HOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett Champions League October 21, 2014 Camp Nou Barcelona 3 v 1 Ajax With over five decades of shared history between the two sides embedded with legendary figures such as Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels, Ajax and Barcelona are two teams that have gone on opposite trajectories over
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett UEFA Champions League September 17, 2014 Amsterdam Arena Ajax 1 v 1 PSG Everything started well from the opening whistle with a fast score from Cavani in the 14th minute. However, as was the case in their most recent Ligue 1 road trips, PSG could do nothing
Continue readingThis article was written by Dave Brown. He and a group of coaches observed training sessions, lectures and matches during the WCC tour of Dutch Professional Academies. These observations were made during a game featuring the reserve teams from Ajax FC and ADO Den Haag. This complete article is part of the November issue of the WORLD CLASS COACHING Magazine and was uploaded to the Member Drills Database.
Jong Ajax (Ajax reserves) play their games at the Ajax training ground stadium on Monday nights in the Beloften Eredivisie, the highest reserve teams competition organized by the KNVB. Players must be aged 23 or below with three over-age “dispensation” players allowed on each team. The game we observed was a 3-1 victory over ADO Den Haag earned despite Ajax having a player sent off early in the second half for tussling with an opponent after a hard tackle.
Notable players on the reserve team included Mats Rits, an 18 year old Belgian U23 national team player marked for stardom, former PSV and Blackburn Rovers centerback André Ooijer aged 37, and striker Mounir El Hamdaoui, 27, who - though born in Rotterdam - has elected to play internationally for Morocco through parentage. El Hamdaoui previously scored 50 goals in 80 appearances for AZ Alkmaar before scoring 13 times in 26 appearances for Ajax in 2010. He is considered to be “exiled” to the reserve team after falling out with manager Frank De Boer.
Ajax youth teams famously play the same system as the senior team and in the case of the
Continue readingLike many coaches I focus on one particular aspect of the game during each training session. Sure, I try to train the technical, tactical, physical and psychological components around the specific skill so that the practice is as economical as possible. But in the past if my focus was on passing and receiving I wouldn't have thought about ending the session with any type of shooting.
When WORLD CLASS COACHING conducted a tour of Dutch club a few years ago I was fortunate enough to attend. While visiting the Ajax Academy I watched a session presented by
Continue readingTeaching players the technical skills of the game is the most important job of a coach who is working with young players. Finding new and creative ways to help the players groove passing technique is one of the more challenging things to do. The players need hundreds of repetitions of the correct technique before their muscles can repeat the motion accurately. There's only so long that two players can stand across from each other and pass the ball back and forth before they'll grow bored and loose focus. But if you move too quickly into competitive passing and possession games, which are fun and engaging, then the players won't use the correct technique and they'll end up repeating poor passes. Remember, practice doesn't make perfect; practice makes permanent.
So new ways to present the same technical challenge becomes the objective. One of the variations I've used is from a session that I found in our, 'Training Sessions of Europe's Top Teams'. It's a session that Jan Prujin of Ajax F.C.
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