wpr
  • wpr
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6 years ago
I have been watching (following online) AFC Ajax (Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax) ever since I read about Eddy Hamel in Sport's Illustrated a couple of weeks ago .

Hamel played for Ajax in the 20's. He was one of the first Americans to play in Europe. While he was a forward he didn't score much. He was better at finding the open teammate and getting him the ball and letting his teammate score. The SI story deals with him being in a Nazi concentration camp so you may not want to read the article.

Ajax seems like an interesting team. The are an old, renowned team that has won many championships. They are owned by stockholders. I see some similarities to Green Bay.

One of their interesting quirks is the stadium was once located near a Jewish neighborhood of Amsterdam. A large portion of their fans were Jewish. Even though times have changed the fans keep that tie to their past alive today chanting "Joden, Joden" and unfurling a huge Star of David, Israeli flag at matches even though very few are actually Jewish.

A couple of days ago they defeated superpower Real Madrid  in The Champions League match to advance to the quarterfinals.

I think I will watch them a little closer for a while.
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wpr
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6 years ago
My underdog Ajax team has now beaten powerhouses Real Madrid and Juventus. Embarrassing both teams on their home pitch in the second and final match.

They are now in the semi's of the Champions League for the first time since 1997.

Here's the winning goal in today's match.

UserPostedImage

Win or lose in the semi's, it's been fun following them.
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Smokey
6 years ago
 t5r43w9.jpg You have insufficient rights to see the content.


That's so interesting.

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KRK
  • KRK
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6 years ago
zzzzzzzz
In Luce tua Videmus Lucem KRK
Rockmolder
6 years ago
I figured this'd be lost on you philistines.

Ajax aren't actually my team, but their run in the Champions' League has been amazing. I'm obviously biased, but they've seem to become the favorite team of a lot of people, just because of the David vs Goliath aspect.

To put some numbers on that... Ajax has a budget somewhere around € 90 million. The big guys like Real Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona are operating with budgets around € 500 - 750 million. They've been forced to rely on their own youth academy and Johan Cruyff's principles.

It's Moneyball, but on an even bigger stage.
wpr
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6 years ago
Thanks Rocky. Your comments are appreciated.

For some reason or another I assumed this was not your favorite team but you would know how significant their success has been. I think the Spurs have watered down Ajax's achievement a little.

At one time I was thinking of looking up payroll comparisons but I felt very few people here would understand and appreciate it.

It has been disappointing to read of all the transfer talk that's going on even before their run is over.

What's with the KNVB Beker? Playing in 2 competitions at one time seems like a little bit of a stretch but 3? It seems like it would be too much. Why not wait a few weeks before it begins?
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Rockmolder
6 years ago

Thanks Rocky. Your comments are appreciated.

For some reason or another I assumed this was not your favorite team but you would know how significant their success has been. I think the Spurs have watered down Ajax's achievement a little.

At one time I was thinking of looking up payroll comparisons but I felt very few people here would understand and appreciate it.

It has been disappointing to read of all the transfer talk that's going on even before their run is over.

Originally Posted by: wpr 



It is. And it's one thing makes me appreciate the salary cap in a lot of American sports even more. You have to keep rotating your roster, in a way, but a guy like Frenkie de Jong would play for Ajax for life, much like Rodgers won't leave the Packers. In reality, he's gone after one good year because the bigger fish noticed him.

Great for parity, as well. What Ajax is doing as an underdog in Europe is great, but purely from an Eredivisie standpoint... You can pencil either them or PSV in as champion nearly every year. Both teams go into Europe. Earn even more. Dominate the Eredivisie even more. It's snowballing out of hand.

The thing I also don't like is that football fanbases don't make sense geographically. Half of The Netherlands is fan of Ajax, not because they're from Amsterdam or the rest of North Holland, but because it's a winning team. Even people in Ohio stay Browns fans, because you know there's the chance that they'll bounce back eventually and win a championship. If you're a fan of FC Groningen, you're always fighting for a mid-table finish.

There's no way you could implement it anymore, though.

What's with the KNVB Beker? Playing in 2 competitions at one time seems like a little bit of a stretch but 3? It seems like it would be too much. Why not wait a few weeks before it begins?



That's pretty common in any league. It's quite low, even, when compared to England. The Premier League has:

- Two more teams, so 4 more matches.
- Two cups running alongside the competition
- Six or seven teams going into European competitions.
- And because the quality of players is so ridiculously high, their players are all playing for their national teams during the international breaks.

Ajax has is relatively easy, really.
Zero2Cool
6 years ago
What I think about when I see "Ajax"

Ajax is short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, which refers to a set of web development techniques rather than an actual programming language.

OR

UserPostedImage

OR

UserPostedImage


But mainly...

Ajax is short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, which refers to a set of web development techniques rather than an actual programming language.
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wpr
  • wpr
  • Preferred Member Topic Starter
6 years ago

It is. And it's one thing makes me appreciate the salary cap in a lot of American sports even more. You have to keep rotating your roster, in a way, but a guy like Frenkie de Jong would play for Ajax for life, much like Rodgers won't leave the Packers. In reality, he's gone after one good year because the bigger fish noticed him.

Great for parity, as well. What Ajax is doing as an underdog in Europe is great, but purely from an Eredivisie standpoint... You can pencil either them or PSV in as champion nearly every year. Both teams go into Europe. Earn even more. Dominate the Eredivisie even more. It's snowballing out of hand.

The thing I also don't like is that football fanbases don't make sense geographically. Half of The Netherlands is fan of Ajax, not because they're from Amsterdam or the rest of North Holland, but because it's a winning team. Even people in Ohio stay Browns fans, because you know there's the chance that they'll bounce back eventually and win a championship. If you're a fan of FC Groningen, you're always fighting for a mid-table finish.

There's no way you could implement it anymore, though.



That's pretty common in any league. It's quite low, even, when compared to England. The Premier League has:

- Two more teams, so 4 more matches.
- Two cups running alongside the competition
- Six or seven teams going into European competitions.
- And because the quality of players is so ridiculously high, their players are all playing for their national teams during the international breaks.

Ajax has is relatively easy, really.

Originally Posted by: Rockmolder 



Thanks for the input. Playing in multiple competitions at the same time seems odd to an American.

Eredivisie is probably no different than the other major leagues. England, Spain, Italy and I assume even Germany all have their premiere 2-3 teams that win all the time and the rest are left scrambling for the crumbs. I haven't followed the leagues in South America but I htought I heard the same thing happening there as well.

If I had not stumbled upon Ajax, I would probable be following Tottenham this season.

Here's a question I could not find an answer to online maybe you can help me- Huntelaar received a red card in the match against Groningen. That won't matter when they play Tottenham will it? I assumed it will when they play their next Eredivisie match against Vitesse.
Along that same line, what's to keep a player from getting a yellow or even a red card late in a match that they are losing and more than likely their team will be eliminated? I seem to recall Ronaldo drawing a yellow card in ET of the 2nd leg match. It doesn't seem like there would be any ramification for a player on the losing team.

Zero, All well in good. Keep in mind the football team's name is pronounced I- ax not A- jax.
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Rockmolder
6 years ago

Thanks for the input. Playing in multiple competitions at the same time seems odd to an American.

Eredivisie is probably no different than the other major leagues. England, Spain, Italy and I assume even Germany all have their premiere 2-3 teams that win all the time and the rest are left scrambling for the crumbs. I haven't followed the leagues in South America but I htought I heard the same thing happening there as well.

If I had not stumbled upon Ajax, I would probable be following Tottenham this season.

Here's a question I could not find an answer to online maybe you can help me- Huntelaar received a red card in the match against Groningen. That won't matter when they play Tottenham will it? I assumed it will when they play their next Eredivisie match against Vitesse.
Along that same line, what's to keep a player from getting a yellow or even a red card late in a match that they are losing and more than likely their team will be eliminated? I seem to recall Ronaldo drawing a yellow card in ET of the 2nd leg match. It doesn't seem like there would be any ramification for a player on the losing team.

Zero, All well in good. Keep in mind the football team's name is pronounced I- ax not A- jax.

Originally Posted by: wpr 



Yeah, it doesn't transfer over to different leagues.

I don't think there's any ramifications for a yellow card. Inherent to the fact that it was only a yellow card is that the foul wasn't an egregious foul.

Red cards are a different story. It's a bit complicated, but I believe in the Champion's League/Europe League it works like this. If you get sent off by getting two yellow cards, you normally miss the match after that one. This gets wiped if you get eliminated. It doesn't if you go from the Champion's League group stage to the Europa League.

If you get a red card for a bad tackle, you usually miss more matches. This does carry over to next year. If Ronaldo had been even more frustrated than he already was and would've gone for an ankle with a straigth leg, he would've gotten at least a 3 match ban and would've missed half the group stage in 2019/2020.
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