Ajax Amsterdam v AZ Alkmaar
Ajax Amsterdam v AZ Alkmaar– Saturday 15th October – Amsterdam Arena (18:45)
The Dutch Eredivisie league has tossed up a mouth watering encounter between two giants. These teams have great history on their shoulders as they are always amongst the title chasers and have always served up an intriguing matchup. Pride is at stake and a win for either team will go a long way in boosting morale.
Ajax is the current champions as they edged their main fellow title rivals FC Twente on the last day of the season beating them 3-1. Ajax astonishingly recorded their 30th Dutch league title, creating another piece of history. They went through somewhat of a drought up until the last campaign as they last won the title in 2003-2004 under the guidance of Dutch legend Ronald Koeman. Ajax currently lies in 4th place as they have gotten off to a slow start thus far. They have had some shaky results as they went down by a single goal to FC Groningen, this sparked real concern for manager Frank De Boer as he questioned the commitment of his players. The international break could have not come at a better time for Ajax as it gave De Boer an opportunity to work on their laps of concentration and ultimately restore confidence within the squad. Club captain Jan Vertonghen will be expecting his players to get over this recent poor run of performances and work as a team to get back on track and give a strong account of retaining their title.
AZ Alkmaar have kicked off their campaign with a bang as they top the table thus far. They are currently in a rich vein of form as they have scored 15 goals in 8 games and conceding only 6 to date, making them the league’s top scorers and least conceders. In only his second season in charge manager Gertjan Verbeek has seemingly found the right ingredients to assemble a real title contending squad. Last season they fell off the pace when it was crunch time as they suffered injuries to some of their key players and ultimately ended in 4th spot. So far things seem to be going their way and the manager will be looking to his captain Niklas Moisander to rally his troops. A lot will lie on the shoulders of American striker Jozy Altidore as he was brought in from Villarreal and has already opened his account, scoring 3 goals thus far. The likes of Maarten Martens will provide the creativity and experience to help the American find his goal scoring boots and if these two can continue the combination they have struck up, there is no telling the heights that this AZ squad can reach.
Both teams will be desperate for the victory as this will go a long way in stabilizing their title pursuit. Ajax should just have enough to get the maximum points.
