Shopping for a scarf

Bananas asked me if i could get him a scarf of the local club of my hometown Haarlem. This weekend i tried to find one. There is one store downtown that has three core bussinesses: tobacco, porn and football pharaphernalia. I thought i had a good chance there.

I was wrong. The shopkeeper could sell me loads of stuff regarding Ajax, Feyenoord, Barcelona and even a very small Brazillian shirt. But anything related to H.F.C Haarlem was not available. I guess you can't make any money with it.

When you are located only 20 kilometers from the sexiest club in the Netherlands, it is kind of hard to get a large fanbase. Even if the club ended on a very respectable sixth place last season and battled in the playoffs for promotion. The last time the club was champion of the eredivisie was in the year 1946 i believe. The club did that with the magnificent striker Kick Smit. In the last three decades, Haarlem nurtured great players like Ruud Gullit, Arthur Numan and Barry van Galen.

So there must be a shopkeeper somewhere here in Haarlem, who is still proud enough of our local hero's, to sell some nice Haarlem gear.

Don't you worry Bananas, i'll get you that scarf.

Champions League Predictions ..

Not one of the strongest collections of top clubs the ECC has seen play, but with 16 countries represented, it should be interesting nonetheless. Here are my predictions for top 2 seeds advancing (in order), followed by a UEFA Cup runner up.

Group A: Chelsea, Barca .. Bremen (top 2 obviosuly a toss up, however lonely Sofia to hand out points left and right is obvious)

Group B: Bayern, Inter .. Spartak (look for Bayern to top group with Spartak and Inter fighting for 2nd, Sporting will need to play extraordinary to become a part of UEFA Cup, let alone a finalist again)

Group C: Liverpool, PSV .. Galatasaray (straight forward, however, if this was the year PSV do not progress, I wouldn't be surprised)

Group D: Valencia, Shakhtar .. AC Roma (having seen Shakhtar play half a dozen games this summer, I know they are capable of going into Rome and Pireaus and taking points, Roma being inconsistent doesn't bode well for anyone in the group)

Group E: Real Madrid, Lyon .. Dynamo Kyiv (unless the 2 faves both pick up 2 points from each other, neither Dynamo nor Bucharest have a shot of claiming 2nd, I will have my fingers crossed for DK nonetheless)

Group F: Man Utd, Benfica .. Celtic (Kobenhavn's dream qualifier stops here, unfortunately)

Group G: CSKA, Arsenal .. Porto (CSKA top form in Russian premier league will do them favours in Group Stage, I expect Arsenal to lose points out East as usual, Porto and Hamburg will fight for 3rd)

Group H: Milan, Lille .. AEK (Anderlecht are one of the worst CL clubs, yet make it to group stage annually, so much for AC's punishment of being in the easiest group, with it, I expect them to be in mid table in Serie A by November, pushing for UEFA Cup by the end of 1st half)

Everything following that is a draw. I highly doubt my predictions will be anything less than 80%, but futbol is futbol.

Will be interesting to see Mourinho go for the treble while competing in that group.

What are your thoughts?

So much for predictions (2)

"I'm so confident about this team that i will even venture into guessing how far they will get into the champions league: i would be disappointed if they wouldn't make it to the quarter final."

Did i wrote that? I guess i did.

It turns out that Ajax isn't going to play any champions league football at all. After winning away against FC Copenhagen with 2-1, i was quite confident that they would finish the job in the Amsterdam arena. But after a good first and a dismal second half, Ajax Ajax lost with 2-0 from the Danes. So we weren't even able to save the preliminary round. So it will be the UEFA cup this year. Bye bye Chelsea, hello Newcastle United.

Not that there is anything wrong with Newcastle but still... Ouch.

The draw for the group stage of the CL has just finished. FC Copenhagen has found themselves in a group that would haven perfect for Ajax: Manchester United, Celtic and Benfica. I still believe that Ajax would have had a good chance to end as number two in that group.

Despite yesterdays disaster, i still believe that Ajax has a real good team and a fantastic coach. I expect that this team will really shine this season. Just not on the European stage that matters most.

FC Copenhagen will do that instead. Good luck to them.