at the end of all the trouble, some absurd conditions inside and outside the stadium, and two stoppages in play (one for a linesman being hit by a thrown object), the better team won in rotterdam. not that roma are world beaters, and they also have the totti problem because his enduring presence makes it impossible for them to develop a good approach without him, although i think they would have the talent. feyenoord lost two center forwards in the game and that was about it. roma defended very deep after 2-1 which made for a couple of goal mouth scrambles, and roma also were unable to take advantage even of very simple counter opportunities that clearly were available. but in the end feyernoord's exit means a sigh of relief to uefa, i think.
we can only wish, but i'm afraid there are lots of (bad) reasons why that isn't likely. for one thing, there isn't any political will anywhere to deal with these issues as they should be handled. the troubles with soccer 'fans' cross into complicated social and political ground, in each and every european country. but they (whoever they are, of whatever team or country) ruin the sport of soccer. you can't 'just talk about soccer' when games can barely get played, and then under pretty absurd conditons.
well, if your threshold for identifying a problem is when someone gets killed, i think you're giving things too much slack. and obviously from my concern about the events in rome and in rotterdam, it would be ridiculous to conclude that i 'only care about monuments and not about human life.' i would like to go to a game when i want and how i want, without being fearful, and without having to wonder whether they can even play. in fact, even if i didn't give a hoot about the game, i would like to be able to walk around in rome, or rotterdam, or paris, or wherever it may be, without having to fear for what will happen next because feyenoord fans (or whatever other hooligans) have decided to make things miserable for everybody else. i hope i've cleared up my view for you. thank you.
How about you just give it a rest or take it to the Italian section to complain? We really don't want to hear about it anymore.
Learn the difference between a threshold and a double standard. If Napoli fans start stabbing people again you should really be all over their forum, or you have been found out as a hypocrite. Actually 2 Roma fans have been stabbing Feyenoord fans the day after the game. Yes, probably some retaliation, but a guy with high moral standards like yourself does not deal with principles like an eye for an eye. You are shocked by the phenomena of violence around games and do not condone any of it. So I take it you already payed the Roma forum a visit and discussed this problem with their fan base as well. Did you not?
You better not go to any Roma games as a non-Roma fan then: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...abbed-Roma-Ultras-attack-Gunners-minibus.html http://www.italianfootballdaily.com/breaking-russian-fans-stabbed-rome/ http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ortedly-stabbed-before-as-roma-vs-lazio-match http://news.sky.com/story/1161030/spurs-fan-stabbed-in-rome-two-men-jailed
Kongolo was lost on this and let his man easily get too much depth between him and the goal. Regardles of what Nelom did, it was Kongolo's job to identify the danger man and neutralize him. this he did not do. Anyway, props to Feyenoord; even down a man they always looked dangerous. Clasie again was outstanding with his identification of the open man and the quick pass right at the feet. No other midfielder in the league has this field awareness.
Here's a reality check!! Ajax has been outplayed by the Ukrainians so far in this game and is trailing by a goal to nil . There's a reason I said it wouldn't be so easy for us. One scrappy chance fell to Veltman at the stroke of HT and that was pretty much it!! We've created ZERO chances so far and each and every player looks shaky and short of ideas. There's absolutely no creativity and FDB is happy to keep two of his most creative players on the bench (Kishna and Sinkgraven)
Are you kidding me, if we had played Inter, Sevilla or Roma today we wouldve been down 2-0 or 3-0. As it stands right now I think Ajax have a decent chance to advance with 2 Dnipro players missing return leg because of yellows
Problem with Dutch clubs in general are the way you guys sell as soon as a EPL side come in you sell In portugal they do the same but club presidents refuse until the bigger clubs notice Example is Rafa silva at SC Braga Everton offered 7m£ and Braga refused now ATletico madrid are offering 25M€ Would like to see dutch clubs do that I'm a big fan of your league
They have been able to keep a player like Konoplyanka for 8 years ( he really exploded in 2010 so 5 years of good performances now) When Ajax will be able to keep an Eriksen or a Suarez more than three seasons, then things would probably be better in their european performances.
Simple. Quality in the fist eleven! The two most creative players of Ajax were on the bench till the 60th minute and there was absolutely nobody in midfield to pull the strings, speed up the tempo and create something out of nothing. Bazoer is a big talent but he's far too inexperienced to lead the charge on his own. Serero was too clumsy on the ball. His first touch was heavy and his passing was below-standard. Klaassen is a hard working CM who has his own set of qualities , you cannot expect him to speed up the game/create chances out of nothing. He doesn't have that quality,period! What really put me off was the endless back passing exhibited by the players whenever they were under pressure. This entire back-passing culture needs to be annihilated from the Netherlands asap. Back-passing signifies that there's something wrong with the quality of the players on the pitch, either they can't turn away from their markers or dribble past them to create opportunities or they are fearful of losing possession in a potentially dangerous area of the field. In this case, I think it's a combination of both the aforementioned factors. This^^
By nature FdB is a conservative manager. The only time that Ajax every open up and play free flowing football is when they score the first goal and begin to go for the knockout. Dnipro were vastly more experienced in their starting 11 and probably the Ukrainian league plays at a higher standard at least with the major clubs (Dynamo, Shakhtar, Metalist) than does the Dutch league. For some reason they are able to get a fair number of Brazilians to play there as well as top rated Balkan players who cannot make it in Italy, England or Spain. I was mildly optimistic going into the match last evening as Dnipro had played only three league matches because of their winter break but when the tactics became evident and the players looked frightened I knew things were pretty much over. The Eredivisie is really not very good these days as judged by Euro competition. I think you have to go back to 2008 to see a club advance out the CL group stage and EL football has been a disaster. It just may be that the league is no longer deserving of an automatic place in the CL. Perhaps Ajax turn it around next week but based on evidence so far they are the weakest team in the round of 16. Sure we would all love to see the young players stay on for a longer period of time but realistically who wants to play in front of 3000 supporters at Excelsior when you can play in front of 74,000 at Old Trafford or 68,000 at Arsenal (not to mention the huge salary that will be offered).
I hope the proposed merger of the Belgian and Dutch leagues goes through to be honest. More money, more competitive league structure and both Belgium and the Netherlands will benefit from it IMO.
I'm a massive fan of the Eredivisie. I have been to the Netherlands on multiple occasions I think your League is a good league with FFP coming into the fold it will be easier on the Eredivisie I still say the problem overall is UEFA and its lack of intrest in the lesser leagues
Should have been done 15 years earlier. The later they wait the worse the terms for a merger will be. On the other hand, one doesn't want to have a merged league where one part is way more dominant as the other part. I think a merger is inevitable, or only 10 Dutch clubs will survive or so.
I think a North Sea League (Netherlands, Belgium, Scotland and Denmark) would be the best option in quality perspective.
Well, if you have the choice for the top teams between sinking into irrelevance or getting real competition with international appeal, then it is easy.