Legenda - The career of Luka Elsner

That's really pleasing to see after a bit of a hellish eighteen months for Elsner. He seems to have found a more permanent home.

Congratulations on the contract extension, seems as though you finally have a club ready to support you!

Going from being sacked to getting extension, your career is now on an upwards trend!

We open the month with a very disappointing draw against NEC, we were clearly the better team but our finishing let us down. Barcelona hammers us, with early goals from Clement Lenglet and Gabriel Jesus before Luis Suarez added the 3rd goal in injury time. We were dreadful, the result was fitting of the performance. That concludes our CL Group Stage, as we finish 4th with just 2 points. We bounce back with a very strong performance against FC Groningen, winning 3-1 with goals from Til, Guerra, and Ivanusec. Stengs was outstanding with 2 assists.

Once again our finishing was poor in our 1-0 win against Willem II, our only goal coming from a penalty in the 65th minute with Til converting. Our struggles continued against FC Utrecht, thankfully our defense was very good once again. Stengs scored the lone goal in the 6th minute. VVV-Venlo gave us a much tougher than expected foes in the KNVB Beker, we were fortunate to beat them in penalties 5-4. Schendelaar saved us with 3 great saves!

Finally our attack awakens once again with a brace from ter Haar Romeny in the 3-1 victory against FC Twente. Taabouni opened the scoring in the 3rd minute.

Once again a pretty good month, outside of the NEC result we did about as much as expected. For the first time all season we faced multiple injuries throughout the month. Kovachev, Mobara, Doyle-Hayes, and Midstjo all missed action.

In the KNVB Beker we draw Vitesse in the Quarter Finals, they will be the home team - with the match to be played on February 1. The Third Round was rough for the top teams with Ajax losing to FC Utrecht 4-1, at home. PSV losing to FC Groningen, away 3-2 in extra time. And finally Feyenoord losing 3-1 away to Sparta. For sure the KNVB Beker has to be the best shot for Elsner to finally win a trophy.







Abbubaker Mobara

Mobara is recovering from a twisted ankle that he suffered in training on December 8th. He missed our last five matches of the month. He is expected to return to training on January 2nd and should be back for league play.

Fredrick Midtsjo

Another twisted ankle costing us a key player this month, Midtsjo got injured in our match against FC Utrecht causing him to miss our final two matches of December. He is expected to return to training on the 5th of January. He should also be available for league play this month.

Calvin Stengs

Stengs suffered a lower back stress fracture during training on the 26th of December and will be out of action for at least two months. A huge blow for us, but this will be a great opportunity for Angelo Saro to step up. We recently turned down a €20M offer from OL, Saro was the only reason we even considered the offer in the first place.




We had an opportunity to gain some ground on Ajax when Willem II drew them 1-1 at Ajax, but the draw against NEC cost us the same day. We were able to grab some points and create a little separation from Feyenoord and PSV with game(s) in hand.

Willem II and PEC Zwolle continue to overperform.





A couple friendlies to get us back into match shape before we get back into league action. A showdown against Feyenoord is definitely the highlight of the month.

Keeping pace with Ajax looks to be a seemingly impossible challenge. There's a lot of time yet though. Keep on going. The European adventure was always set to be very tough.

Great season so far but man... you are going to have to be near perfect to knock off Ajax

Doing really well so far! Must be annoying to be in the same league as Ajax though, they're near-perfect in this game. Superb to see that Guus Til is still with you!

With almost our entire starting eleven drawing interest from England teams, there is a lot of transfer activity early in the month - so we will start there. Fortunately, we were able to keep the squad mostly intact.


Transfer In

Transfers Out







We made quick work of both Cordoba and Melbourne Victory in the friendly matches before an absolute disaster against PEC Zwolle. We double them in possession and shots but could not effectively break them down and they hit us on two direct counter attacks. We rebounded nicely with a 2-0 victory over Sparta, goals from Guerra (assisted by Kovachev) and Til (assisted by Midtsjo).

A let down performance against Fortuna Sittard but we were fortunate to escape with all 3 points. Leao scored in the 12 minute, assited by Doyle-Hayes. Taabouni scored the winner in the 66th minute. Leao also created another 2 chances that we failed to convert on. A great debut for him.

A match with Feyenoord, featuring two of the best young goalkeepers in Dutch soccer. Joey Koorevar and Schendelaar were both great, despite allowing 2 goals a piece. We really should have gotten all 3 points but an own goal by Martin Hinteregger in the 52nd minute and an equalizer by Rik Bujis in the 91st minute cost us. Guerra and Taabouni were the goal scorers for us, Rob dos Santos assisted on both - another great debut.

For the first time in a long time we were outplayed. Now the favorites to win, we were dreadful in KNVB Beker Quarter Finals. Vitesse was the better the team today, we were extremely fortunate to get the win in extra time on a goal by Rob dos Santos in the 96th minute! How quickly we forgot about Angelo Saro! On to the semi-finals, our opponent will be announced in February.







Calvin Stengs

Stengs suffered a lower back stress fracture during training on the 26th of December. Good news, he is ahead of schedule in his recovery and he should return to training in the next 10 days. Hopefully we will be seeing him in action before the end of the month.




Ajax is slowly pulling away, but we are creating a nice lead to hold 2nd with a game in hand.





This could be a tricky month with another away match with Vitesse and also Feyenoord away. The end of the month gets a little easier before we have a big match with PSV.

Looking set for second which is nothing to be sniffed at. Losing Saro for his release clause is pretty devastating but there are some strong additions in there.

A shame that Ajax are just so dominant this season and seemingly not dropping points no matter what. Second is certainly a platform to continue to build from though.

That next month looks really tough with so many away games and games against Feyenoord and PSV! Hopefully you can really cement second place in that month.

We open the month with another tough match against Vitesse, glad we will not see them again for a while. Guerra scored the opener in the 11th minute, assisted by Taabouni. Their equalizer came late in the 83rd minute by Sam Larsson. The match was in our favor for the most part but we really struggled to create chances. A crucial match with Feyenoord and we got off to a flying start with a goal by Rafael Leao in the 9th minute, with Rob dos Santos scoring our final goal in the 75th minute - on our way to the 2-1 win.

We made quick work of Hercales Almelo thanks to early goals by Til (2nd minute, assisted by Taabouni) and ter Haar Romeny (13th minute, assisted by Schendelaar). They scored in the 36th minute but we quickly answered with a goal from dos Santos in the 37th minute, assisted by Danchenko. dos Santos picked up a red card in the 49th minute and we had to adjust but were never really threatened. Willem II come visit us with Stengs making his return to action. Stengs was magnificent, scoring in the 6th (assisted by Leao) and 13th (assisted by Midtsjo) minute before coming off at the half. ter Haar Romeny finished the scoring with a goal, assisted by Leao in the 75th minute.

We were clearly the better team against Fortuna Sittard but let this one slip away, the scored on their first shot of the match in the 33rd minute. We never scored a goal of our own and were fortunate to get an own goal in the 56th minute. We outshot them 25-3 on the evening. Difficult to not get all three points here.

We crushed PSV in the final match of the month. Leao opened the scoring in 18th minute then assisted on Guerra's goal in the 22nd minute before having to come off with a bruised ankle. Teun Koopmeiners finally scored on a free kick in the 45th minute. They scored in the 64th minute before dos Santos answered right back with a goal in the 66th minute just after coming on for Stengs, assisted by Sosa.

A great month all-in-all! Hopefully the draws against Vitesse and Fortuna Sittard do not come back to bite us. Ajax finally showed some signs of weakness this month, more on that later.

In the KNVB Beker Semi-Final we draw FC Twente, we will be the home team and the match will be played on the 6th of March. In the other matchup, FC Utrecht will host PEC Zwolle.






Jordan Torunarigha

Torunarigha suffered pulled ankle ligaments in training on the 21st of February causing him to miss our last two matches of the month. Fortunately he is expected to return to training on the 3rd of March.





Well, did not see that coming!! Ajax looked human this month - losing to PEC Zwelle, drawing with FC Utrecht, PSV, and Sparta. Surely they were focused on the Europa League Knockout Round with Malmo but did not see this coming. PEC Zwolle had a very interesting month, beating Ajax and PSV to start the month before losing to Feyenord, beating FC Utrecht, then finally losing to sc Heerenveen.

All that said, we are within a reach of catching Ajax - with possibly our matchup on the 14th of April deciding our fate. A lot of time left but we are not dead yet!





A couple big matches to start the month! Ajax are facing Torino in the Second Knockout Round of the Europa League...let's hope they are still distracted.

Things are heating up! A real possibility if you can maintain your form that you could be crowned champions if Ajax maintain theirs.

Four points off the lead, keep chasing!!

2020-06-08 02:13#273537 ScottT : Things are heating up! A real possibility if you can maintain your form that you could be crowned champions if Ajax maintain theirs.

We definitely went from anticipating an anti-climatic finish to a good one! A lot of time left now!!