Ernst Bouwes/Hamburg

Being raised on SportsCenter and everything ESPN, I tend to frequent the ESPN Soccernet for news, scores and some pretty decent articles. One of my favorite writers is Eredivise columnist Ernst Bouwes. His columns are one of the few places on this site where the Dutch game is discussed in much detail, but his writings are very insightful into the history and current state of Dutch football. Here is a link to his most recent post on the current state of the Dutch youth academies:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=595933&sec=europe&root=europe&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos2&cc=5901

Tough loss in Alkmaar last weekend, I did not get a chance to see the match, but in general I'm not TOO worried about a loss there. AZ is a strong team and I see them being in the championship race down the stretch. Is this loss a disappointment following the PSV win? Sure it is, but this match was never seen as an easy win, and Ajax probably would have been happy to leave with just a point. That being said, I hope this loss does not lead to more instability with this team, especially with the critical UEFA Cup match coming up this week in Hamburg. The Martin Jol's team currently sit in 5th place in the Bundesliga and are coming off a 2-1 win over a struggling Werder Bremen team. They have won 6 out of 7 home matches this year and will be a difficult match up for our boys.

Side note: Former Ajacied midfielder Nigel de Jong has been ruled out until the new year and will miss this match.