I watched a lot of this year’s World Cup. Team Canada never qualifies but I usually support the England and Italy teams when I watch. Unthinkable that Italy and Netherlands didn’t qualify. Kane was great to watch. France, I could tell they were going to win the cup in the round of 16 because they were just an unstoppable powerhouse. I remember the England vs. Croatia game, that was very tense and heated. It was a lot of entertaining sport.
Those forumites who’ve been around a while might remember that I am a life long (and long suffering) fan of a lower league English team called Leyton Orient. We suffered badly recently with crokked Italian owners (not everything Italian turns out to be great apparently) and found ourselves relegated out of the football league after 112 years continuous membership and without enough money to even print a matchday programme.
Well, our ownership changed 2 seasons ago and yesterday the turnaround was complete as we finished champions of the National League and confirmed our automatic promotion back into the league proper. Can’t express the relief and joy we all felt yesterday.
Man City better watch out. The mighty O’s are back!
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I’m a Liverpool fan and by the looks of it, I’m going to be pretty depressed by the end of this season. There’s still hope… Come on Leicester!
Congratulations Phil, I wanted to give my congratulations before, but unfortunately for me I broke a leg, (foot) playing football, yeah I’m in the frontier of getting old got to remind me I’m not 20 anymore, and I’m stuck in the Hospital.
On the good side Sporting is European champion in futsal
Congratulations @Phil_H
Unfortunately my team, PSV, will not be champions this year, at least so it seems: with two matches to go, they’re on equal points with Ajax, but Ajax have a far better goal difference. As you all might have noticed, this is defenitely Ajax’s year. It’s already a miracle that PSV managed to keep up with them in the National League. @The_Man_With_a_Name We could have a Champion’s League Final Liverpool - Ajax, btw
An Ajax Vs Liverpool final would be pretty nice providing Liverpool wins of course. 
They’ll first have to eliminate Barça. Will be quite an achievement if they manage to do that
Can’t see that happening now but we can hope.
I thought they made a good impression, but probably made the mistake to open their game in the second half in the hope to score an equalizer. This gave Barça the opportunity to play on the break … and score two more goals. If you create the space Barça needs for their lethal counter attacks, you more or less commit sportive suicide. 0-1 would’nt have been such a bad result, but now, with this result, they’ll have to push forward from the start - which will give Barça again the possibility to launch their impressive counter attacks. Still, the game also showed that Barça is vulnerable in defense.
Congratulations @The_ Man_With_a_Name
Unbelievable
Congratulations @The_ Man_With_a_Name
Unbelievable
Absolutely incredible! I’m over the moon.
Fantastic, this game will be in history.
Nothing against Tottenham, but a final Liverpool Ajax, somehow reminds me of the not so distant space where team from all over Europe could reach a final, and not just only the new Rich ones or the old rich ones
Well it ain’t over until it’s over
No, it ain’t … And again a game for the history books
Oddly enough a had a feeling before the match that things could go wrong for Ajax. Being a fan of their rivals PSV, I see them of course very often on television. They have wonderful players with marvelous technical skills, but they lack some discipline in defense and don’t have a real bal winner in midfield. Virtually all players are creative. That’s okay as long as you have the ball, but if the opponent gets some grip on the game, you’re in trouble. Ajax lost a few games in the Dutch league (for instance a 6-2 defeat against Feyenoord) because the opponent punished their arrogance and lack of discipline with a very physical approach and quick breaks. The third goal by Spurs was more or less a goal scored from a counter attack, five minutes into stoppage time (!), when Ajax just needed to consolidate (!).
Agree Sherp, but among other things I think the goalkeeper made a real difference in this game, Lloris would never suffered that second goal from Moura.
I also have to myself that to keep that rhythm Ajax need to play to young players it’s impossible to keep that speed with more older players.
Agree about the goalkeeper, Onana. He used to play for Barcelona (youth teams), but they didn’t have enough trust in him, so they bought Ajax goal keeper Cilessen and sold Onana to Ajax. Some people a crazy about him, I’m not one of them. Great reflexes, but a nervous type of goal keeper, not the type of goal keeper that gives his defenders the assurance that he will always be there. He won a few points for Ajax this year with his reflexes, but cost them even more points with stupid actions.
I think that it’s a problem for Ajax that their potentially best player (and real play maker), Frenkie De Jong, is so young; he has all the potential to become a player like Cocu, or even Rijkaard, the kind of player who takes a team by the hand and leads them through a difficult phase, but he still needs one or two years of experience to reach his peak. He’ll reach that peak in Barcelona, I’m afraid, they already bought him (and they’ll probably buy De ligt as well …)
Well good news for PSV I guess, this game will likely have repercussions on the last home games.
On the other hand Holland national team is assured and will be build around those players
I also notice that all Dutch coaches are ballhead, at least Ajax ones, this looks like Keiser
Sure, and we have a good mix in Oranje: young, skillful and creative players like De Jong, De Ligt, Bergwijn, Dumfries and more expierenced players like Wijnaldum and Van Dijk. But we made the ‘Ajax mistake’ against Germany not so long ago (@stanton will confirm this): We came back from 0-2 tot 2-2, but then tried to win the game with all means: too many players before the ball, a lack of discipline in defense and … the Germans scored the winner. A hard lesson and one we’ll have to learn.