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Ajax down to ten keep hopes up!

March 13th, 2009 | By: Jan | 34 Comments »

Suarez laments a missed opp…

For the third time this season, Olympique Marseille demonstrated against a Dutch club that it’s prepared to do everything for a win, much like the temperament of their coach, Eric Gerets.

It was an emotional night in the Velodrome Stadium. The French number 3 used every trick in the book – with knocks, taunts and goals – to upset Ajax. The Amsterdam team left the pitch with a defeat, but surely not broken. The Suarez goal kept Ajax’ hopes up for the return.

Suarez scored the 2-1 from the spot after 35 minutes, but minutes later Van der Wiel got red-carded and Ajax had to do it with ten. Van Basten saw his team escape the fatal third goal a number of times, but was proud of the resilience of his lads.

The viewers thought they were watching a tennis match. In particular in the first half, the ball went from left to right and the events unfolded in a high pace. The first half saw the goals, chances, lots of theatre, a penalty, 5 yellows and one red card. Midfielder Lindgren had to be subbed after a cracking elbow to the head

The red card for Van der Wiel was a tough punishment. The slow-mo showed his tackle was on the ball but Ajax had to chase the game with ten men. Van Basten conferred with Schippie and Emanuelson was brought off for Bruno Silva, who played right back.

And the emotions ran rampant earlier on in the day, when Maarten Stekelenburg was told Vermeer would be Van Basten first choice in goal. San Marco informed the goalies first and then he spoke to them one on one. Stekelenburg was visually shaken during the warming up.

In the shadow of that breaking news, another player took the limelight. Toby Alderweireld (who…otherworld?) made his debut in the starting eleven. The 20 year old Belgium born only played 11 minutes (!) as a sub but was thrown for the lions by his hardheaded coach Van Basten. And the first ball the defender kicked was a razorsharp long pass. The youngster played an astonishing game.

Van Basten and Gerets…

Kenneth Vermeer will remember his first match as Ajax’ number 1 for a long time. Both the 1-0 and the 2-0 could be described as keeper’s mistakes. No real howlers, though. The first distance strike seemed stoppable, but did have a nasty bounce and the second hit the net after bouncing off Vermeer’s feet.

Two minutes later, Vermeer wanted to kiss Suarez. Enoh was sandwiched in the box ands Suarez doesn’t fail from eleven meters. The second half didn’t match up with the first, but in the second half Vermeer grew to be the Man of the Second Half, with a couple of remarkable saves. Ajax never showed up in Marseille’s box in the second half, but obviously, that never was Ajax’ priority in that phase of the game.

Van Basten: “We can’t complain… I mean, we did lose and I do think Van der Wiel didn’t deserve the red card, but we came away with an ok result. We scored here and that could prove to be gold.”

The Ajax coach didn’t want to comment too much on Vermeer’s mistakes. “Every goal can be seen as a goalie’s mistake, but thaty first goal was tough, due to the bounce. And Ken did save us a couple of times in the second half, so I think he did very well for us. Stekelenburg was obviously shaken by my decision, but this will make him stronger. He can work in the shadow of Vermeer now to regain strength and form. Stekel has more than enough class to surface again.”

Tags: Ajax, Gerets, Group C, Oranje, Suarez, Van Basten, Van der Wiel, Vermeer

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 34 comments.

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By goose | March 13th, 2009 at 2:48 pm

btw @Mario ; dont drop Vennegoor ; its either him or Koevermans who can play as a ‘breaker’ up front..i reckon Vennegoor is better so he should stay

2 more weeks and the fun starts again!!

Posted from Netherlands

By sonneveld | March 13th, 2009 at 3:17 pm

not worried stekelenburg will definetly be sold and should get first team action whereever he decides to go

By Michel-Olivier | March 13th, 2009 at 4:31 pm

koevermans

Posted from United States

By ferenc | March 13th, 2009 at 5:26 pm

i would like to see urby in oranje a and not in oranje b…

Posted from Hungary

By Jan | March 13th, 2009 at 6:22 pm

Thanks Alex for the Oranje coverage. Well done

And Tiju: great idea! I’ll get back on that

By Mario | March 13th, 2009 at 7:49 pm

Tiju, awesome idea but if it´s a dream and in one year time from now why not dreaming about gathering in South Africa??? It would be way better than watching San Marco´s Ajax. Well, the financial crisis is tough but if some of us plan to go to the World Cup it can be fun to gather some members of this great group. I still don´t know if I´ll go to the WC, but if I do I´ll let you know guys.

By Carlos | March 13th, 2009 at 8:16 pm

There’s a 50/50 chance I may go to South Africa….we have winery frends there

Posted from Singapore

By Michel-Olivier | March 13th, 2009 at 9:27 pm

not going to south africa, i rather go to rotterdam or utrecht

Posted from United States

By tiju | March 13th, 2009 at 10:51 pm

@going to south africa at the time of WC is very tough we need tickets and finacially they will kill us(Financial torturing).there orange will get opportunistic supporters but we belongs to the hardcore fan or may be hoologan catagory(i mean hooligan with out much violence)

Posted from India

By tiju | March 13th, 2009 at 10:53 pm

where is mendes da silva?why de saaw over mendes?
its shame there is huge chance stekel may make an important mistake,coz he is mentally unstable coz of MVB decision.

Posted from India

By finnster01 | March 13th, 2009 at 11:06 pm

@MO: “not going to south africa, i rather go to rotterdam or utrecht”

I thought that was in South Africa anyway…

By Jeroen | March 13th, 2009 at 11:13 pm

I;ve been living in Utrecht for a couple of years now since I study here, and I actually think it’s the nicest city in the Netherlands. Not too big, not too small, not too many tourists and friendly locals!

I still think our defense should consist of Marcellis, Braafheid, v.d. Wiel, and Boula.

Posted from Netherlands

By tiju | March 14th, 2009 at 12:13 am

@finn DONT WORRY we will see in coming months ,there we will meet ORANGE ANGEL.

Posted from India

By tiju | March 14th, 2009 at 12:32 am

today poolians decided to attack so that will give the gap for brilliant manu attack so the final score will be (2-1)for MANU.
some intersting statitics
Top scorer of arsenal is our robin van persie with 15 goals as shadow striker look at his finishing skills.
Top scorer of MANU is christiano-17 goals
Top scorer of pool is gerrad-17 goals both are midfeilders and right wingers and they(RVP,ronaldo,gerrad)all are good finishers,why i am pointing this because —–do kuyt deserves a central striker spot in liverpool and orange?

Posted from India

By tiju | March 14th, 2009 at 1:09 am

Poor mendes da silva no lady luck,picked an injury and will be out for minimum one month,lucky englaar and de saaw

Posted from India

By Lerkot | March 14th, 2009 at 2:00 am

“Top scorer of pool is gerrad-17 goals both are midfeilders and right wingers and they(RVP,ronaldo,gerrad)all are good finishers,why i am pointing this because —–do kuyt deserves a central striker spot in liverpool and orange?”

Umm. What?

By tiju | March 14th, 2009 at 2:20 am

@lerkot dont worry man nothing-i am afraid that kuyt may get chance as central striker if hunter gets injured.i am damm sure he will waste all chances and others are also failing to score against scot,then our stage will be miserable against scotland.A point to remmember “kuyt got enogh time to play for liverpool but he is wasting the chances ratherthan scoring,Uttilizing his stamina and brilliance is good but never opt him as a central striker and if we do that we will pay the penalty.
so we would go for RVP or babel as main striker above kuyt and haiselink if we want to score-with an out of form znijder and vaart,we can take kuyt as a Right winger.

Posted from India

By tiju | March 14th, 2009 at 2:31 am

ok leave kuyt and haiselink (simple reason is both of them are not scoring)RVP,Hunter,Babel(eventhough this guy is not getting enough time to play)are good finishers so go with them as strikers.
guys i think basically 14231 system and 1433 system are same in all aspects-
LOOK AT 14231
——Gk——

RB—CB—-CB—-LB

—-RHM—LHM—-

RW—–SS—–LW

——-S——-

SO LOOK AT 1433
——GK——-

RB—-CB–CB—-LB

—LHM—RHM—
——-SS——
RW———–LW
——s——–
SO AS PER 1433 BOTH 3’s are arrows

Posted from India

By Jan | March 14th, 2009 at 3:14 am

Tiju, are you sure you aren’t Johan Cruyff lurking on this blog?

Mendes Da Silva is out with injury indeed.

Oft scoring midfielders (Van Persie is a striker at Arsenal though) is symptom of the changing role of the center striker (see Van Nistel at the EC).

I like the reunion/get together idea at the WC in 2010… It’s a GREAT idea…

We’ll ask Orange Angel to be there too. Maybe we can smoke the peace pipe with the Portuguese. And the Italians. And the Belgums. And the Germans…. Not, forget the Germans… And the Portuguese for that matter…

By Alex | March 14th, 2009 at 7:33 am

Belgian people are actually dutch, they just don’t realise it
Italians deserve a peace pipe, they still smell blood after their 3-0 defeat. Portugal and Germany need 3-0 defeats against oranje.
About the oranje selection, i think Gio should be dropped as soon as Bouma gets back. Ooijer and Timmer should really be dropped soon, or else they’ll think they’ll be going to the WC.
Engelaar shouldn’t be in this, Vennegoor is still a valuable striker, and V.d.Vaart although not playing often, a class player.
Otherwise i’m not really surprised, young defenders coming in.
Holland B however smells of weirdness, Hofland, Meeuwis, wielaert’?
They just as well select Donk, Loovens, Drenthe, Theo Janssen or Ron Stam for me. BTW if , Mendes da Silva, De Guzman, Castelen, Lens, Vlaar and Luirink make their full returns, Oranje B could get crowded

Personally if everyone would be fit i’d select

Stekelenburg, Vorm, Vermeer, V.d.Wiel, Boulahrouz, Heitinga, Marcellis, Mathijsen, Bouma, Braafheid, V.Bommel, De Jong, Schaars, De Zeeuw, Mendes da Silva, Sneijder, V.d.Vaart, Afellay, Robben, Huntelaar, Babel, Kuijt, V.Persie, Vennegoor.

And for B squad i’d think of a selection from this list, with defenitaly the most potential other players.

Velthuizen, Krul, Mulder, Verhaegh, Ron Stam, Zuiverloon, Tiendalli, Dingsdag, Donk, Loovens, Vlaar, Luirink, Kruiswijk, J.Drost, Koenders, Jong-a-pin, Pieters, Emanuelson, Theo Janssen, Engelaar(might give him a chance to recover?), Castelen, Maduro, Bakkal, De Guzman, Luijckx, Holla, Brama, Fer, Wijnaldum, Drenthe, Aissati(if still interested), Beerens, Lens, Bruins, Sarpong, Barazite, Elia, Amrabat, Koevermans, V.Wolfswinkel, Biseswar, Nijland, Emnes.

But whatever, i can’t choose, personally i think we can better have a 25 year old Luirink with the B squad than 30 year old Hofland, for example.

Posted from Netherlands

By Michel-Olivier | March 14th, 2009 at 9:03 am

@ finnster01
i heard the south africans are changing all the dutch names(bloemfontein, pietersburg, utrecht, robben island…) to african names

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | March 14th, 2009 at 9:04 am

never like bakkal

Posted from United States

By Lerkot | March 14th, 2009 at 10:00 am

I think the whole Holland B-thing is very silly. I don’t really see what it can give. Prefer just A-team and U21-team.

By finnster01 | March 14th, 2009 at 11:13 am

@tiju: I thought I was reading the next book in the DaVinci code series