The league standing of the KPN Eredivisie is a complete mess. Whereas Feijenoord has played just 7 matches, Groningen for example has played already 11 matches. Besides that there are 4 teams with 8 games, 8 teams with 9 games and 4 with 10. So it is pretty hard to see the wood for the trees and see in a quick view who is good and who is not. Therefore you need an alternative standing with 'lost points'. In such a standing Ajax is even lower then they are on the regular standing. See for yourself (number between the brackets is total of the lost points up to now): 1. Feijenoord (2) 2. Vitesse (5) 3. PSV (9) 4. NAC (11) 5. NEC (12) 6. RODA JC (12) 7. Heerenveen (12) 8. Willem II (14) 9. Ajax (15) 10. RKC (15) 11. AZ (15) 12. Utrecht (16) 13. Twenthe (17) 14. De Graafschap (20) 15. Sparta (20) 16. Groningen (22) 17. Fortuna (22) 18. RBC (24) Note that in this alternative standing the team with the most games have a plus-point, since the other teams have to prove that they can win the other games. Therefore Ajax is higher placed than AZ. Both have 15 lost points, but AZ out of 9 games, and Ajax out of 10. Anyway, 9th place is not very good. But as said earlier in the match report (PSV-Ajax) Ajax now have a relatively easier period than they had last month. First two matches are against Willem II and De Graafschap. We'll see.

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2000

Answers

For what it's worth... This is a nice little thingy I discovered on VI Planet.nl. They put together the Eredivisie table of the year 2001, from 01 January thru 31 December (= the latter half of 2000-2001 and the first half of 2001-2002).

It's of absolutely no value, of course, but then again: it's a nice little fact that Ajax - after all - was Holland's second best team of 2001.

PSV, obviously, tops the table. They were unbeaten in the second half of the season last year (winning the title), had a shitty start this year, but they now seem to have their shit together again. They're no less than fifteen points ahead of the runner-up, Ajax - but it needs to be said that PSV played two games more than Ajax did in 2001 (PSV 36; Ajax 34).

Ajax, as said, is second: 34 games played, 19 wins, 7 draws and 8 defeats. They scored 82 goals and conceded 42, making for a goal difference of +40. That's not the best goal difference (PSV has +47), but Ajax was in fact the most productive team of 2001. They scored 82 goals in 34 games; PSV scored 81 in 36 games.

The major surprise of the 2001 table are - no doubt - our Rotterdam friends. They find themselves back as low as on the seventh (7th!) position. Which is spectacular, because they finished second in 2000- 2001 and were the league leaders on Dec 31. However, coming to think of it, you may remember their spectacularly bad second season half, starting 2001 17 points ahead of Ajax but almost giving that away (Ajax could have leapfrogged them by beating them at home, which then did not happen, 3-4...).

It's not really surprising that FC Utrecht (3rd) and SC Heerenveen (4th) are 2001's "Best Of The Rest". Excellent job. However, I was truly amazed to see that RKC Waalwijk, for Chrissakes, was actually 5th.

Another surprise: the worst team of 2001 was... FC Groningen! Of course, RBC and FC Den Bosch are lower on the table, because they both played only half a season in 2001 (RBC going down in 2000-2001; FC Den Bosch joining the Eredivisie in August). But out of all the teams with 30+ games, FC Groningen was the weakest (I would have guessed Dead Tuna Sittard...).

Anyway: it's just a nice little table to study. Scroll down on this page right here to find it.

-- Anonymous, January 04, 2002

OK guys, this will be the program for Ajax and its rivals in the standing. If Ajax will win all their next 5 matches they will end second in the league (and don’t have to play extra matches for the Champions League!). But if they fail to do so a 3d, 4th, 5th or even 6th or 7th position is also very possible:

Ajax has to play 5 matches:
away: rkc; twente
home: feyenoord; vitesse; az

feyenoord has to play 4 matches:
away: Ajax; rbc
home: fortuna; utrecht

roda has to play 4 matches:
away: vitesse; utrecht; rkc
home: nec

rkc has to play 4 matches:
away: de graafschap; groningen
home: Ajax; roda

vitesse has to play 5 matches:
away: heerenveen; Ajax; sparta
home: roda; fortuna

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

Ajax climbed two places on alternative league standing (lost points)

1. Feijenoord 2 2. Vitesse 8

3. PSV 9

4. NAC 13

5. NEC 14

6. Heerenveen 14

7. Ajax 15

8. RKC 15

9. Roda JC 15

10. AZ 15

11. Willem II 17

12. Twente 20

13. Utrecht 21

14. Sparta 24

15. Groningen 25

16. De Graafschap 26

17. RBC 27

18. Fortuna S. 28

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2000

When making statements on how Ajax is doing, you should take a look at the opponents against which the points were lost as well. Away games against SC Heerenveen, Vitesse and PSV are really heavy. Last year Ajax grabbed exactly one point in those three. This year it was two points, but because the three were packed together in one month, October looks like a disaster. I'm not trying to say it wasn't, by the way, I'm just trying to put things in the right perspective.

I think the beginning was worse. After such a great Amsterdam Tournament and such a convincing season's opener (Fortuna, 5-0) they should never have lost against Sparta and a 0-0 draw at home against NEC is crap, too. Ten days later, they lost 3-2at AZ. Unforgivable. Those come-downs would have been easy to avoid, for example if they'd given everything they had (which they didn't). If only Sparta and NEC hadn't happened, the points lost in October would not have been as disastrous. They were sort of reckoned with, since Ajax hadn't won at Vitesse and PSV for ages.

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2000

The reason I do not include league standings in my email updates is that league standings are extremely volatile, as Bastiaan points out. Instead, I provide a link to the *current* league standings on the home page of Ajax USA, at the top, in the red-bordered box titled "TELETEXT". Click on the link to "STANDINGS" and you will see the current Teletext-maintained league table.

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2000