Well, that's life. This team did much more than was expected, but the irony is that we were eliminated after only one subpar game, by the weakest opponent we had in the direct elimination stage. With a play like tonight's we wouldn't have reached the last 16. At least we won the Dutch Cup because I'm not sure we can win the League after tonight's debacle.
Terrible. Saw this scenario in 51st minute, after they started to defend, instead of attacking with possession. I watched the timer and said to myself: "If Tottenham scores now, they need only two goals to pass further". Nothing to see in the final. Emotional shock for Ajax players. Who knows when will next chance arrive after all these sales. They could learn a lot from the other semi-final match. Never pull back. The attack is the best defence. Can't believe. Watching highlights now in the studio show. Title for Liverpool I guess. Football is often cruel and better teams don't achieve titles. Sad view on my jersey collection. Seeing this edition jersey. This generation will vanish from Amsterdam. They could rest the players and avoid the Dutch cup, Willem II. Not sure who played there. Schone was tired, van de Beek started to vanish. The post of Ziyech, missed chance of Tadic. Luck for Tottenham, the ball bounced on Lucas Moura leg in strange and complicated ways. English finals in both competitions. For them, another Premierleague match.
This feels about as bad as the Iniesta goal ij the last minute of extra time in WC2010. Unbelievable. The worst thing is that I think we all would have accepted losing and been proud of the team... but not like this. It was so evident it was going to happen after that second bullshit goal.... and then all the missed chances. Why does Ziyech always miss his big chances but then score the difficult ones? The neres pole shot, the ziyech pole shot... its unbelieveable. Losing Neres was huge, Dolberg was pathetic and we had no one to take advantage of the open space. Ziyech and Tadic were absolutely gassed at the end... I cant help but think they might have just had that extra 5% to get the goal on their big chances if they weren’t starved......
The great American sportswriter, Roy Blount Jr., coined a great phrase when he was writing about the Pittsburgh Steelers more than 40 years ago, "...about three bricks short of a load..." I guess that's how gutted I feel right now. Ajax really ran out of gas in the 2nd half for the first time this season. After a great first half, they just could not keep up the pace and Spurs were far the more dangerous team in the latter part of the game. Ajax still had some chances but there was some great goal keeping, actually great on both sides, that denied Ajax the match clincher. Lot and ifs and maybes that we can talk about but that's little consolation. I feel bad for all the Ajax players who brought us some great memories this season and I'm sure a bunch of them will now go on their way this summer and the club will have to rebuild. Always an opitimist, I hope to see something like this in some future season. Player ratings: Onana (7.5) - did all he could do to keep Spurs out but a couple of scrambles and defensive errors proved decisive Tagliafico (6.5) - did not have much of a chance to effect things offensively Blind (6) - some uncharacteristic poor passing and always looked second best on balls in the air de Ligt (7.5) - kept his cool and encouraged his players to keep things moving; could not ask for a better captain Mazraoui (5) - had trouble with the pace of Son early on and then moved into the MF in place of Schöne Schöne (5.5) - thought he was just a bit better than OK de Jong (6) - had some good moments on the ball but I thought he could have done better van de Beek (5.5) - not at his best tonight Tadic (7) - really tried hard to make things happen up front Dolberg (3.5) - poor on the ball and not fast enough to pressure; I suspect he is on his way out of town Ziyech (8) - great goal and another couple of shots that on another night might have found the net; active pressing all night long Veltman (7) - critical save off the line to keep Ajax on top and very good play on the night Sinkgraven (5.5) - curious substitution but after the Juve game who should question ten Hag? Magallan (NR) - on late Club has to turn it around and play Utrecht at home this weekend. I wonder if there will be any spirit. I give a major shout out to ten Hag as I really questioned whether this was the right choice last season. He molded a club that had to come through three qualifying matches and got them within a minute of a Champions League final! All these guys will remain heroes for what they achieved this season.
Netherlands doesn't have luck at all, three lost finals. They played great in 1998, 2006, 2010, 2014 World Cups. 1974 and 1978 finals were strange, domestic teams had advantage in that period. Blind seems as weaker solution, he plays there just because of his father. Schone has great free kicks, but I don't see him in Ajax.
But why the Donny sub for Magallan? I understand the obviois tactical idea but Magallan has done nothing positive for Ajax yet and I think it was obvious for everyone to see that we needed to score the winning goal on the counter and not go all defense. And man... onana was a beast but does he really need to hoof the ball every single time? For a strong possession team that is really a negative point. Every time the ball was passed back to Onana resulted in lost posession.
I have said this a long time, luck is definitely part of it but I think the main factor is cultural. Dutch athletes always choke when there are big things expected of them. It really is systematic.
EURO 1988 was great for Netherlands. Something happened after that EURO. I don't remember WC 1990, but I notice 3 draws in the group stage. After that Germany again. Hard victories at WC 1994 against Saudi Arabia and Morocco. Tight defeat against Brazil. Tones of effort for small difference against anyone. Van Basten missed the penalty at EURO 1992 against Denmark who won the title. Strange scenarios, always with some percent of shock and emotions. At least, if Netherlands losses clean 2-0, 3-0, it would be more acceptable. The champion without deserved titles. Spain, Portugal liberated well from that choking part. So many great players of Netherlands...
De Ligt is a legend at 19, so not going to criticize his play, but...if only he extended to make the tackle/block at the end. Seemed to hesitate because it was in the box. Just a devastating loss. We’ll see what they’re made of against Utrecht on Sunday.
It seems that all clubs don't create great defenders, they create them, with more technical - attacking skills. Of course, that they can't work in both directions. Two Belgian defenders of Tottenham also participate a lot in attack, but they get 4 goals from Manchester City and 3 goals from Ajax. There are no so great defenders like before. Lloris is in terrible shape, but no one will say this to him, since he is in the final.
Yes, our players run out of gass in the second half, but it's close to a miracle they did this so late in the season. You can't expect to win CL, home League and Cup, using only 12-13 payers because that's what ten Hag did. Then when a usual starter is unavailable, as was Neres, he subs him with a player that rarely has been used even as a sub. No surprise Dolberg has been the weakest player on the night.
They decided to defend in the second half. Very bad decision, they could make possession until 65th minute and take some time with passive initiative with substitutes. Maybe if they stopped with attacks after 1-0, they could resist or accept 1 goal and end with 1-1. Also enough. They wasted a lot of energy in attack. I don't mind about de Ligt, but Blind could react better, Schone and Dolberg were weak. The national league title, as some consolation, if we can call it like that and wait for another 25 years until the next final.
The final won't be interesting at all for me. Liverpool always had boring players without personality. Tottenham is also boring to watch, they were weak against Manchester City. Kane, Alli, Rose, Son, Lamela...not interesting. Maybe Trippier plays good with attacking initiative. In fact, 3 ex-Ajax players seem as their game carriers.
I’m also genuinely curious... in what way was a 5 minute stoppage time warranted? For both goals there no celebration and Spurs sped to get it back to play. Furthermore no injuries or anything else weird. How the hell is that 5 minutes? And then they score at like 5 minutes and 40 seconds or something.... its kind of ridiculous.