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.

Huge win

On a day of remembrance for the great Sjaak Wolfs, Ajax took a tremendous step forward today in their quest to regain the Eredivise title. After an awful pre-season, a weak showing in the Amsterdam Tournament, an opening week loss at Willem II and a thrashing at Heerenveen, there were some serious questions being asked about Marco Van Basten's team at mid-September. No less than six straight league wins later, and coming off a convincing win over the 4 time Landskampioen from Eindhoven, Ajax is in first place and is finally starting to show that they were worth all of the pre-season hype. Forget what happened in Volendam last week...this team sure seems like it has. The return of Enoh (starting XI) and Sulejmani (61st minute sub) from the injured list was the shot in the arm that Ajax needed to gain only its second Arena win ever against a PSV side that is having one of its worst string of results in years. This may have been the weakest PSV side that Ajax has ever faced at the ArenA...they look like a broken team with little confidence and a lot of problems. Thats always good news here. There are 3 or 4 really strong teams in the Eredivise this year, but PSV is not one of them. An interesting lineup was on the field for Ajax today, with 3 of the players deemed "dispensable" at the beginning of the season (Rommedahl, Kennedy, and Leonardo) seeing significant and productive playing time. Will van Basten hold steady with some of the changes he made today, particularly Enoh starting in Gabri's place? Based on the former Ajax Cape Town player's rock steady performance today (and Gabri's good play coming off the bench), that might be a safe bet. The kid is good.

We are all so used to paying attention to the point difference between Ajax and PSV, hoping they drop points here and there, and that Ajax can take advantage. I feel those days may temporarily be over. I'm going to officially write off PSV from this year's Eredivise title race. You heard it here first. What do I see now when I look at the standings? Level on points with NAC, two points up on Groningen and AZ. I don't want to even look at PSV anymore, they are toast...have fun down there with Feyenoord.

On a side note, anybody know why PSV NEVER changes their away kits?

Sjaak Wolfs 1931-2008

A reader has notified us that the legendary Sjaak Wolfs passed away today at the age of 76. If you don't know much about Sjaak or his long history with the club, I would highly recommend taking a few minutes to read this article written by Menno Pot a few years ago.

http://www.ajax-usa.com/desk/an-ode-to-sjakie.html

Rained out

Injuries, injuries, injuries...I can't remember a time when Ajax was hit so hard by injuries as they are right now. As much as it feels like a crutch (no pun intended), you really can blame yesterday's KNVB Beker loss in Volendam to the fact that van Basten just can't field a good team right now. The list of players is not only long but significant as well: Steks, Mitchell Donald, Ismail Aissati, Dennis Gentenaar, van der Heijden, Dario Cvitanich, Jeffery Sarpong, Miralem Sulejmani and now KJH are all sidelined. Throw in an groin injury for Urby and it spelled out a tough job for van Basten's team against the Eredivise cellar dwellers. 18 year old Marvin Zeegelaar made his Ajax-1 debut up front and had a respectable game, Evander Sno played well and Suarez was his usual self, but you could tell things were just not going to work out well with this rag tag group up front. A Leonardo for Sno substitution in the second half looked promising but failed to produce any goals.
While it definitely sucks to bow out of a competition like this so early and to a lowly team like Volendam, I'm sure deep down van Basten isn't too worried about it. The Beker was probably 3rd on the list of Ajax priorities at this point, behind an Eredivise title and a good UEFA Cup showing. The time and energy that this will free up may help the recovery of some the injured players, and will allow the team to focus on their more loftier goals for the year. Next up, a crucial Eredivise home match vs PSV this Sunday and a week from then another tough game in Alkmaar. The subs need to step it up!

Awkward but worth it

I've never had any desire to personally meet any of my personal heroes or celebrities that I admire. Not only do I think it would sort of 'ruin the magic', but I know I'll have absolutely nothing to say to them and look like a complete moron. I guess this explains my reaction when I got on the elevator to my honeymoon suite and realized that I was standing right next to Edgar Davids! Actually it was more like my lack of reaction, because I completely froze in place and didn't say anything or look at him. We both went up one floor, I got out first, started walking to my room, and noticed that he was following me! Edgar Davids was staying 2 doors down from my room! Holy crap! The rest of the day I cursed myself for not talking to him or getting a picture, (also for taking my Ajax jersey off 10 minutes prior), and walked around with my camera all day hoping that I would run into him again. Sure enough, the very next day I was in the hotel lobby when I saw him walking towards me. I could barely whisper his name to get his attention and ask if I could take a picture and blah blah blah I love Ajax and am a huge fan. You can kind of tell from his expression that he wasn't exactly thrilled, and honestly I don't remember him saying anything besides maybe a grunt or two, so it was a little awkward, but I'm glad I did it. It was an unexpected encounter that lasted about 15 seconds, but I'll never forget it.

Back to reality

Just got back from my honeymoon last night, thanks for all of your kind comments. Seven nights in Curacao is something that I would definitely recommend to anyone. I hope to write more tonight, but for now I can say that I did have a very interesting Ajacied encounter at the Curacao Marriott Beach Resort where we stayed. Anyone care to guess who? More to come later...