CL qualification upset for Ajax; 0-1!

Amsterdam mourned the departure of their captain a couple of days ago. Wesley Sneijder took off to greener pastures after first having pledged loyalty to Ajax. Journalists, insiders, analysts and club-officials were convinced that with the dynamic midfielder Ajax had a shot at the title this year and would qualify for the CL against Slavia Prague…

And then he left…

The psychological setback was too much. Newcomer Suarez played on Sneijder’s position amidst a crowd chanting the latters name. The Uruguyan striker hadn’t even trained more than three times with his new teammates and missed a huge opportunity in the first half. Another newcomer, Jurgen Colin, couldn’t keep his nerves and act together and blundered his way through the whole match, resulting in loss of possession and Emanuelson having to block an oppontent… Penalty kick; 0-1. Huntelaar had the chance to put Ajax up front before that with a penalty kick but Prague’s goalie is a renowned penalty killer and The Hunter soon found that out for himself.

Ajax is not ready yet. So much is clear. The loss of Sneijder is a biggie, both in sports terms as in psychological terms. Then, without Davids, with a blundering Colin and a couple of new blokes who really need time to settle in (Suarez, Kennedy Bakircioglu - the latter playing a pretty good game, by the way…) it proved to be tough for the Sons of Gods to break down the defensive wall of Slavia Prague.

And maybe it wasn’t a penalty and maybe with a bit more luck Ajax could have scored and maybe Prague indeed is a very negative team…but fact is, Henk ten Cate and his men have a tough job to do in 2 weeks time in Prague to win back some of the glory Ajax has lost. For the second season in a row, Ajax may not shine at CL level.

Henk ten Cate: “We didn’t even play that bad. We should have converted one of our chances. We got a couple of good ones, with Suarez getting three biggies. And Huntelaar… he didn’t kick the ball the way you should with penalties. But what can I say? He is our first man. If he picks up the ball, it means he has confidence. We weren’t lucky in this match, but I still believe we can set things right in Prague. Won’t be easy, but it is feasable.”