The most famous “foul” in the World Cup campaign was most likely Nigel de Jong’s karate kick in the finals. Why? Because it was in the finals, and because it was Nigel de Jong ( the Animal) against the princely Spanish…
But in the semi finals, a more horrific foul was committed. And this was an intentional one as well. And like De Jong, the guilty party was not punished with a red card. Uruguayan player Careces could finish the game, while De Zeeuw was subbed at half time.
Unfortunately, I can’t publish more than one picture on this post, but google “Demy de Zeeuw kick in face” and you can see pics of the aftermath, of his teeth, and of his confused look after the hit.
What was supposed to be the high light of the Ajax’ midfielder’s career, became a turning point.
Demy de Zeeuw never really recovered. The former AZ midfielder left for Russia, only to be signed by John van de Brom for Anderlecht, where he plays his football now.
It was Louis van Gaal who discovered De Zeeuw at Go Ahead Eagles. The AZ coach was scouting another player but picked up on the little midfielder, who – like Sneijder before him and Clasie after him – can be seen as a game accelerator. Van Gaal: “Whenever De Zeeuw gets the ball, he speeds up the game with a very smart through ball. Things happen once he is involved.”
AZ signed the midfielder and he had four great years there, until Ajax snatched him up. The midfielder made it to skipper at Ajax and impressed with important goals and good play. He made it into Van Marwijk’s Oranje squad and was moving up in the world, until that dramatic injury against Uruguay.
He still smiles a huge white smile, which he attributes to Caceres’ bycicle kick. “My teeth got better from that kick, haha, but my career suffered. My front teeth are all fakes now, crowns.”
The whole world saw that clash. The pictures were published all over the place and Mike Hutchings won the World Press Photo in the sports category. De Zeeuw: “I don’t mind the pic, but I can’t see the video of the kick. I can’t handle that. As I can’t stand watching players break things in general.”
The starting spot in the semis was supposed to be his high point. He himself looks back on it differently. “I think I only really played 24 minutes. That is when it happened. I was actually kicked out of the game. I can’t imagine now how I managed to play till the half time break. I can’t remember a thing. A disgrace they let me back in. My teeth were all pointing inwards. I think I played purely on adrenaline but can’t remember a thing. In the half time break, I went to lie down and I couldn’t get up… I blacked out totally….”
Once De Zeeuw returned to Ajax, things changed. “It took a while for me to get fit. The dental work had an effect on my overall fitness. I had all sorts of inflamations and I felt sick. I did play but I never played on my normal level. The game simply went past me and I ended up on the bench.”
This was the first time he had to deal with a setback. “My career was going well. From Eagles to AZ, then to Ajax, Oranje…. I did hope on a big club in a good league after Ajax but it wasn’t to be.”
He never heard back from Caceres. “But why would he? I don’t blame him. He was about to score a world class goal and I got in there and headed the ball away. He was entitled to go for it. I don’t think he was out to kick me in the face…”
But, more strangely, he never heard from the KNVB either. Ask him about the insurance… “Please don’t ask… I am in talks with the KNVB but I can’t see anything coming out of that. The federation hasn’t dealt properly with it. It’s weird though right? But that is football for ya. The biggest sports in the world but really amateuristic.”
The KNVB however, claims the insurance obligation is with the clubs. “The FIFA is very clear. The players need to be insured via the clubs. The first care was done by us and paid for by us, back in South Africa, but all the other treatments needed to be paid for by Ajax’ insurance.”
The medical cost are paid by the player himself. “These teeth cost 1000s of euros. That is the reason why I laugh a lot, hahaha.”
De Zeeuw went to Spartak Moscow in 2011 but failed to make an impact there. He never felt at home in Russia and was relieved when fellow country man John van de Brom signed him on a loan deal for Anderlecht. De Zeeuw didn’t start in the starting line up. “I was simply not 100% fit. I needed some work. But now, I am really happy in Brussels and would love to stay here. First win the title, than talk about a contract.”
I really wish Manu V Real Refree should havebeen there..
poor guy. i really liked him at ajax before the wk
He took one for the team. Brave player! It is too bad that this injury affect his performance. I like the semi final vs Uruguay (except the last part of the game). Gio scored arguably the best goal of the tournament!
Whats exactly in FIFA’s rule? Player is not allowed to lift their feet too high but allowed to do bicycle kick?
I want a Bayern vs Real Madrid final in the UCL.
…and Bayern to win!
De Zeeuw is a hero for me now. tnx Jan, u show me something which i see it but never think about it.
Argentina and Germany maintain their grip on second and third respectively, while Colombia sit stationary in sixth despite losing to Venezuela in Conmebol World Cup 2014 qualification.
Italy have slipped three spots to eighth and fellow European competitors Netherlands also dropped, albeit only by one place, to ninth.
That means we’re definitely out of the seeding pot (first 7 excluding Brazil who already isn’t in the top 10 anymore anyway).
How did England and Croatia get ahead of us? It’s not like England has won all their qualifiers, so our EC results compared to theirs is really coming back to haunt us. Was Croatia even AT the last EC?
We need better friendly results as well when playing against teams like Italy and Germany. I don’t want another group of death, we’ve had enough of those and we weren’t in the group of death in 2010 either, and that worked out well for us. So let’s hope for a good draw (I can’t see us not qualifying anymore).
oh, and in that light, it’s a bad thing to be playing China for a friendly now instead of a higher ranked country, not a lot of points to be won.
Weren’t we playing 2 low Asian ranked countries (Indonesia)?
What a wonderful decision by the KNVB. I wonder how much they were pampered by Chinese business relations to make that deal. Indonesia I can understand, but why do we have to dance to the tune of the Chinese? Cause they’ve got money to throw around? Well, as we can see from this article, that money won’t get anywhere near those who need it or deserve it. So where does it end up? Kees Jansma’s bamk account (in part)?
I named that name cause he’s the one being paid to show his face, the others are probably happily collecting their salaries and occasional bonus from behind the scenes. You could ask the KNVB’s accountant(s) where most of the money is going, he’ll probably answer vaguely with ‘salaries’ (if you can even get the correct answer out of him/her/them).
My next question then would be how these salaries are divided up between names. I would guess Kees Jansma is well paid. de Zeeuw apparently not so much, no bonus for him either.
oh, I forgot charity donations to organizations that are set up just to collect money (oh sure, they’ll pump out an occasional football-court in a 3rd world country to keep up appearances). Ah well, better than nothing I guess.
No need to put everything into salaries that way. Pay too much for products from yet other companies, and the money will have been transferred away from the KNVB’s books within no time. Doing business with other companies is of course perfectly acceptable behaviour, who’s going to check whether there is a competing company trying to make a better deal with the KNVB? Nobody.
And I’m just making some guesses, ignore me.
Why Van der Wiel Talking about Barcelona?? anyone force him?? he was’t part of good PSG, he suscks.
Rank/Player Team Rating
Ola John and Arjen Robben are in Best Champion Leaguer Performance per Game this season by GOAL.COM.
1. Julian Draxler Schalke 04 3.90
2. Ola John Benfica 3.67
3. Timo Hildebrand Schalke 04 3.67
4. Danny Zenit Saint Petersburg 3.67
5. Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid CF 3.60
6. Arjen Robben FC Bayern München 3.58
7. Fernandinho Shakhtar Donetsk 3.56
8. Lionel Messi FC Barcelona 3.55
9. Arturo Vidal Juventus 3.50
10. Willy Caballero Malaga 3.44
Yes faraz i was surprised to see that in goal .com.but i was happy about ola.he has something for orange.he will deliver when it really counts if he is given chances and supported.
Schalke, Benfica, Zenit, all of them were knocked out earlier on the tournament. so they had less games. no wonder Ola John and Draxler are on top of the list.
I think FIFA should increase the maximum number of substitutions at least up to 4.instead of 3..Injury are part this mens game and no one can avoid it,De saaw was bit unlucky,still a wonder he manged to play another 20 minutes…salute to him…
On Brazil soil 2014.it would be real hard for any european teams including spain.My intusion is saying that even though spain ahs the most balanced squad they wont win it.Latin americans team would be real hard to beat in their soil.they willl have many fans out there.dutch national team should hire a psychologist to tackle situtaions in WC.columbia,Arjentina,brazil,equdor are bit hard to beat.Even venzuela is tough at times.i would nt be surprised to see minimum 2 latin american teams in semi…At present in europe Croatia,Belgium,Russia,France look strong apart from Germany.Spain and dutch.Srongest wc is approaching and differenc between teams are pretty less this time.
I don’t expect much from the Netherlands for the future world cup. I think it’s too short to build a good team with many new players in a year. What we’re doing in qualifications is a little bit like what we did in 2006 with Van Basten, won almost all games, quite easily, almost all new players with Ruud,Van Bronchkorst and Cocu as old ones, it will probably be the same next summer, three or four old guys mixed to new ones. We had it really difficult against Ivory Coast, and Portugal was a bit better and seemed more developped.
I think a quarter finale would be even good.
In europe, for me, only Spain can win it. Germany got a real problems with defenders, Hummels, Howedes and Badstuber as centrals, none of them is a top defender. They failed in 2010 and 2012 because of that, and it’s not getting better when you see they took 4 goals against Sweden.
Germany, Portugal and Belgium can reach semi final according to me.
I don’t rate France, Italy or England above us.
Croatia and Russia are two good teams, but they’re definitly under. Russia got almost the same team for 8 years, , I follow the russian league, few young russian good players (Kokorin, Shatov, Smolov are the best ) we’ll play against them in Euro -21, a good opportunity to see.
I wouldn’t say Portugal was better by any means. We had the better chances but were just unlucky. Balls on the post, Kuyt’s toe in the final minutes, a 100% penalty disallowed.
Technically they were a bit more mature and developped I think. They started having problems after Costinha was sent off.
We had chances but they also could score one or two more.
i think like laurent and tiju, we don’t have chance for WC2014. but have time to build us for 2016 and 2018. i think Van Gaal system show us, he knows it.
Hear oh ye mortals, the oracle hath spoken 😉
How is Nathan Ake playing against Rubin??? DRB300??
I was only able to see the first half and he did proper. I have read some Chelsea comments that said he made some passing errors in the second half. Some blame him for one of the goals, others say that he tried to compensate for a defensive error of one of his teammates and it should not be put on him.
I have seen nothing new in this match that surprises me. The one thing that does become more apparent to me is that he needs to work on his creativity. You have DM players like Verratti (PSG) that have played on 10 positions in the past, who switched to a more defensive role and you have DM players coming from a CB position. I like the first kind more as they will have creativity almost by default. My favorite players are funnily enough often DM players, that combine creativity and high handling speed with the over my dead body mentality. Wilshire, Verratti, Clasie. Those skillful Honey Badgers kind of players. Circling this back to Ake: He lacks creativity so far for me. The only reason I am so optimistic about him is that he is something different. He plays an almost aristocratic kind of football. What I mean by that is that he puts his work in positioning rather than hustling and battling, and as a result of that is constantly the center of game. Looking at the stats posted here, he makes a lot of defensive contributions, but his game somehow is not defined by it primarily. It’s more defined as a shape keeper, as and outlet to football yourself out of pressure, as a foundation for a team to reach higher. Quite curious how he will develop.
However the reason I love Clasie kind of players is that you basically have another creative player for a slot, without losing too much defensive solidity. I believe that van Gaal is of the opinion that every top team needs at least 4 creative players. If that already starts with a DM, then you get to that number much sooner. It’s basically a huge relieve if you have a DM who is able to spot the opening and is able to give the killer pass.
This article made me really respect De Zeuw. A hard worker who is gentleman enough to not blame Caceres. I wish him all the best.
It is disgusting to hear that KNVB never took care of him, I hate these cheap morons. How much would they be hurt for paying him all costs for teeth replacement and some more? Bastards.
ake played 90 minutes today!! Will wait for DRB300 to give us some feedback on how he played:)
I was only able to see the first half, but overall he did oke. Not that good and not that bad. Heard that he made some errors in the second half and some people blame him for one of the goals. As he lacks a bit of creativity, mistakes will stick easier to him. If you have creativity, you can flush away some bad stuff and change the dominant memory people have of you from the game. Maybe I will try to watch the second half this week, to get the full picture.
Interestingly, Bazoer from Ajax (former PSV) played DM during the Future Cup that took place one or two weeks ago. That’s another CB maybe going for the DM position, I don’t know. I also heard that Bazoer has played on midfield a lot in his youth or maybe Ajax are developing his handling speed to put him in DM (DM requires often most handling speed). Players fulfill many positions in the youth often, so it’s not really possible to conclude too much from it. He did well in the game I saw from him.
Anyway going back to Ake, I hope the next Chelsea coach (as this season is near ending) will have the balls to put him in the team more often. Villas Boas was anti youth almost and this coach has not even given him enough chances for my liking. His future at Chelsea could be heavily defined with the appointment of the next coach.
Nathan Ake
Did not really influence the game but stepped up to the occasion well considering this was only his second senior start.
Does someone follow Newcastle ?
I’m reading different comments about Anita, some positive and some quite negatives, don’t know what to trust.
I don’t think he’ll ever be an influential player for Oranje
All, I happened to be on the plane flying back to Miami and I watched the second half of our WC2010 game against Brazil. By far, this is easily considered one of the top 5 halves of any Holland game I have seen. It is certainly the best half played by our current crop of stars (Wes, De Jong, Kuyt, Persie, Robben, etc.) If you want to re-watch an awe-inspiring, possession-controlling, energy-flowing Dutch team, I HIGHLY advise you to watch this game. We had everything clicking on every cylinder in the second half and could have scored more. Not to mention, Nigel was kicked in the face the same way De Zeeuw was (see the 70th minute). Our back 4 were tight especially the little-known Ooijer who didn’t even know he would play in South Africa let alone against Brazil.
DRB300, I would greatly appreciate your thoughts and analysis on this game especially on our sound defense (a few blips here and there but nothing serious).
If you have nothing to do or have time to spare this is a great game to watch and re-watch!! I hope we can emulate this performance in Brazil!
Also a good opportunity to see one of the most ridiculous football action I’ve seen in my life : Huntelaar’s one at the end of the game.
I am still thinking what happend in first half?First half was typical conservative BVM style.Second half came out of necessisty..that made the differnce
But in Euro i think like we played against germany 2012 and against portugal in 2012.in reverse order..
For such a question I should watch the whole game again. I agree though that Brazil second half was probably our best half of the tournament.
The Dutch NT of 2010 was a real machine and Del Bosque recently admitted to van Marwijk that during the second half against Spain he thought Spain was going to lose it. We were damn close. I am sure that we would have won in case Robben had converted his chance or even if we had gone to penalty’s, though that last claim is a bold one with Spain having Casillas on the goal. However we had good penalty takers in the team (that also took them for club) and had all stats of the Spanish players penalty preferences in our back pocket (info accumulated by a Spanish professor lol).
That loss in the final is one of the most painful events in my live and is also the reason I don’t look back too much at WC 2010. In time I maybe will watch some games from it again. Somehow I have an easier time watching parts back from the 2008 group stage.
Cheers
WC2010 whoever played they all played well.Except braphied.The differnce was the experience of Gio and bommel in back.with Roben’s runs and wesly’s shots.Whille persie was dragging away 2 players all these time to free up Roben an wesly..kuyt was the 7 th defender.
Dutch had the best water tight defence in the tournament.i was sure that we may score much goals but it was really hard to score aginst the pitch when we had a mid block of Nijel-Bommel-joris and heitinga..
When joris departed robinho scored
When nijel was not there urugay scored
when heitinga departed ineasta scored…
with that 4 on pitch it was only one penalty scored by slovakia…
Here is a little info on Ake performance yesterday in Europa League:
http://hereisthecity.com/2013/04/11/nathan-ake-stars-for-chelsea-in-kazan-and-the-stats-prove-it/
I was just watching the new Fifa rankings for national teams and I could not believe what I saw…Croatia on 4th place!? While Italy the finalist of European Cup and Netherlands the finalist of World cup 8th and 9th and both being 1st in their qualifying groups!? I tought to myself what is this shit and laughed…
By the way,Croatia didnt even qualify for the World Cup 2010.
Oh and I am a Croatian,I am happy and proud of them,but objectively speaking this does not have any sense.
Dirk Kuyt Fernabache is into Europa semi-final.
Seems like he is a integral player in the team also.
Anyone watches him in action? Is he really good?
he runs and scores towards the end of the matches..with his stamina he is nuisense to defenders.As long as he scores he will not have any problem to find a starting spot in fenerbache first eleven…his goal ratio for fenerbache is good so is his team.
Guys croatia is deal they are hard to beat..they improved lot from Ec12..i am not sure their spot in ranking but they are a hard team to beat…able to pull a surprise in WC.
Yes Tiju Croatia is strong now but that is not the questionable thing. Their(our) ranking is.
Fifa rankings have always been strange,but this is the strangest one yet.
Don’t feed the troll. It will go away if we just ignore it.
Scuse me?
Could you please behave?
Thanks Jan
Messi & Alves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQVvg9heZ08
Ajax “surpasses” them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqGtXao1pVc&feature=youtu.be
😉
Excelent post Jan. TY
Agreed, thanks Jan.
I’m not too keen on the KNVB not taking care of this sort of thing. You really don’t want to create an atmosphere where a player has to consider whether playing for the NT represents too much of a personal (meaning career or financial) risk.
That was an absolutely brutal kick to the face- not a redcard, in my opinion since there was no intent to harm, but brutal how hard he got nailed. I can’t imagine how he resumed play in that match.
@Jan, Excellent article. Many thanks, as always.
@Bitterballen. I watched that match a month or so ago. Completely agree with your comments; the energy and will was terrific. Nigel and MVB were everywhere. As was Sneijder, and Robben caused Brazil lots of problems. Also, Van Der Weil was superb in that second half. A great team display…The other thing that jumped out at me, and what made the game, was that even after it took the lead, Brazil did not try to shut the game down. Both teams going out to play for an entire match…what a concept.
Very good article, so sad about him.
And it seems his incident was totally ignored by the world just because he is not spanish.
Really hate that.
Just thinkin’ about DRB, hoping he’s AOK….
Anyone know how to get tickets for Holland v Indonesia in Jakarta on 7 June 2013?
Getting popularity is good when it comes to WC.i have seen that popular teams gets better decisons by refrees.it happens in Champions league too.China and indonesia are very populous countries.So dutch national team populairty will get increased if they play in indonesia.its a good work indirectly.it might open markets for clubs like ,PSV,and feynoord.i was in india during WC2010 and we have 1.2 billion population and Spain was their favorite team due to their passing and its not a surprise that many people in india follow football when it comes to WC only.So their update knowledge in football is pretty low.Indian media is another joke,all they know is cricket and bollywood farts.they will fill every newspaper about these ugly things alongs with some dirty politics and politician agendas.I was pointing that spain was hugly supported by indian media and so did many other countries; compared to that dutch got very little support.So this huge fan base and support will pressure the fifa to support popular teams..i hope dutch plays entertaing football and kicks out spain from heart of normal/occatioanl football fans.
‘knowledge in football is pretty low.’
Hello Mr. Pot. Meet Mr. Kettle.
This is funny, I sit myself down behind my pc, having a quick peek which games are live now, put on a stream for the only game that looks interesting to me (Galataseray) and the first thing I see (live) is a Sneijder goal. 🙂
Good start for this weekend (football-entertaining-wise).
the only goal so far in the game btw, which makes it even more of a coincidence for me to turn on the stream just now.
Does anyone follow Joe Van Der Sar? I read that he used to be in MU youth team, then VV Noordwijk, and now with Ajax. I just wonder if he has any potential to be good?
Gregory van der Wiel
Fails to convince defensively on a regular basis and once again struggled. A miscued first-half clearance led to one of Troyes’ big opportunities. Going forward he was a pacey threat as he overlapped willingly and directly, and it was he who supplied a fine cross for Matuidi’s goal.
Rough game for Vitesse today…hell of a come back by Roda
Roda to me is one of the surprises this season. They play EXCELLENT football but have sooo much bad luck its not funny anymore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6jLi-2PLMU
GALATASARAY highlight
it is a bit long with some uninspired moves, though…
it appears that sneijder is not the priority freekick taker. and from what i’ve seen, those who took freekicks just weren’t good enough.
seems like the manager doesnt trust him yet
thanks kelvin
Jordy Clasie is heavily linked to manchester united,seems he has won heart of some manchester tycoons.The guy is better than cleverly.I hope Stroot also goes there…
Stroot,carick,Cleverly,Clasie…
No idea for PSV Vs Ajax who will win..it seems like both would play very cautious and huge chance for Drawing the game..
This guy Germain lenz is becoming a beast and brilliant,is intelligent strong and gutsy…
Oh yes its Ajax,………..Geff are you ahppy now????
Yes thanks Tiju I am happy. Well deserved win!
Strootman is too overrated. Everytime the tempo goes a little bit high, he gets completly lost, it’s the impression I have since the beginning about him.
Lens is proving once more that he always scores in “important” games.
Strootman was really good, he was best PSV player in this game. i think better than Lens, don’t just look at statictics.
I didn’t look at statistics, I only could watch second half, I found him poor, takes an eternity to make a simple pass.
Even Van Bommel still plays with more energy, look at Strootman defending and covering a zone, he isn’t better than Maduro, retrieves almost nothing. A big slow machine.
Type on google “Kevin Strootman overschat” which means overrated in dutch, you find many links, I’m not the only one to notice it.
@Laurent..i know that u find some rare things which others doesnt see.if u right then its a seroius problem for national team.As a realistic fan what u said about stroot must be right.the question is .what if we cannt use Stroot in holding mid?.?Nijel will take some time to reach is usaual dynamic state and Clasie is small and Fer is not that doing well,Anita is not finding much time in NEWC.
Laurent I could not agree more with you on this point.
He is important with that pressing moment for the 1-1 goal and keeping the overview to play it to Lens, but in ball possession he just lacks handling speed and is often just plain poor. Also notice that pundits were amazed about the lack of deep long balls by PSV, including from Strootman. He does not give them to RVP either in Dutch NT, while RVP is waving in the air with his hands to give him a long ball. Robben started clapping before getting a long cross ball from de Vrij against Romania. Attack is craving, Strootman does have the ability, but does not give it (enough).
Yes, and the fact is that the first thing I liked in him was his long passes. He used to give a lot before with Sparta, Utrecht and even his first months with PSV, here you can seem some :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNiGxrPR-To
About pressing, maybe he retrieves some balls with anticipating, but when he is in 1 vs 1 situation against a good player, he isn’t good at all, I noticed him many times being unable to retrieve the ball and pushing his hands up to show that he is angry. He is too slow and his supports are bad, really makes me think about Maduro, Clasie is less strong but defends with more energy.
Seriously : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxA1BUpg8vo
Fantastic win. So happy that the best style of football in Holland prevails once again. PSV, Feyenoord play such direct football, not the style I like.
It was an open game, but in the end and based on number of chances I think we deservedly won.
Eredivisie winners again it seems. De Boer works his magic again. Easily one of the top coaches in the world.
That was intense, hard fought… Hopefully today we have put a big hand on the Eredivisie title. Still there are tough games to be won against Heerenveen and Az.
Totally agree with you Marc. Ajax is by far the best team in Holland. I hope we get to keep some of the key players and finally show the world what we can do and that we are back to prove Conte from Juve wrong.
Congratulation Jeff, i think hat-rick for u and Ajax, Ajax is one or two class above other dutch team, i just hope PSV or Feyenoord can get second place, no Vitesse plz :(.
Viva Ajax!
@Jeff
what did Conte say? anything against ajax?
just that he thinks Ajax will never be a force in Europe (Champions league) ever again. Wasn’t a malicious comment though. He was just saying that Ajax used to be the best, but now are forced to be a selling club because of the money that the top clubs have
to some extent I agree with him. “Imagine we still have Suarez and Vertonghen i think things can be really different.”
But we all know that would never happen, and such kind of statement will repeat every year.
It is somewhat difficult to overturn
Pienaar, Sneijder, Vermaelen, Vertonghen, Stekelenburg, Suarez…..
Jeff, I think Eriksen is one of key players and Eriksen wants to leave Ajax after this season. I hope Ajax can sell him, make some money and perhaps sign Maher. I am happy for Ajax too. I hope Ajax has a better draw next year in CL.
Thanks for all these nice messages. And thanks Marc for answering the question about Conte. Hopefully even if Eriksen leaves we will be ok. The championship and more importantly the style of play will help persuade Van Ginkel or Maher (or both) to come to Ajax.
I’m not entirely sure vGinkel is affordable for any club in the Eredivisie.
Finally boerrigter can score a goal in important moment!
I think strootman and vbommel both had a good game.
They shut down the midfield effectively, Ajax was forced to play long ball more often because it was not easy to get through the duo. You’d never see Ajax plays like this against any other eredivisie team.
Fischer was good, almost earned a penalty but was tricked by v bommel, a very minor push that stopped the winger but wont catch the eye of referee.
Blind was voted MOM but in my opinion SDJ was. He covered a large area in midfield. Took the job of both defensive and offensive midfilder.
Krul dislocates shoulder, out for the season. I hate it that Ajax best players are Danish. For PSV I think Mertens was very good, Strootman did not impress me at all.
@Jeff i heard that Deboer would be leaving ajax sooner or later.Mancity are behind him.ofcourse he is much better manager than Mancini.if he leaves it would be bigger loss for Ajax than over losing anyother players.Difference between Ajax Vs Psv,Feynoord and vitsee are Deboer.Not the players.thats a huge difference.i remmber the comment of Nepolean.he said that he would prefer army of sheeps lead by lion over army of lions lead by sheep.
Go Ajax!! Still tough games ahead though but it’s there’s too loose… I too hate the ajax has s I many Danes playing in there side if they can sell Eriksen for a good price. Maher will definitely be his replacement and I think there will be a few others leaving from what I’ve been reading
@Sol. I read your response to me in one of Jan’s great previous articles, and wanted to thank you for that. That does not mean I agree with you. I would like to hear your reaction to the Frank the Boer quote. He claimed that the 1998 group did not really realize they could win the WC in 1998. That is why he made a point about not letting that happen to the 2010 group. What does that tell you?
Also, you say that every situation demands a different attitude. But how can somebody show guts in one situation if he lacks that quality? We need the Aplha Male mindset and Sneijder has it.
The more time I invest in following youth development, the more I appreciate what we have. All this talk about the next Sneijder. Well guess what. We still have Sneijder. He needs to dust himself off and get back in true battling mode. He is in a team with many ego’s and has to prove himself again. The fact that he is not first free kick taker at Gala tells a part of the story. Those jokers at the club should not take the free kick, but get it for him and hand it over. Including Drogba. However he will only earn that right by being better and that is what he has to do in the new year. Becoming the best player again. Not a bad deal for the Dutch NT.
Ajax win the title and the number 2 probably won’t go into CL next season. That means Ajax does not have to split the money and all money will go to them … again. They are also on a responsible spending policy, meaning no crazy transfers and no big salary’s.
As they become champs, they can sell their players with a bot more margin. That margin only gets bigger as Vertonghen and Suarez do well in EPL (reputation power). They also did well against City in CL and EPL teams look at such games if they want to spend (big).
As Ajax play CL next season, top talents will want to come their way. Today, Ajax made public that they contracted 2 new talents (one from Sparta and one Belgium player). Also Cuenca and maybe more Barca players will want to come at the prospect to play CL. A certain Deulofeu comes to mind.
This is the upward spiral, where one leads to the other. Good times to be Ajax fan.
Let’s hope so.
My worry is that salary is one thing that prohibits Ajax’s growth. Whichever big talent they got(most probably from a lesser team in eredivisie if not through the youth system), they gonna lose him the next year. Ajax cannot afford to rebuild the team every year.
http://tinyurl.com/bskxyvk
This is a highlight video from a PSV youth team against FC Groningen. The striker is in the Dutch youth NT (van der Moot) and is deemed as a new upcoming striker. Not the complete type like RVP, but he knows how to finish.
Nouri, Paal and Slabbekoorn are midfield top talents. This could become one of the guys in the future that finishes their passes.
Great video DRB, nice to see a style of game that encourages passing and going forward to create opportunities, future looks bright!
Excellent Ajax yesterday!
Poor Pieters, each time this guy came back made a disaster!
I am very exciting to watch 2014 Ajax.
If I were frank de Boer and I loose Siem de Jong, Eriksen and Alderwilde I would to sing:
Maher for Eriksen
Heitinga for Alderwilde. Heitinga needs playing time to be available from LVGaal, and maybe he can go there for free or very cheap.
I don´t see a good replacement for Siem De Jong. It will be a shame if he leaves!
Sad because Feyenoord didn’t won.
Yes poor Pieters he needs some playing time in order to recover his confidence back because we all know he is good he just needs to play and to rediscover his form. He is better than Willems when fit.
8 Dutch internationals couldn’t win against Waalwijk in a crucial game for Feyenord!!!: Clasie, Mathijsen, Indi, Schaken, Vilhena, Boetius, Janmaat, De Vrij.
This is bad news don’t you think???. It’s normal to lose points during the whole season but these last games are like finals for Feyenord if they want to reach the UCL or aim for the Eredivisie and if they draw against Waalwijk then I am worried about this players.
Yes, you are rigth
I think Feyenoord lack experience and “composure” to deal with such a tight title race. Last year they were the young surprise package, now they are still young, but knowing they could win the title with a bit of luck got them a bit contracted. I think they couldn’t handle it. Ajax on the other hand has dealt extremely well with pressure in the last 3 seasons. They never failed a crucial head to head in the last games of the season with de boer in charge.
From sport witness about ricky wolf
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As much as they may have initially tried, Sporting Lisbon and the Portuguese press just can’t stay angry at Ricky van Wolfswinkel. They initially questioned why he was moving to Norwich City and some representatives of the club and various media outlets reacted with shock and a fair bit of disgust at the path being chosen by the Dutch forward.
Even Norwich City fans must have seen the bizarre nature of the club being able to pick off Sporting Lisbon’s best player, but since the announcement of his signing Van Wolfswinkel has explained several times that he really wants to play in the Premier League, at a club where he’ll get games, and that leaving Sporting has been a hard decision for him to make.
His performances have helped to make Sporting’s fans fall back in love with him and today’s Record newspaper says they want just one more thing from their departing hero, enough goals against Benfica next week to win the match.
Sporting are only seventh in the table but they could give top place Benfica a real blow to their title hopes with a victory, and even though it’s away from home the fans reckon a win is on the cards if their Dutch hit-man puts in one of his best performances.
Record dub the match the ‘Last great challenge of the Wolf’, the games afterwards are deemed to be small matches and therefore this is seen as his big goodbye. If he can pull it off then he’ll go down even further into Sporting folklore before he makes his move to Norwich City.
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Why van gaal repeatedly avoiding him???????
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