Ajax 5 – 2 Sparta: KJH Busted.

We finally get the offensive explosion that we knew this team was capable of (and even with Kennedy in the starting XI), putting five past Sparta. And then, the dreaded ankle injury took KJH down. Not before he scored, mind you (making the answer to yesterday’s question “1″), but the injury has been reported as quite serious. You get me back, and then you lose the captain. What are we going to do?

First, the match. As I stated, it was nice to see the squad attacking with good return so often and early. Kennedy was quite lively, looking like he is playing for a satisfactory transfer this January (right?). Evander Sno came on for KJH, and he even managed a goal. I am really starting to like this guy. If I squint really hard, I can almost convince myself that we have a young Edgar Davids, at least until he scored his goal today. When did Davids ever do that? The other goals came from the usual suspect, Luis Suarez, and the not-so-usual-but-getting-to-be-more-expected Leonardo. Which brings me to point number two…

This side has been absolutely decimated by injuries. Gabri began the season banged-up, Sulejmani was coming off major surgery and has not played a great deal yet, Aissati has rarely been healthy enough to appear, etc. Enter Eyong Enoh, who also gets injured, and Mitchell Donald, who gets injured. Dario Cvitanich also fills in, until he gets hurt. And now KJH is out. And through it all, the one guy who I just knew would spend more time laying on the trainer’s table than on the pitch is playing pretty well at the center of our defense. (No name here, you know who he is).

Anyway, despite all this, we find ourselves in prime position to go into the winter break leading the eredivisie. We are sitting in the second spot, trailing AZ only on goal differential (which I could write an entire blog post about. Later perhaps.) The next two matches will complete the story of the first half: at home v. PSV and a trip to Alkmaar. Is this the beginning of a surprising return to the top in Amsterdam?

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

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