Dutch champion Ajax Amsterdam completed its two-game tour in the United States with a 2-0 victory over the Portland Timbers in a friendly at a sold-out Jeld-Wen Field Wednesday night.
Lorenzo Ebecilio and Demy de Zeeuw scored the goals for Ajax, which also defeated D.C. United, 2-1, over the weekend. Gregory van der Wiel started and played the first 62 minutes for Ajax, before giving way to de Zeeuw, another Netherlands international.
Portland trotted out a lineup mixed with starters and reserves, and the likes of Kenny Cooper, Jeremy Hall, Rodney Wallace and Eric Brunner just played the first half. Jack Jewsbury, Diego Chara, Jorge Perlaza, Darlington Nagbe and Troy Perkins sat out the match entirely.
Video highlights from the match are after the jump:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vou9JbA6pMs]
Galaxy do it
+1,000,000
Where was the TV???
Actually this answer is probably the one you’re looking for. European clubs play post season friendlies because there’s a void inbetween the end of a competition and upcoming International games, Holland for example will play Brazil and Uruguay in June.
Ajax can’t come in preseason because they usually go to Asia and have their own renowned “Amsterdam tournament” after that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam_Tournament
Why is Ajax coming over now? I understand European teams coming over for preseason friendlies, but why post season friendlies?
Yes, I was at the game last night, and it was fabulous. Glad nobody was hurt, and it was nice to see the non-starters get some PT.
The highlight was obviously seeing Ajax. They were fantastic, and a reminder of the level of play we become used to watching MLS.
Decent atmosphere, and a fun time was had by all I reckon!
The Timbers reserves are playing Seattle’s reserves on Monday in Portland. For $5 bucks, that’s a damn good deal.
Fun to watch Ajax play Timbers in person. Even if just a friendly where the teams just played “in third gear”, as Spencer said after the game. Timbers got a good lesson in “total football”. The possession oriented game of Ajax was beautiful to watch. Timbers had their chances too. Jeld-Wen crowd and TA was mellow compared to MLS games, but everyone seemed to have a good time.
The result is meaningless, but the friendly itself is good for MLS and the team.
These are professional athletes. They can play an exhibition match (or just 45′) on Wednesday – basically a training session – and a match three or four days later(but I don’t think there is a reserve match Monday since they’re playing DC Sunday, not a west opponent). If they can’t handle that schedule they need a new job, because later in the season they’ll play more mid-week league games with another on the weekend.
As for injuries they could get hurt in a league match, a reserve match, or training… or walking their dog. Fear of injuries is not an excuse for not playing, otherwise why bother playing at all?
Also, reserves and subs need the work. Taylor, Braun, Moffat, Pore, Umony, Lowry… all haven’t played much in games, if at all, and need to do more than just train. That is probably your best reason for a friendly.
It was nice for some of my friends who can’t get tickets for a regular season game, because they are not available. I sold my tickets.
Also inspiring for our players to play big clubs and get a free jersey after the game.
I see it as a midweek heavy practice. Just don’t go the full 90.
kfly, the point I and many other Portland fans would make is that while you indeed did not have any matches scheduled for this past weekend, we did AND we have another match on Sunday and we have a reserve leagues match on Monday; you can see why we would be concerned about player fatigue and overall health.
Saying players rarely get injured in a meaningless game is pretty specious as well, given that small injuries occur all the time and a minor strain or tweak might prevent one of our starters from playing our league match on Sunday.
I enjoyed watching Ajax play and it was refreshing to see some different tactics employed by our team; I just wish it had been scheduled a couple weeks from now, when we don’t have any league matches scheduled.
A Clintesque finish on the 2nd goal.
Why? As a DCU fan, I’m glad we played Ajax this weekend. We otherwise would not have played a game at all, and it allowed us to experiment with some players like Brasesco, Brettschneider, Shanosky, and Barklage. No one got hurt, and both teams played a clean, classy game that was entertaining for the fans in attendance. It looks as though the Portland-Ajax game was pretty much the same.
I understand your concern given the risk of players getting injured in a meaningless game, but that’s actually a pretty rare occurrence.
As long as fans show up and MLS teams make some money, I don’t think it’s too big of a problem. It’s basically like a glorified reserve league friendly where a handful of starters also make cameos.
please can MLS teams stop having meaningless friendlies in the middle of the season