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Mido, Ajax bundle in hatful of goals against Sparta

"We're getting closer and closer," said Ronald Koeman after the away game at Sparta. Ajax didn't even need to play well for its largest away victory of the season (0-4), against 'good old' Frank Rijkaard's pitiful team. Mido scored no less than three goals. Exactly half of the ten goals he has scored so far have been scored against Sparta.

As Ajax and Sparta kicked off, the Denis Neville stand in Eneco Stadium was almost empty. Sparta's hardcore fans stayed outside, as a protest action against the board. They entered the stadium after five minutes. A banner they put up said, cynically: "TOP Oss - we're coming!" TOP Oss is the bottom team in the First Division...

Obviously, Sparta's fans are pessimistic about the future of the club. And they have reasons for it. Ajax (playing in the same 4-4-2 formation as last Wednesday against PSV) was far from brilliant, failing to wrap the game up at an early stage and even allowing the side from Rotterdam-West to create a few major scoring chances early in the second half. But Sparta simply lacked the quality to take advantage.

Today's Ajax team would have gotten in trouble against many opponents, but not against Sparta. Except in the first fifteen minutes after the break, Sparta - with all due respect - was a piece of cake. It was almost impossible not to score, with an inept goalkeeper like Brian Vandenbussche defending the Sparta net. His insecurity was obvious and, eventually, gave Ajax the lead. First, a back-pass from one of his defenders slipped off his foot. Then, he fumbled an easy-to-catch Galásek shot. And finally, Vandenbussche completely miss-judged a high Trabelsi cross, which Mido headed easily into the empty net: 0-1 (33).

Offensively, Sparta showed nothing constructive whatsoever, despite the admirable play of Sparta's indefatigable artist in midfield - Nourdin Boukhari - for whom the season must be quite frustrating. Ajax should have scored two, maybe three goals before half-time. The fact that they scored only one says a lot about the Amsterdammers' far-from-spectacular form on the day.

In the second half, in which Andy van der Meyde quite surprisingly replaced the excellent Steven Pienaar, Ajax almost paid the price for failing to knock Sparta out. Without showing any decent football, the Rotterdammers created two very dangerous chances. Fred Grim saved shots by Denni Conteh and tall substitute Michel Langerak. On the other side, Nikos Machlas showed once again that he can only score as a substitute: his well-turned shot hit the post, after which he missed the easiest of header chances, by nodding the ball wide.

Just as Sparta slowly started to believe in a miracle, Ajax got its act together. Mido fumbled his second (66) and third (73) of the day into the net; both times from a fine Zlatan assist. Once again, goalkeeper Vandenbussche did not exactly look good, to say the least. Since Mido became the central forward of choice, he has scored seven goals in six games; an impressive achievement.

However, probably the nicest thing about this afternoon in Rotterdam was the superb goal scored by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is having a hard time on the Ajax bench and lacks self-confidence. Today, he made the most of his 27 minutes: after his two fine assists, the tall Swede gracefully slipped past two defenders before firing home with a superb diagonal strike (78). The entire team was visibly happy for Zlatan, and the travelling Ajax fans yelled: "Zlatan is released!"

Nothing special happened in the final ten minutes of the game, except that Frank Rijkaard seemed to replace Aron Winter only to allow the Ajax fans to yell Winter's name for a few seconds. The second Ajacied in the Sparta line-up, John Nieuwenburg, was carried off the pitch injured after only 22 minutes.

Finally, the 80th minute saw another Ajax débutant. 18 year-old defender Jelle Van Damme, on a try-out from Germinal Beerschot Antwerp, was rewarded for his excellent performances in Young Ajax with his first Ajax-1 minutes. The tall Belgian is likely to be offered a contract for next season.

But for now, those are just nice little details. Three more games to go... (MP)

GOALS

• 33' 0-1 Ahmed 'Mido' Hossam
• 66' 0-2 Ahmed 'Mido' Hossam
• 73' 0-3 Ahmed 'Mido' Hossam
• 78' 0-4 Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Referee: Van Dijk
Yellow card: Van der Meer (Sparta)
Attendance: 9,247

Ajax line-up: Grim; Trabelsi, Chivu (80. Van Damme), Bergdølmo, O'Brien; Galásek, Van Halst, Pienaar (46. Van der Meyde), Maxwell; Machlas (62. Zlatan), Mido.

Sparta line-up: Vandenbussche; De Fauw, Marillia, Nieuwenburg (22. Pengel), Van der Meer; Winter (84. Rimkus), Bouchiba, Boukhari, Koevermans; Sanou, Conteh (61. Langerak).

Related Links

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