Ajax

Referees sometime make calls that absolutely just baffle the mind. However, I don’t know if anything compares to the decision by Bas Nijhuis in the match yesterday between Ajax and AZ in the Dutch Cup.

In the 35th minute, a drunk Ajax hooligan ran out onto the pitch and attacked the AZ goalie, Esteban Alvarado. Alvarado knocked the hooligan to the ground and kicked him a couple of times in the legs. The security guards got to the hooligan and arrested him while Alvarado was restrained by his teammates from going after him.

Shockingly, Nijhuis then gave Alvarado a red card for his actions.

The decision was appalling. Alvarado was simply acting in self-defense by throwing the hooligan to the ground and kicking him. How was Alvarado supposed to know that the hooligan wasn’t going to get up and attack him with a weapon after he knocked him down? If you are dumb enough to run onto the field and attack someone, then you are certainly dumb enough to be carrying a weapon.

Alvarado had to hold him off until someone else got there. In addition to that, Ajax has one of the most notorious hooligan firms in Holland. People have died in clashes with Ajax hooligans. With that in mind, how was Alvarado supposed to know that this hooligan wasn’t going to try to do the same to him?

Alvarado actually showed great restraint all things considered. He could easily have kicked the hooligan in the head instead of kicking him in the legs.

The AZ manager, Gertjan Verbeek, was completely correct to pull his team off of the field. If the KNVB has any common sense, they will kick Ajax out of the competition and give them a hefty fine. In addition to that, they will overturn Alvarado’s red card.

This video is not going to help the reputation of soccer fans.

A Dutch cup match between Ajax and AZ Alkmaar was forced to be halted 36 minutes in, after a crazed Ajax fan sprinted onto the field and tried to attack the Alkmaar goalkeeper from his backside.

Luckily, Esteban Alvarado was able to see the man coming in time and the two essentially went for the jump kick at the same time.

Advantage: soccer player with cleats on.

The fan fell to the ground and the furious goalkeeper kicked the fan twice while he was on the ground. It definitely did not look like fun for the fan on the ground.

Referee Bas Nijhuis pulled out a red card for the brutal beating, and Alkmaar coach Gertjan Verbeek ordered his team to walk off the field in protest.

Ajax was winning the match 1-0 at the time and the national soccer association director is not sure if the game will be replayed or not.

The crazed fan turned out to be a 19-year-old who had been drinking.

Shocking.

It’s not every day that a player can get in trouble for making sure a crazed fan didn’t cause harm to others, and I think the team should have protested the call.

It’s not the keeper’s fault he was defending himself and making sure he didn’t harm any other players. Sure, the kicking was a bit excessive, but Alvarado didn’t know what this guy was capable of doing; he was simply reacting to the situation.

Hopefully this game is replayed and the goalie is able to play while the fan gets more than just a slap on the wrist for single-handedly ruining a soccer match. 

In any sport, let alone football, simulation is widely criticised. Many times in World Football have we seen crucial ties decided by the selfish act of a player who is desperate to earn his team glory.

Following the Super Cup tie between Ajax and FC Twente in the Netherlands, Twente defender Peter Wisgerhof was at the centre of much criticism after committing what can only be described as an embarrassing act of simulation on the field.

Rather than earning his team a harmless free kick on the halfway line, Wisgerhof was ruled to have had dived. As a result, he became the subject of jeers from the crowd.

A subsequent scuffle with the opposing team was followed up with a discussion with the match official—that was all. No booking whatsoever.

There is no doubt that the act intended to deliberately influence proceedings in an unfair manner. It begs the question, why was he not booked?

If we are to stamp out such behaviour in the game, a booking or even a sending off should been issued by the referee.

Although Wisgerhof played an instrumental role at the back for Twente in their Cup win over Ajax, the terrible attempt at a dive certainly spoiled the occasion for the player.

In the end, Twente won 2-1 over Ajax with goals from Janko and Ruiz.

Ajax fans will hope that the defeat isn't anything to go by for the upcoming season as the team looks to defend their Eredivisie title for a record 31st time.

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After a month of flexing their muscles, Liverpool FC have finally agreed to a fee for Luis Suarez with Ajax Amsterdam.

The 24-year-old is yet to pass a medical but, according to reports, the fee is worth up to £22.8 million with the Dutch club. It has to be noted that this will be the first major signing of Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group since they bought the club in Oct. 2010.

Liverpool, with their initial offer of £12.9 million were some way short of Ajax’s valuation of roughly £25M. Ajax coach Frank De Boer suggested a bid of around £21M would do the job, and so it was. Pending a medical, Luis Suarez would, finally, be a Liverpool FC player.

The Fight for Torres

It has been reported that the Reds have rejected a £35 million bid from Chelsea for star striker Fernando Torres. It’s pretty apparent that Liverpool do not want to part with one of their prized assets.

“The player is not for sale,” said a club spokesman on Friday.

But there is no assurance that Chelsea will not come up with an improved bid, given their own problems. It is believed that Chelsea are willing to offer the Spanish World Cup winner a cool £160,000 a week, £50,000 more than his current salary.

He will not force through a move but is expected to tell Liverpool that he would like the opportunity to speak to Chelsea if they make an acceptable bid.

What Next for Torres and Liverpool?

It’s hard to deny the drastic improvement that the Reds have shown since Kenny Dalglish took over as manager. It looks as if the gloomy days of Hodgson were never there.

It has been accepted for some time that Torres needs support up front and Suarez would provide that.

The signing of Suarez would go down as a real statement of intent from the new Liverpool owners. But will it be enough to convince Torres to stay at Anfield beyond this season?

The answer to this, simply, lies in Liverpool’s position in the league table at the end of the season. A Champions League place is a must if Liverpool are to satisfactorily convince El Nino to stay at Anfield.

At the moment, Liverpool are at seventh position in the league. With 14 rounds to go, the Reds sit nine points off the final Champions League place. While not an impossible task, it will require a Herculean effort to achieve the same.

To start with, Liverpool are still to play Man United, Man City, Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea this season. This offers a glorious chance to shave some points off the "big five." This gives Liverpool a more than slim chance of getting that coveted fourth and final Champions League spot.

Make no mistake, if Liverpool fail to achieve this, it would be very tough to keep hold of Torres. It’s just criminal that a player of his quality has to miss Champions League football season after season.

But one thing is for sure—Liverpool are well and truly on the road to rebuilding the fortress that Anfield once was.

What do you think? Can Liverpool claim a Champions League berth with the signing of Suarez?

Dutch powerhouse Ajax are apparently keen on acquiring Villareal and Team USA forward Jozy Altidore. The 20-year-old Altidore led the USA in scoring on its qualification campaign for this summer's World Cup.

However, since moving to Europe two years ago, Altidore has struggled to find the kind of form that earns a player regular first team football. After being loaned out to Spanish lower-division side Xerex for six months, the striker spent last season on loan to English Premiere League side Hull City. With 28 Premiere League appearances, he scored just once and registered only three assists.

Nonetheless, the former NY Red Bulls player showed good form in this summer's World Cup, despite failing to find the back of the net during the tournament. 

Altidore put in an impressive performance and proved himself capable of holding the ball up under pressure from tough opposition. He was particularly impressive acting as a playmaker during the USA's last two group stage matches against Slovenia and Algeria.

Ajax are undoubtedly looking to bolster their offense as it is widely believed that Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez will depart the Amsterdam side during the current transfer window.

While Ajax have expressed interest in acquiring Altidore on loan, sources close to Villareal reveal the Spanish club are more keen on selling the striker outright. Villareal acquired Altidore for $10 million in 2008, but it is believed they may be willing to suffer a slight loss in order to offload the player.

Ajax, with its long history of developing talented young players, would seem an ideal destination for a player of Altidore's talent, who is perhaps yet to realize his full potential.

Far be it for this column to disagree with Paul, the octopus oracle who has predicted all of Germany's scores so far and who selected Spain as the winners of tomorrow's final, but the Dutch have already won this World Cup. 

Even if the current Holland squad that is doing a passable imitation of the German and Italian teams of years gone by, reaching  the final by stealth rather than scintillating skill , suffer the same fate as befell the legendary Dutch teams of 1974 and 1978 and lose another final, it will be a triumph for two Dutch philosopher kings.

I refer, of course, to Johan Cruijff and Louis Van Gaal , two old Dutch (pass) masters who have done so much to influence Holland's opponents in tomorrow's final, Spain.

It is Spain who carry the beacon of hope in the final, it is they who follow Cruijff's vision of total football that he and his mentor Rinus Michels transplanted to Catalunya in the early 1970's when they left Ajax Amsterdam for Barcelona. 

Since then Holland's  pass and move has metamorphosed into tiki-taka , the short passing Spanish game , the two finest exponents of this style Xavi Hernanadez and Andries Iniesta were nurtured at Camp Nou by Dutch coaches Van Gaal and Frank Rijkaard  respectively.

Another aspect of Dutch football that the Spanish and Barcelona in particular  have mastered in recent years is youth development , which Cruijff and then van Gaal were instrumental in setting up during their separate spells in the Barca dugout.Watch any international youth tournament and you can be sure the Spanish will be successful in it, if not outright winners . 

Of the players lining up in red tomorrow, six will have come through the ranks at Barcelona (Puyol, Pique, Busquets Xavi , Iniesta  and Pedro ) with another, Fabregas, likely to feature at some stage. The youth set up at Camp Nou  can now rival the world renowned system Cruijff  and Van Gaal helped to develop at Ajax, nine of whose alumni are in the Dutch squad (Steklenburg, van derWiel, Heitinga, De Jong, van der Vaart, Sneider, Elia, Huntelaar and Babel).

But Cruijff , who lives in Barcelona, must feel like a prophet without honour when he looks at the way the nation of his birth have progressed through these finals. The current generation of Dutch footballers have lost faith in his gospel, disheartened by years of glorious international failure (The only honour being the 1988 European Championship triumph)

 AT the 2008 European Championships the players mutinied against  the tactics of coach Marco van Basten, a Cruijff disciple. Led by Marc van Bommel and Ruud van Nistelrooy they demanded to play in a more defensive style, a bitter feud ensued and it was clear that after the finals either van Basten or the dissenters would have to go.

As it was, Holland, having set the tournament alight with swashbuckling football,  destroying World Champions Italy and runners up France in the group stage were inexplicably dumped out by Russia, incidentally coached by Guus Hiddink , born Varrsveld, Holland!

Exit van Basten to be replaced by van Bommel's father in law, Bert van Marwijk who would have no truck with the old religion and created a new "Holland".

Brawn rather than brains has been the watch word for Van Marwijck's team. One striker, two hard tackling midfielders, a hard working Dirk Kuyt on one wing and only two players who play in the traditional Dutch style -Sneider and Robben . Van Marwijck's supporters will  point to the fact  that under him  the Oranje have not lost a competitive game , his detractors will argue that they qualified  for the finals out of a weak group,  have been drawn against average sides in South Africa  , Brazil in the quarters notwithstanding, and have been lucky.

Be that as it may, they have reached their third World Cup final, the first where they do  not have to play the host nation and after the crushing disappointments of the total football generation ( against Germany in 1974 they took a first minute lead and then, with memories of the war still fresh,  set about attempting to humiliate their hated neighbour, only to succumb to a disputed penalty and some instinctive  Gerd Muller poaching , while in 1978 Rensenbrink hit the inside of the post in the final minute of normal time before Argentina emerged victorious in extra time) they will believe that Dame Fortune will decree that it is finally their time, whatever the grand old men of Dutch football think of them.

Hat Tip: Simon Kuper

I've been trying to come up with a better name for a links post than the excellent "Pick and Scroll " in use by our man CHOBB (pronounced like "GOB ," ask him for details) over at Portland Roundball Society. 

In my impossible (?) quest I ended up using the name for a particularly disgusting dish that tore up my digestive system for a week. Tachos are a menace and they must be stopped. I also love eating them, but am finding that they are rare outside of Portland. Minneapolis, you of all people should be on board with this.

To those that entered our little free agent contest , you are playing for this spectacular prize:

The three people who get the reference might smile a little. In a couple months nobody will understand it at all, but at least you will have a shirt to wear while working out, painting the house, or eating burritos. You can buy it on the cheap here . Thanks to Squirrelevant for setting that up.

Now, here are some tachos:

• CHOBB got jobbed by a Danny Ferry imposter .
• Ben with a little context on Portland GM candidate Kiki Vandeweghe .
• Dave tells us what to expect and look out for during summer league, yet I'm still somehow excited about the thing. I'll be in Las Vegas soaking up the Luke Schenscher. If you want to go see Fat Elvis contact me immediately.
• Coup walks us through his and Martell Webster's time together . Also, on principle I would like to remind you that Rip City Project owes a debt to Bust a Bucket that has yet to be paid. The juice is running boys.
• The genius blog DeceptivelyQuick has an exclusive with Jamaican National Team point guard and Finnish League superstar Akeem Scott.
• Super old by internet standards, but I hope you won't mind checking out this Billy Ray Bates story again.
• KneeJerkNBA has some thoughts on Rasheed Wallace that are worth your time.
• Timberwolves fans are trying to be optimistic . If you want to feel better about Portland's situation all you have to do is spend some time over at TWolves Blog. I've been checking them out a lot lately.

Ajax have bolstered their attack by signing Serbian journeyman striker Marko Pantelic. The 30-year-old forward was given the No. 9 jersey during his presentation in Amsterdam this afternoon, and is expected to play upfront with Ajax' Uruguayan skipper and prodigy Luis Suarez.

The forward was transfer-free after leaving Hertha BSC during the summer and was one of three new signings the Amsterdam club made today.

Kerlon joined on loan from Internazionale and Ze Eduardo joined on loan from Cruzeiro, but both are not expected to have the same impact on the club as Pantelic.

Unlike the other two signings, Pantelic is not a young and upcoming talent, but a seasoned professional. The Serbian forward made his debut in professional football at the age of 16 in Greece and has since then played in France, Switzerland, Serbia, Spain, Austria, and Germany.

Ajax bought themselves a flair player. Pantelic is a skilled technician, a player with superb dribbling skills, he is strong in the air, and he has that oh-so-important killer instinct all good forwards need.

Does that sound too good to be true?

I heard people saying this during his presentation and it made me suspicious. I wonder why he hadn't found a new club sooner if he could do all that...He's not that old and his wage demands weren't that excessive.

I mean, he'd been playing in the Bundesliga so he wouldn't be cheap, but surely he would not be demanding Ronaldo-esque figures to be deposited into his bank account.

I regularly try to watch the Sportschau and here are some things I noticed on top of the facts which were stated during his presentation.

Pantelic may be a skilled technician but he loves to showboat, which needlessly slows play down.

On top of that, he's a very selfish forward, one who only has eye for the goal. In its-self, this is an admirable trait for a player who is expected to score goals, but when a player completely ignores teammates in a better position to try a shot from a much more difficult angle, it means you're taking it a step too far as a striker.

Besides this behaviour on the pitch, Pantelic can be a bit of a bad boy off the pitch, clashing with managers, officials or just disappearing without a trace. Whilst playing for Yverdon in Switzerland, he once vanished three weeks without a trace [1], whilst he clashed with referees [2] and manager Lucien Favre at Hertha [3].

Whilst his qualities as a footballer are quite obvious, his flaws and weaknesses as a person are too.

It should be interesting to see whether or not Marko Pantelic manages to adapt to Ajax and his new teammates. Or should I say, it should be interesting to see whether or not Ajax and its squad manage to adapt to Marko Pantelic?

Sources

[1] http://www.spiegel.de/sport/fussball/0,1518,372423,00.html

[2] https://www.11freunde.de/forum/6/1204966797

[3] http://www.welt.de/welt_print/article2653240/Pantelic-trifft-aber-Trainer-Favre-will-ihn-loswerden.html

Legendary Dutch coach Rinus Michels once aptly summed up what he thought the beautiful game was about: "Football is war."

Shots are fired, the opposing teams goal is besieged, the forwards must have a killer instinct as he harasses the enemies defence. Even the terminology sports commentators use is warlike.

Football is war in the classical sense of the Iliad, two sides fighting it out for the honour of winning, the players being the heroes of Homeric proportions. I believe this is a concept acknowledged by more people than just little old me, so in a way it makes sense that many sports teams are named after mythological heroes.

Last weekend saw such a clash of mythologically named teams in the Dutch Eredivisie, as Heracles Almelo faced off against Ajax Amsterdam. 

In mythology, Heracles or Hercules is by far the superior hero. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae and a champion of the Olympian Order against chtonic monsters. Extraordinary strength, courage, ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males and females were among his characteristic attributes.

Aias or Ajax was the son of Telamon and king of Salamis. In Homer's Iliad, he is described as of great stature and colossal frame, the tallest and strongest of all the Achaeans, but for his cousin Achilles in skill-at-arms, and Diomedes to whom he lost a sparring competition as well as the 'bulwark of the Achaeans'.

On the pitch, fortune favours the Amsterdam side, with 29 Dutch titles and four Champions League trophies under their belt, whereas Heracles are just minnows in Dutch football. But what will happen when these two clubs named after ancient Greek heroes clash on the pitch?

Now forgive me when this match report does not live up to anything Homer wrote, but I will try. Like many battles between Greek heroes, the one between Ajax and Heracles was a long one. Despite their superiority on paper, Ajax had trouble breaking down the tight, almost phalanx-like defence of the home side.

The Amsterdam side played the ball around much to slowly to really upset the home-side and since Toby Alderweireld's cross-passes were not as effective as in other matches, the speed of winger Dennis Rommedahl could not be properly utilised. Combine this with a Luis Suarez who is defended well and you end up with an offensively impotent Ajax.

Speaking of Luis Suarez, allow me to link again to the world of mythology here. The club's namesake Aias Telamon once slaughtered a flock of sheep under the influence from a spell from the goddess Athena, after which he killed himself out of disgrace.

Luis Suarez nearly committed a form of suicide on the pitch, as he snapped after a late challenge by Antoine van der Linden. As if blinded by Athena herself, the Uruguayan Ajax skipper reacted by kicking at Van der Linden. The Ajax Golden Boy escaped with a yellow instead of a red card.

Ajax restored order in the second half, with Argentine skirmisher Dario Cvitanich on for the invisible Dennis Rommedahl. Aided by a corner-goal by defender Alderweireld and a red card for former Ajax-midfielder Kwame Quansah, Ajax took over and eventually ran out 3-0 winners, as Ismail Aisatti and Dario Cvitanich both netted their first season goals for the Amsterdam side.

All in all, Ajax ran out as easy winners in Almelo and the match proved to be less Homeric and heroic as the names of both clubs would have suggested.