26 Jul 2009: Ajax - SL Benfica

[Kowalczyk]

Amsterdam Tournament. Day 2.

First fixture of the evening is Sunderland vs Atlético Madrid.

At 21:15 CET it's time for Ajax vs Benfica, not only the last game of the Amsterdam Tournament, but also the last match of Ajax's pre-season campaign. After this one it'll be for real.

K.

[orange goblin]

squad for this game has four changes.
in:
Oleguer
Rasmus Lindgren
Jan-Arie van der Heijden
Marvin Zeegelaar

out:
Evander Sno
Kennedy
Rob Wielaert

Vermeer will goalkeep this one.
Again, no Luque at all. Instead Ogararu, Enoh, Gabri and Verhoeven as far as i know are all injured.
Also Bodul, Martina, Sarpong and Blind seem far away from the first team now.
Atouba and De Zeeuw obviously are still not available.

[GangstaRiB]

Wow... the players who were the worst on friday are not in the squad! Well done Martin!

[Van basten]

Sunderland surprisingly beated Atletico, so it means a simple victory against Benfica will make as winers of the tournament.. Let's do this!

[afcajax73]

benfica has a very good team, id be shocked if we won.. draw central me thinks!

[Amol]

Live video-
http://myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=43688&part=sports

Sopcast Channel 74174 is working really well for me.

[Amol]

Unbelievable own goal by Aissati . I haven't seen something like this in a long long time.

[Van basten]

Wow.. Nice goal

[Van basten]

0-2

[Amol]

0-2

Is it just me or does everyone except Suarez seem completely disinterested or unable to do absolutely anything of note?

[Amol]

0-2

Is it just me or does everyone except Suarez seem completely disinterested or unable to do absolutely anything of note?

1-2 Donald. Suarez is overplaying all the balls he gets in the box.

[Van basten]

Donald! 1-2 HT

I don't think that we looked bad, but those 2 silly goals is the difference.

[orange goblin]

great goal of donald (one of the best by now) combining with suarez: 1-2
what a terrible own goal by aissati and poor defending on the second as usual.
some interesting things in the first line, anyway. sulejmani seems fitter, luis is luis, rommedahl at least runs. aissati and donald gave some interesting balls.
it seems obvious that we need a defender and a striker to be a pretty good team. I read of Lugano and pray it's true. but I doubt.

[Amol]

we need a defender and a striker to be a pretty good team. I read of Lugano and pray it's true. but I doubt.

I completely agree with that. All our crosses are going to waste and bad positioning once or twice on defense. We only got punished once for that.

Great shot by Donald btw who is having a pretty good game.

[Amol]

Emanuelson misses a volley from about 8 yards out. But, Ajax is playing much better in this half...and then Silva chests the ball down for a Benfica player after a free kick to make it 3-1.

[Cedric]

It's not crap defending or anything like that. It's just suicidal tendancies...

[SE6Ajacied]

Complete rubbish this - turned it off and going to watch some paint drying instead.

Very pleased I haven't spent money on this tosh.

[saddlerian]

I'm sorry, but I'll disagree with many people here....just one fu**ing word...


D E F E N D E R S
For God's sake Mr Jol.....fucking listen!!!!

[Amol]

2-3!!!

[Van basten]

This goal secures us 2place

[Amol]

Crap - great low cross by Zeegelaar and keeper saves it off of Suarez's tap in. Should've had that.

[ZoefdeHaas]

Silva was the worst player. Got skinned so often, and was responsible for two of the goals.
Man our defense is shite

[Monkey Tonk]

No defense, no chance. They better fix this quick, or it will be another long season. Hard to believe, at this level, that something as basic as that isn't taken care of. Makes you wonder what the off-season is for. Playing defense doesn't require great skill. Just hard work and positional awareness.

[gordonvandekamp]

Ugh, Silva was terrible. I'll add another defender to my list to keep out Aisatti's own goal attempts. I didn't think Sulejmani looked very good either, crossing from everyone seemed poor overall. Was pretty impressed by Donald, don't remember seeing him much before but he looked big and strong which we seem to lack (apart from Sno who never seems to be in the game when he's on the pitch).

As bad as we looked in the last two games (giving up 6 goals mostly), I'm still pretty optimistic that once the first XI is finally set we'll do some damage in the league at least. I think things would have looked differently this weekend if we had fit and acclimated players like De Zeeuw, Gabri, Enoh, and hopefully Atoube to choose from.

[SE6Ajacied]

I'll add another defender to my list to keep out Aisatti's own goal attempts.

That was a great goal, not sure anyone could have saved that. I think he got sun-blindness or something and forgot what end he was at, he seemed to look genuinely disappointed when no-one cheered