Because Juve has more fans in Milano than in Torino (no joke) and since the game took place pretty late (most Juve fans come from outside the city) & wasn't that interesting anymore. Nearby the tickets for international games are very expensive in Italy...
Disappointing but predictable and probably fair result today. We just don't have the physical ability to hold the ball up when we get near goal. The quality that was lacking is the crisp midfield passes that create chances. Look how Barcelona break down teams and other than Zlatan they are not physically imposing players. We also are not very experienced at this level. What is it, 7 players under the age of 23 starting out there today? We did miss Suarez who could have caused some trouble up front. Pantelic doesn't have much of a future at the age of 31 with this team.
Yes, I'm well aware of that. I clearly don't believe Ajax have the quality level of players as Barca (and I watch Barca every weekend); my point is that they show how the 4-3-3 can work with the short passing game. The only physical player they have is Zlatan; everyone else is finesse. It takes good field sense to make this work, and unfortunately de Zeeuw is the only one who seems to have it for us.
Enoh reminded me why I love him yesterday. The guy is a tireless worker and basically nullified Diego. It was great to watch.
With a less kind match official he would have received at least one or two more yellow cards. I think he is tireless but his play is often reckless. I stand by my previous comment and don't believe he has good field vision (it's also one of the reasons he has occasional problems on defense). Still he is a young player and has good skills.
Yes he was completely reckless on many occasions I agree. I just think that with the way we were attacking Juventus yesterday, it was good to have Enoh keeping Juve's counter-attacks from Diego & Co. in check. He could have ended up with a red-card but in the end he really did a good job I thought.
Another day another dollar. No dropped points from the leaders. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRunOO9r8fM"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRunOO9r8fM[/ame]
Getting that yellow today was probably a good thing for Suarez. He'll miss Sparta instead of potentially PSV (if he'd gotten a yellow against Sparta).
VI are slagging off the refereeing at the Ajax v Utrecht game big time."Referee kills off the game by sending Utrecht player off for no good reason" is the verdict. How many times have you had an opponent finish the game with ten men now? Four, five times?
wins a win johan, Ajax can only play the game that they are given, its not Ajax's fault if someones send off.. ill happily keep taking these wins, no matter how they come, Twente leaving it late and scraping wins by 1 goal each week, surely got to give somewhere... but we will see.. interesting run in to say they least!
Of course you'll take the win, it's just that even the serious media are starting to notice that Ajax gets opponents sent off a lot at home games.
The commentator said as much, and I agree that in this case it was definitely harsh. But I will not accept that there is some kind of concerted plan to favor Ajax when it comes to officiating. We've been victim to as many bad calls as we have been the beneficiary.
I saw the match and this could have either been a red or yellow. I think the reason it was a red was a reaction to the challenge on Aaron Ramsey of Arsenal on Saturday which was exactly the same kind except that his leg got struck (not the case here) and as a result a promising player is out for the season. There certainly is not a conspiracy among the officials in favor of Ajax unless it's in your mind. From my perspective I am glad that the officials in the Netherlands are quicker with the red card as the number of serious leg injuries are kept to a minimum compared to the English league where they will only pull the red is one is stretchered off with something broken or torn.
The way I see it, it wasn't the result of the foul that caused the red card, it was the way in which he came into the tackle (diving studs up). As mentioned above if De Jong had a planted foot (like Ramsey) he could have been seriously injured.
A win is a win for sure, but you should also look at the way they come. I wasnot joking when I posted about tail wind soccer players. Fc Utrecht wasnot overrun by Ajax until they were down to 10 men. So this selection is only able to break down a stiff competition when they are outnumbered by Ajax. On the other hand FC Twente wins matches by strength, even if things donot go their way. Take notice how many goals that really mattered were scored by Ruiz and how many by Panty and Suarez. Twente players have enough confidence to break down an opponent on their own, this Ajax selection does need time after time the help of the referee. That should worry you. Nine matches left and you cannot afford to drop one point if the CL is the goal you are going for. How confident are you about the mentality of this selection?
Ajax cannot beat a team which is number 7 in the league and practically building a wall around the box within 30 minutes and thus the Ajax selection can only win when they have a numerical advantage. Yeah, nice deductive reasoning skills there buddy. Jol made a mistake going with 4-4-2 in that game. Very poor choice when you're playing at home against a team that isn't willing to cross the half line. The only thing I worry about is Jols tactical intelligence. The selection is just fine. As long as we have Suarez we will be able to break down any defense. Even without Suarez all is not lost, but I will withhold further comment until after Sparta away. Anyway, as long as we're 73-17 in goals compared to Feyenoords 38-23, you really don't have to worry about how confident WE are. Also, Ruiz is a good player, excellent to see that there are more good players other than Suarez. Scored a lot of dying minutes winners. But if you're trying to argue that he's a better player than Suarez I will have to disagree. Suarez, 26 goals and 14 assists. (this adds up to 40, more than Feyenoord) Ruiz, 17 goals and 4 assists. Ruiz is welcome to join Ajax. But if I have to choose: I'll take Suarez, thank you. Twente didn't look so confident when they were being whooped by Ajax or Bremen though.
He was trying a 4-4-2 during the pre-season and has used it on occasion. It's often difficult to figure out whether we are 4-3-3 or 4-4-2. He really doesn't have any classic wing players other than Rommedahl (who has his own limitations). Since Huntelaar left, we also don't have a tradtional 4-3-3 striker either (don't get me started on Pantelic). Every one plays defensively against us and we still seem to do OK. I think play has improved a lot since returning from the winter break. Probably too late to catch the leaders but you never know.
Conveniently leaving out that a) Ajax lost at Twente away b) that Twente actually completely dominated at Ajax away in the first half hour until you scored a goal out of nowhere at which Twente admittedly lost the plot and c) that Ruiz was an inch away of getting Twente to the next UEFA league round. Oh and btw: dream on re: Ruiz. You can no longer afford Twente players and Twente aren't selling anyone to you in the first place. Remember Elia? Joop Munsterman wasn't kidding. Feyenoord raises an interesting point. Ruiz scores to get his team out of a hole. Suarez scores when things are flowing nicely at Ajax. Once Ajax are on a roll, or have a bit of luck with the refereeing, all is fine and dandy. I can't even remember the last time though that Ajax has actually rolled up its sleeves and won difficult games battling away, or came back from being a goal behind. Like Van der Gijp says: you see Twente walking out onto the pitch, and you see giant Douglas, and tattoo-ed Janssen, and the beast Tiote, then you see Ajax and you see perfect son in law material the size of midgets. That's part of Ajax culture, elegant footballers. In the past that was quite enough to win you games as said elegant footballers had a surplus of quality. Now that you don't have that though, who's going to win the difficult games for you? Note that I'm well aware that Twente could still finish third. But there'd be no shame in that considering that we've not even sixty percent of Ajax's budget and that we've lost almost an entire starting eleven over the past two years. When I see Ajax play though, or when I see your board members talk, it's pretty clear to see that your club still hasn't faced up to the reality of this generation's football. Now that Ajax has stooped down to the level of Twente, it's fight that you need, and pure and honest grit. I don't think your squad has that, personally, but we'll just have to see. Again you won't hear me say Twente has a perfect squad, far from it. But mentally, the Twente squad has been superior so far. And so has PSV.
I only posted that which was relevant, Johan. Suarez has 26 goals and 14 assists. Don't come with that Suarez only scores when things go well rubbish. I don't know if you have watched any Ajax games before the this half of the season but Ajax was pretty much Suarez + De Zeeuw. He sets up attacks, assists and goals by himself any day any time. Even when he's having a bad day he's our most dangerous player. I'll expand on the statistical comparison between these 2. Luis Suarez, 23 years old, 117 games, 74 goals, 42 assists. 0,99 goals or assists per game. Bryan Ruiz, 24 years old, 103 games, 43 goals, 4 assists. 0,42 goals or assists per game. No doubt PSV and Twente have been stronger this season. Although there was little difference in quality when we played against them. At the least, they have been more consistent than we have. But consistency remains a troublesome issue when you're playing with a team with an average age of about 22. But the most interesting part is just going to begin. Twente and PSV have yet to play eachother, Feyenoord and AZ. While Ajax only has to face PSV at home, and have Sparta away as our 2nd toughest match.