Ajaxtalk

Agree with Souras. Among other issues we have a mentality problem, i.e. any team challenges us a bit and we crumble. I wonder if the instruction at half time was to try to hold onto the 1–0? I'm thinking in the second leg we're going to regret not finishing Legia off when we had the chance.

On the positive side I thought Bazoer had another very good game. The commentator on RTL7 kept comparing him to Rijkaard... maybe a bit over the top but the guy's only 18 and is definitely sharp on the ball. el Ghazi also did well beating his man a few times. Have to say apart from the goal Milik continues not to impress me terribly much Bring on Zivkovic! Pretty sure we can expect him to be first choice next season.

Think you are going too low with Bazoer, Orange. Guy is 18, strong on the ball, good oversight, couple of excellent passes. You're too tough on the missed shots. A 7 at least. Very happy to have him in the team.

zeux schreef:Think you are going too low with Bazoer, Orange. Guy is 18, strong on the ball, good oversight, couple of excellent passes. You're too tough on the missed shots. A 7 at least. Very happy to have him in the team.

Bumped him up to a 6.5; he was the best of the midfielders and the only one who seemed to move around. I guess had one of his two shots been a little stronger and on frame I would give him a 7.

King Litti schreef:Really need to start playing again. Cillessen can't keep bailing us out every time.

Yes he can!!

Orange14 schreef:The point that Souras makes about the midfield is one that continues to plague the team. Everyone stands around waiting rather than moving into space. el Ghazi and Kishna are the only two players who try to attack defenders; sometimes this gets them into trouble but today they were good about passing the ball out of danger when facing a double team.

Yes that's correct. One of the problems is that the movement and brightness in choosing the situations of brilliance to hurt an opponent on crucial moments is by far not even 15% or 20% of Jari Litmanen / Dennis Bergkamp skill level.

You guys just have to wait until my 4 sons Jari, Johan, Zlatan & Dennis will shine in our great Ajax and we will conquer the world for (more than) a decade again..!

Nice pic!!

Too early to say anything decisive about Sinkgraven, but he did bring again some pace and vision to the field when he came on. I think our midfield needs him and he should start.

I know Klaassen is a true Amsterdammer and therefor a golden boy, but he hasn't really impressed in a while has he? He is a decent player, but just don't know what is role should be.

Just that this:

Orange14 schreef:Klaassen (5.5) - didn't see much of the ball at all

is something that we read so often.

Agree about Sinkgraven brings vision and pace to us.Is Klaassen 100% fit.He is having trouble with his groin and of course it was his groin that kept him out for most of 2012/13.He didn't miss a game up until the winter break
and since then has not been 100%

King Litti schreef:Too early to say anything decisive about Sinkgraven, but he did bring again some pace and vision to the field when he came on. I think our midfield needs him and he should start.

Yes, I think the ideal midfield is with Bazoer playing on 'the 6 position', Sinkgraven left midfielder, Klaassen right midfielder instead of left midfielder or defensive midfielder roles De Boer gave him the past matches that didn't really work out.

King Litti schreef:I know Klaassen is a true Amsterdammer and therefor a golden boy, but he hasn't really impressed in a while has he? He is a decent player, but just don't know what is role should be.

I think there is a big difference in watching a game on tv or in the stadium, when you look around from the stands of Amsterdam Arena you will see what a great warrior Davy Klaassen is. Very important for the team. And once his football vorm gets in the flow that he starts scoring there is no stop on him.

In my opinion De Boer gave Klaassen the wrong position in the team but nontheless, Klaassen played ok. In a more balanced team Klaassen will excel and outshine again and become leader of Ajax..!

Just read that the return match in Warsaw will be played at an empty arena because of problems with racial chants earlier in the competition.

Supplement to my last post..... I think Ajax ideal midfield is Klaassen, Bazoer & Sinkgraven but Serero also needs to be part of the team. That guy can fight opponents and posess the ball in an incredible speed.

Orange14 schreef:Just read that the return match in Warsaw will be played at an empty arena because of problems with racial chants earlier in the competition.

Yes we already knew that.
Yesterday in Amsterdam Arena there were no Polish fans allowed and next week a complete empty stadium.

A rare treat for me to watch a European game on TV, as this one was available in HD on the UEFA channel (which I didn't even know I had). A few thoughts:

1. So great to see (what looked like) a full Arena with all the white plastic flags during pre game music.
2. Such a flat performance from Ajax. Looked like they had 80% possession in the first half but showed so little initiative to create real chances. Why does this midfield refuse to take people on and attack with some bravado? They have the talent. Where is the positive mentality, the swagger?
3. Completely agree with the earlier comment that "Everyone stands around waiting rather than moving into space." One benefit of a big-screen TV: you see all these patches of green wherein Ajax players are - for some reason - NOT going into to create through-ball chances. Why not?
4. Cillessen. Wow. I mean, Legia allowed him to make those great kick-saves by not placing their shots more effectively, but still… what brilliant placement and anticipation.
5. Lovely goal by Milik. One moment of great team play to set up a perfectly taken chance.

It will be tough in Warsaw. I think Ajax must score, as I doubt they'll keep their opponent off the score sheet again.

BTW, there was a brief shot of Ronald de Boer in the stands, and he looked… incredibly skinny, not very healthy. Anyone know why?

He got a facelift

For so far as I know Ronald de Boer is at the moment 7 kilos heavier than little brother Frank is, as Frank is active on the pitch every day and Ronald enjoys the good restaurants.

But heeey... yesterday night was quite a cold winter night in The Netherlands, so sometimes people look really skinny when they're outside and it's cold.

And also what Neefkens says: Ronald became really vain, his hair was falling out a couple of years ago so the guy went to plastic surgery for a facelift and also for hair implants.

There was also a shot of van der Sar with a big smile on his face after one of Cillessen's kick saves!

Orange14 schreef:There was also a shot of van der Sar with a big smile on his face after one of Cillessen's kick saves!

You've got an image of it?

@Cruijff - do not have an image of it. I was watching it on ESPN3 as a live feed.

Ok, cool.

By the way perhaps you can share with the rest of the Ajaxtalk English section where to find that live feed on ESPN3.

And maybe Tom_ can explain some of you how to get a Dutch ip address (for example with a proxy server in Firefox or Google Chrome) so all of you can watch live next week on Thursday 26 February 7 pm when we play the return game in Warsaw.

Cruijff schreef:Ok, cool.

By the way perhaps you can share with the rest of the Ajaxtalk English section where to find that live feed on ESPN3.

I don't know if it's available outside the US but over here you access it right through the main ESPN website here: http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index However, they haven't been carrying all that much soccer this year. In previous years they had a couple of Eredivisie matches each week usually PSV and Ajax but since Sky bought the rights to the league that is no more. They also lost the EPL matches to NBC last year as well. You can see if it works outside the US and if you like US college basketball there are lots of matches being shown.

Ok, that's useful info, I might be able to watch the return leg there.

I think I've explained how I do it before but just in case, here it is again. I'm using a paid VPN provider who offers two options:

1. you can dial into their VPN in NL, which sends the traffic from your computer via the Netherlands. This means every site will think you are in NL, but the drawback is that it slows your connection down (probably more than 50%).

2. you can use their DNS which uses tricky scripting to make sites think you're in NL. This means your connection works at full speed. The drawback to this approach is that they have to manually script each site in their DNS, so you have to ask them to add the sites you want—but the one I use has been pretty good about adding the sites I've requested (e.g. foxsports.nl and nos.nl both work at the moment).

In general I have been able to watch almost every match on a Dutch broadcast in the last two years so I'm pretty happy. I prefer Dutch commentary, most commentators on all channels are idiots but if it's in Dutch at least you know they'll say the names correctly ;)

HI Tom,I'm not computer literate so will stick to livetv for this Thursday,I got a good stream from them for last Thursday.