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Match Report: Ajax 2 - Lausanne Sports 2

Ajax embarrased at home

Favored Amsterdammers kicked out of UEFA Cup by humble Lausanne Sports


	Shota Arveladze got Ajax off to a great start with his 17th minute goal. [source: ANP]

	Rafael van der Vaart shields Lausanne's Massimo Lombardo [source: REUTERS]

	Nikos Machlas reacts after Cristian Chivu's penalty in injury time is saved. [source: ANP]

09 November: "Ajax will have to have another complete off-day to get eliminated by this opponent", said the Ajax USA report of the UEFA Cup away game in Lausanne. And 'another complete off day' was exactly what Ajax had, which justifies the conclusion that Ajax has too many of those off days to keep calling them incidental. The struggling Amsterdammers could not do better than a meagre 2-2 draw, thereby allowing the humble Lausanne Sports to become the first ever Swiss opponent to beat Ajax on aggregate (3-2).

It was shocking to see how Ajax started with determination, wiped out the 1-0 defeat in Switzerland after only 17 minutes with a well executed, classic Ajax goal (fine run and cross by right winger Ikedia, followed by a clean header by Arveladze) and then completely collapsed, for some mysterious reason. During the large part of the remaining 73 minutes, the Swiss were the calmest, most confident and most dangerous team, waiting for their chance to give the leaky Ajax defense the fatal punch. The speed of ball circulation was far too slow for Lausanne's defense to worry about.

In Lausanne Ajax had created four or five major scoring opportunities, whilst Mazzoni's winning goal was one of Lausanne's few dangerous moments.

This time, Ajax hardly created any danger, whereas the defense was constantly in trouble. Cristian Chivu and André Bergd¢lmo were wandering around, making one nervous mistake after the other. Petri Pasanen should have been sent off halfway thourgh the first half, as he pushed Javier Mazzoni over, after he slipped on the wet ArenA pitch. He was lucky, but the equalizer was inevitable.

It was scored in a way that typified the extremely weak performance of the Ajax defense, just standing around as defender Puce slammed his head against a corner kick. Fred Grim saved, but no-one went for the rebound, except the continuously dangerous Argentinian, Javier Mazzoni (38). 1-1 - and some 52 minutes left for Ajax to score twice.

A fifteen minute break was not enough to solve the problems. The first minutes after the break showed no improvement and made clear that Ajax - missing Witschge, Knopper, Wamberto and Vierklau - was going to need some coincidental goals.

Lausanne Sports, however, was too smart and determined to let that happen. They even scored the decisive goal, enabled to do so after one more major mistake by haggling Spanish referee, Esquinas Torres. Aron Winter fouled substitute striker Thiaw from behind, at least one metre outside the penalty box. Torres should have sent Winter off and given Lausanne a free kick. What he did instead, was giving Winter a yellow card and Kuzba the chance to seal Ajax's fate from the penalty spot (77).

Cedric van der Gun's equalizer (79) and two more examples of Esquinas Torres bungling did not matter anymore. The Spaniard refused to give Ajax a penalty as Puce pushed an Arveladze cross away with his hand and was wrong again by giving the Amsterdammers one in the last minute. It was miserably missed by Cristian Chivu - as if he wanted to underscore Ajax's pathetic incapacity to force the mediocre Swiss to their knees.

This second round goodbye to European football is the earliest since Austria Vienna eliminated the team in the UEFA Cup first round of September, 1989. That night is remembered as a black page in the book of Ajax history. Ajax was banned from UEFA tournaments for one season, because the Austria Vienna goalkeeper was hit by an iron bar, thrown by a frustrated F-Sider, after Vienna had scored a fatal equalizer in extra time.

This time, luckily, the 29,876 in the ArenA just disappeared into the rainy Amsterdam night, knowing that their beloved club had been justly knocked out by the Swiss equivalent of FC Groningen or De Graafschap. (MP)

GOALS

17' 1-0 Shota Arveladze
38' 1-1 Javier Mazzoni
77' 1-2 Marcin Kuzba (penalty)
79' 2-2 Cedric van der Gun

(Lausanne Sports wins 3-2 on aggregate)

Referee: Esquinas Torres (Spain)
Bookings: Pasanen, Chivu, Arveladze, Winter (Ajax), Mazzoni, Christ, Santini (Lausanne Sports)
Attendance: 29,876
Ajax line-up: Grim; Bergd¢lmo, Pasanen (66. Van der Gun), Chivu, De Cler; Winter, Galásek, Van der Vaart; Ikedia (69. Van der Meyde), Machlas, Arveladze.
Lausanne Sports line-up: Rapo; Christ, Puce, Karlen (77. Horjak), Mayer; Baudry, Santini, Hellebuyck (72. Zambaz), Lombardo; Mazzoni (59. Thiaw), Kuzba.