Blind fold ready for Brøndby

By Berend Scholten

As AFC Ajax's new European season begins on Wednesday night with the first leg of their UEFA Champions League third qualifying round tie against Brøndby IF, their supporters are hoping they can continue the progress made under new coach Danny Blind in the latter half of last season.

Upward promotion
The 44-year-old former Ajax player had been head of the club's youth department until taking over from Ronald Koeman as first-team coach in March. Having earned a place in the Champions League with a second-placed finish in the Eredivisie, he now needs a win against Brøndby to reach the group stage.

Worrying pre-season
At one stage, the club might have approached a tie against the in-form Danish side coached by Blind's former Ajax team-mate Michael Laudrup with some trepidation. The club's pre-season campaign did not exactly inspire confidence among the club's supporters.

Amsterdam mauling
Having lost attacking midfielder and former captain Rafael van der Vaart to Hamburger SV, Ajax's main summer signings have been defender-cum-midfielder Olaf Lindenbergh from AZ Alkmaar and Malmö FF striker Markus Rosenberg. However, neither made much of an impression at the annual Amsterdam tournament.

Injury crisis
CA Boca Juniors and Arsenal FC both secured wins against the tournament hosts to leave Blind's men at the bottom of the heap. As if that were not bad enough, defender Hatem Trabelsi, goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg and Nicolae Mitea all picked up injuries, with the latter pair ruled out for long spells.

Major losses
With Lindenbergh and Maxwell already sidelined with injuries, that was a huge blow for the coach. "I can live with the fact that we didn't play that well, but losing players from our starting lineup is the biggest loss for us," he said as the club seemed to be heading for a major crisis.

Replacement players
However, the players who have stepped in to the breach to cover may have saved the day. On 6 August, a patched together side took on PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch Super Cup final and, after going behind, were inspired to a 2-1 win by Nourdin Boukhari, who scored Ajax's equaliser and then set up the winner for Ryan Babel.

Boukhari cooks
"On the left side he is a real competitor for the [slightly injured Wesley] Sneijder," said Blind of the 25-year-old Moroccan. "I already knew that. As a left-wing attacker he sometimes lacks the speed, but as left midfielder he can function very well."

Maduro movement
Blind was also delighted with the way that young Dutch international Hedwiges Maduro covered for Czech veteran Tomáš Galásek, who started the match on the bench. Maduro has a more attacking style, which seemed to give the side more forward impetus against PSV. "Without a number of regular players we showed we could dominate the match and certainly pushed forward very well," said Blind. "This augurs well for the match against Brøndby and the rest of the season."

Happy reunion
A week ago, Blind might have gone into tonight's meeting with Laudrup, whom he played with at Ajax in the 1997/98 season, feeling nervy, but now he is looking forward to it. "I have not seen Brøndby play in the last couple of years, but I did know that Michael Laudrup is coach there, so that will be a nice reunion," he said. "I know Michael as a nice person and an excellent player. So it will be really nice meeting him again."