Ajax UEFA thread 06/07

[Langbaard]

Well since we will become UEFA champion, there's plenty to discuss about in this forum :lol:

But seriously, we have a very big chance to win it and Werder Bremen will be a great match to start our road to the finals with.

Round of 32 Fixtures:

Werder Bremen - Ajax 14/02

Ajax - Werder Bremen 22/02


Unfortunately we'll have to miss Edgar Davids this tournament, since he already played 20 minutes for Tottenham Hotspur in the UEFA Cup.

[Lance Knight]

man a tough tough draw. the way i see this this is the finals as is, cause these are the top 2 teams in the Uefa Cup right now

[Langbaard]

Werder Bremen lost 4 - 1 to Stuttgart in their last game before facing Ajax Amsterdam.

Good news for us, it will definetely have taken away some of their confidence, hope we can do the same :)

[Lance Knight]

indeed, they are really missing Klansic
but what i have learned about the german sides is never underestimate them they always play amazingly for the euorpean matches

[Langbaard]

Ajax ensured a win 2 - 1 against ADO Den Haag, the last game before Ajax meet German giants Werder Bremen.

But your right Lance, European and national are usually far from each other and the match can go either way.
Just heard Ogararu our right-back is suspended for one European match, so our defense will not be at it's strongest with Emanuelson, Vermaelen and possibly Grygera not making it.

Looking forward to the game and it will be undoubtfully a thrilling encounter.

[Langbaard]

We have alot of head worries with our list of injuries, suspended and ineligible players... here is the list:

Ogararu - suspended
Grygera - injured ( questionable )
Vermaelen - injured
Emanuelson - injured
Huntelaar - suspended
Davids - ineligible

Possible line-up

----------------Stekelenburg---------------
Gabri----Stam-----Heitinga-----Lindenbergh
Sneijder--------Roger/Maduro------Perez
De Mul-----------Babel---------Leonardo

Missing 5/6 starters :sad:
But we definetely have the quality, Perez, Sneijder, Leonardo and Babel are 4 players with incredible creative minds, Stam and Heitinga are a pretty solid as central defenders, Gabri usually plays in the midfield, but should be able to play RB and I think our trainer will use him on that position.

Lindenbergh, defensively he can do quite good, but his attacking skills are pretty limited, if Roger is match fit I'd prefer him above Maduro, although Maduro would handle himself and he's more defensive minded so it won't hurt against players like Diego etc.

Babel and Leonardo are both very fast and could easily switch places to create some openings in the defense, while De Mul can fullfill his role on the right flank.

Fortunately we have an away game first, so all that matters is we at least get a draw and can face Bremen in a few weeks with alot stronger team.

I'm curious to see what will happen, but still very confident nontheless.

GO AJAX!!!!!!!!!!!

[Langbaard]

First leg:

http://www.bsag.de/px/redaktionell/werder-logo.jpg vs. http://www.ajax-usa.com/history/fifteen-years/1991/assets/ajax_logo_old.jpg

Location: Bremen

http://www.werder.de/bilder/rubriken/stadionluftbild300.jpg

Date: 14 February, 20:30


Werder Bremen vs. Ajax Amsterdam

[Langbaard]

Appearantly Klaas-Jan Huntelaar isn't suspended, great news as he will be a welcome addition in the match against Werder Bremen.

He'll probably come in for Leonardo, while Babel will move on to the left flank. An other possibility will be to let Babel play on the right, Klaas-Jan in the center and Leonardo on the left, while De Mul will have to sit on the bench.

Oddly enough Werder and Ajax have never met before in an European clash, the only match they ever played against each other was back in 1977 in a friendly match which ended in an undecisive 1 - 1.

Werder Bremen has never won in an European match against any Dutch team ever, however that will not be a reason to underestimate the German giants.

They did however manage to beat Feyenoord a few weeks back in a friendly tournament, while Ajax beat them twice with a 0 - 4 and 4 - 1 this season.

Both teams are currently in 2nd position of their national leagues. :)

[Langbaard]

Werder Bremen 3 - 0 Ajax Amsterdam

Unbelievable!! what a mistakes from our coach.
First off, he used a 3-5-2 system with one semi-striker, alright, it can be a emergency line-up, but to use 2 youth players who have always played 4-3-3 in a game like THAT !???

Lindenbergh, two yellow cards in less than 2 minutes !!!! in the 20th minute already, what the hell was he thinking ?

Where was Perez, Huntelaar, Leonardo ??????? our coach played COWARDLY, Ajax is build on dominant, attacking and attractive football, but he, with alll our defensive injuries and suspensions, he tries to reduce the damage, with so many great attacking players and focus on defense....WHY, where is the logic!!!!??

The 2 - 0 was not a goal, but I'm not complaining, the way we were playing it would have come anyway, damn..

I don't see us winning at home, unless our coach goes all or nothing, we have nothing to lose anyway,

Leonardo---Huntelaar---Perez
-----Babel-----Sneijder------

If this will not be our attacking front, than we're doomed anyway, but if there is one small chance we make it, it has to be this.

SHIT SHIT SHIT...man what a disgrace, Bremen congrats.....I have little hope, but wil support my team until the end nontheless


AJAX !!! AJAX!!! AJAX!!!

[Andygers]

Well this was almost predictable...A team who were in the same CL group as Chelsea & Barca and narrowly missed out against a team who was defeated by FC Copenhagen. But Ajax are a good team, a very good team but they have dug a big hole and Im not conviced(Even with home advantage) they can do it

[Langbaard]

We lost against FC Kopenhagen because a very stupid own goal, even Man Utd lost with some bad luck so did we.
I can tell you we would have done just as good as Bremen, if we play that quality football against good opponents, we are at our best.

We were playing excellent football these last weeks, but we had to miss Davids, our complete defense and some great players because of stupid mistakes by our coach.

After the 1st half I was actually suprised Bremen wasn't that good, even with 10 man they couldn't finish it, but it had to come 2nd half with 10 man and these stupid tactical mistakes, we would have taken them, I'm positive.

Anyways, shit happens.

[Andygers]

Well good luck anyway for the 2nd leg and rangers didnt do so good as well

[benfica64]

Holy Moly Ajax got smoked :yuck: :yuck:

[Lance Knight]

man what a game, i was a bit torn and was hoping for a tie, lol
but someone got to win, when is the return leg next 2 weeks in Amsterdam, man i could come up there, not so much for the game though, lol the other sighting seeing would be nice if u get my dift, lol

[emode]

lol Ajax lost to Bremen....too bad but its 10 againsts 11 what can we say!!!

[Laury84]

poor ajax...Neil Im really sorry....see a german team wins its always sad....hope all the best for the match in Amsterdam....:)

[Langbaard]

Thanks.. I can say a whole lot of other things that should have gone differently, like why put on Maduro who has been out-of-form for weeks and weeks, he missed a chance that simply should have gone in, we missed our attacking quality up front and never focused on it.

Anyways, shame we had such a run-down team or we could have suprised.

Hopefully it will be a good lesson, but I've had enough of those, it's time we learn from it :sad:

Damn ...!! nothing I can do to change it :mad2:

[Laury84]

yeah...u cant do nothing....just support ur team also in this bad moment!

and remember that in 2004 Deportivo lost in S.Siro against milan 4-1 and then they win 4-0 at home...:D...so nothing is impossible....:)

[Langbaard]

yeah...u cant do nothing....just support ur team also in this bad moment!

and remember that in 2004 Deportivo lost in S.Siro against milan 4-1 and then they win 4-0 at home...:D...so nothing is impossible....:)

well, my optimism killed me once :p

But your right, we'll just go full frontal attack 90 minutes long, get at least a victory and either win the bloody game or at least go down fighting!!!

Ajax!!!!

[Laury84]

well, my optimism killed me once :p

But your right, we'll just go full frontal attack 90 minutes long, get at least a victory and either win the bloody game or at least go down fighting!!!

Ajax!!!!
exactly!!!! better lose fighting than lose coz u dont even try...:)

[emode]

Ajax 3 Werder Bremen 1 .... It was really close for Bremen but they managed to proceed to next UEFA Cup round.

Too bad for Ajax but that one important away goal for Bremen made all the difference :D

Terribly sorry for Ajax because they really did tried their best & gone all out to win this one. Better luck to Ajax next season :)

[Langbaard]

A honorable performance which at least made me proud, we saved our honor by 'only' losing 4 - 3 on aggregate.

Anyways, the way we were playing we could have gone through even after the horrible away game, but the goal from Bremen was a big fault from Roger.

He was playing left-back while he is actually an attacking/controlling midfielder, but all 3 of our left-backs were either injured or suspended (injuries couldn't honestly happened on a worse time).

If we would be at full strength home and away we'd most likely would have gone through, but it's also a fault from our coach he leaned on defensive and had to much respect for Bremen in the away game.

Anyways, it's the UEFA cup, next year CL again, I went to a few UEFA games, but I definetely missed the glory and magic of Ajax in the CL.