They seem to show the big 3 only in full the next day.

That's the one I watch. ESPN+ show all the big 3 Dutch teams in real time. I think I pay $4.95 US a month for this which is a bargain as they have a lot of American sports and Serie A matches (I'm a closet Juventus supporter).

[Ayman]

I had a stream on cricfree which was ESPN + ,commentator was English not American.I do curse sky giving up Dutch football as elevensport have only shown about 6 or 7 live games and Ajax just v PSV and Feyenoord. They seem to show the big 3 only in full the next day.

That's the one I watch. ESPN+ show all the big 3 Dutch teams in real time. I think I pay $4.95 US a month for this which is a bargain as they have a lot of American sports and Serie A matches (I'm a closet Juventus supporter).

Juventus?! Since when? CL final 1996?

[Orange14]

That's the one I watch. ESPN+ show all the big 3 Dutch teams in real time. I think I pay $4.95 US a month for this which is a bargain as they have a lot of American sports and Serie A matches (I'm a closet Juventus supporter).

Juventus?! Since when? CL final 1996?

I like to have a favorite team in all the leagues I follow. FWIW - Germany: Dortmund; Italy: Juventus; EPL: Liverpool; & Spain: Barca (though they really look poor this year). Of course if any of these teams play Ajax in Euro competition there is no question of where my support lies!!!