Arsenal u20s played the better football in their opening match of the inaugural Champions Youth Cup in Malaysia, but failed to exert the necessary authority to force a result. Fran Merida may well have provided it – but he is away on international duty.
Ogogo applied too much physical force, with a few minutes left when he lost a ball and took out Supasepa, who reacted. Both saw red cards.
The three Bs – Bould, Brady and Banfield would have learnt a lot.
In many ways both teams cancelled each other out tactically, with Arsenal having the edge in the first half, and Ajax better in the second. But the bumpy pitch didn’t help the technical styles, at all.
Jay Simpson’s physicality was Arsenal’s best hope of a goal. Playing up front, and supported by Rui Fonte behind, he clearly worried the Ajax defence. But Arsenal’s forward passing wasn’t accurate enough, with several through balls ending up in the hands of the Ajax keeper.
Randall had the best Arsenal chance of the first half, with a deflection off Simpson, but failed to convert.
But he gave the ball away two or three times leading to dangerous attacks on the Arsenal goal. One of these provided Blindt with a long shot chance, with Szczesny off his line, but the ball sailed wide.
Rogers looked cool in possession; Nordtveit is not a hoofer, and he’ll delay a clearance to pick out a pass.
Gibbs had a mazy run, losing it on the fifth player – and a shot wide, from a Simpson lay off. Dunne looked as solid as ever.
Gilles Sunu came on for the injured Simpson, and showed his all action style with a few flicks and tricks – and chasing down lost causes.
This is a tough group for Arsenal, matched in a group with Ajax, AC Milan and Flamengo. With Gavin Hoyte, Henri Lansbury, Fran Merida, and Rhys Murphy at the FIFA Under-17 World Championship finals in Korea, the Londoners have had to bring some 15 and 16 year olds, like Sunu and some relative unknowns such as Sanchez Watt, Cedric Evina, Craig Eastmond and Luke Ayling.
Nevertheless, after the first set of games, each team has one point, with all to play for.