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Match Report: First post-winter break defeat for meandering Ajax

Not Philips Stadium or De Kuip, but Arnhem's Gelredome is Ajax' least popular destination in Holland. The Amsterdammers' record at Vitesse's modern facility is terrible: the last road victory over Vitesse was in 1996-1997, in old Monnikenhuize Stadium. Since Vitesse moved to Gelredome, Ajax never notched a single point. They will have to wait at least another year for that to happen, since Vitesse booked a well-deserved 3-1 victory today - the fifth home victory against Ajax in a row.

Ronald Koeman had some excuses for the wayward performance against his previous club: he had to miss out on both his defensive backs of preference. Hatem Trabelsi was suspended (for one game), whereas John O'Brien sustained an injury during training with the U.S. national team. Ferdi Vierklau and Maxwell were the respective alternatives. Steven Pienaar, recovered from an injury, was chosen over Tomás Galásek, who returned to the bench.

The young South-African turned out to be one of the very few Ajacieden to play a good game. Ajax hardly created any real chances in Arnhem and - after having displayed an excellent fighting spirit in recent games - lost almost every physical duel, making for a game that looked a lot like last week's clash with PSV. Last week Ajax survived the storm. This week they didn't.

Despite the obvious lack of offensive ideas, Ajax seemed to be heading for a good result during some 75% of the game. 0-0 would have been the score at half-time if it wasn't for young defender Ruud Knol, who pulled down Mido inside a penalty box, in a situation which didn't seem too dangerous for Vitesse. As usual, André Bergdølmo was stone-cold from the spot: 0-1 (32).

The lead was to stay intact for 40 minutes, but from kick-off in the second half, it was obvious that Ajax was going to be in big trouble if nothing changed. Both Ajax wingers, Andy van der Meyde and Wamberto, continued their miserable form of recent weeks. In the center, therefore, Mido hardly got the chance to do anything substantial.

The wekeast link in the Ajax line-up was, without a doubt, Jan van Halst, who made one unnecessary foul after the other, without actually winning the ball. Vitesse got more free kicks and corner kicks than Ajax could possibly survive. The knock-out punch Ajax was asking for, came, between the 70th and 75th minute, as substitute Va Beukering headed home from a corner kick (71) and defender Ruud Knol diagonally fired a Didier Martel free kick past Fred Grim (73).

All of a sudden, things didn't look so great anymore. Early in the second half, the section of travelling Ajax fans cheered because RKC had just taken the lead in Rotterdam. Now, Ajax was a goal down - and Feyenoord equalized. Things can change rapidly in football.

In the mean time, Koeman had taken the one creative midfielder in the team off the pitch, replacing him by Nikos Machlas. A useless substitution: the Ajax midfield then playing (with Van Halst and Galásek) was simply too slow, too defensive and too clueless to even get the ball upfront. In the final minutes of the game Van Halst underscored his dramatically poor game by giving an erratic backpass, making way for Mbamba to score Vitesse's third. In a desperate attempt to clear, André Bergdølmo did it for him: 3-1 (85).

For Wamberto, things appeared to be so frustrating that he kicked Victor Sikora. The Brazilian apologized immediately, but referee Bossen had no other choice than to send Wamberto off. A few minutes earlier, Cristian Chivu was shown a yellow card, also for a foul against Sikora. It was the Romanian's fourth yellow card of the season, so he faces a one game suspension. On Wednesday, against FC Groningen, the Ajax line-up will look quite different once again.

After such a dramatic defeat, all there's left to do is to look on the bright side: Feyenoord hardly took advantage of Ajax' stumble in Arnhem. The Rotterdammers lost two points against RKC (1-1) and are still two points below Ajax, although they can now leapfrog Ajax by winning the game they still have in hand. However, today's Vitesse game was the last historically tough game of the season for Ajax, whereas Feyenoord and PSV are still to meet in Eindhoven.

Given Feyenoord's busy European schedule for the upcoming weeks, you'd say that winning the five remaining games should be enough to clinch the first Dutch championship since 1998. After having lost five points in two games, in this crucial stage of the tightest Eredivisie in decades, it's actually a miracle that things are still looking that good… (MP)

Goals:

• 31' 0-1 André Bergdølmo (penalty)
• 71' 1-1 Jhon van Beukering
• 73' 2-1 Ruud Knol
• 85' 3-1 André Bergdølmo (own goal)

Referee: Bossen
Yellow cards: Mido, Pienaar, Chivu (Ajax), Sikora (Vitesse)
Red card: Wamberto (Ajax, 90')
Attendance: 27,500

Vitesse line-up: Jevric; Cornelisse, Stefanovic, Knol, Nanu; Diarra, Van der Schaaf, Hofs (46. Mbamba); Sikora, Amoah (64. Van Beukering) Martel (76. Claessens).

Ajax line-up: Grim; Vierklau (55. Galásek), Chivu, Bergdølmo, Maxwell; Yakubu, Pienaar (76. Machlas), Van Halst; Van der Meyde (71. Seedorf), Mido, Wamberto.

Related Links:

• Discussion: Ajax current form
• Ajax.nl: Match Report (in Dutch, with pictures)