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Match Report: Actual and moral victory in early
classic
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De Kuip, Rotterdam
26 August, 2001 |
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Ajacied Rafael van der Vaart (M)
celebrates what turned out to be the game-winner against
Feyenoord.
[source: ANP]
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26 August: With a defensive non-Ajax playing style combined
with a great fighting spirit, Ajax were today far the better
team in the early classic. In Rotterdam, Ajax beat Feyenoord
1-2 underscoring the value of the new system. Substitute Zlatan
scored the game's first goal after an hour. Van der Vaart
secured the victory by scoring the second goal seven minutes
before time.
At that moment, Ajax had only ten players on the pitch.
Tunisian Hatem Trabelsi got his second yellow card 20 minutes
before time and was sent off. It was doubtful whether his
tackle was on the ball or not, but the Tunisian couldn't really
complain since his first yellow card in the first half should
have been red directly. With a heavy tackle, he hit the knee of
Feyenoord player Rzasa who was lucky not to get injured
seriously.
Apart from this heavy tackle, Trabelsi played an excellent
match and, together with left back Maxwell, he proved that Ajax
has finally found the backs they needed so desperately. Five
minutes before Trabelsi got sent off, he lead Ajax to the 0-1
goal. After a beautiful rush along the side line, he crossed
the ball to a free Zlatan, who easily scored his first
important goal for Ajax.
Ajax ruled the midfield today, with Wamberto once again in a
free role scattering passes like candy. In more than one
aspect, Ajax took lessons from the home match against Celtic
two weeks ago. Not only did they sense that only two
midfielders is not enough against a strong opponent. They also
learned that the way Celtic played was an effective play style.
In the friendly match against AS Roma and in the away match
against Celtic coach Adriaanse more or less copied the play
style of the Scots, playing with a stronger defense and
midfield.
In Amsterdam, Adriaanse was heavily criticized for this,
since it is very unlike Ajax to play so defensively. But the
coach replied: "Last year we gathered exactly one point in the
six top matches against Feyenoord, PSV and Vitesse; this year
this has to be more". After today's match he has already
succeeded, bringing three points back to Amsterdam.
Ajax started the match with strikers Machlas and Arveladze
in the line-up, leaving the big purchase Zlatan Ibrahimovic on
the bench once again. Last week the Swede stated that he could
live with that since he is "not playing so well at the moment."
But after both Arveladze and Machlas missed great chances to
open the score, it was his turn to prove his importance. And he
did. Not only did he score the 0-1 in his first ball contact,
fifteen minutes later he beautifully gave Van der Vaart a free
passage to the Feyenoord goal which led to the 0-2 score.
This was very important at that time because Feyenoord was
putting more pressure on the Ajax defense, especially since the
Amsterdammers were playing with only ten. But Feyenoord had to
wait until the very last second to score their only goal of the
day. Tomasson found the ball out of a scramble in front of goal
and fired home. Before that Van Hooijdonk had a few nice
headers, but Grim saved them all.
This was supposed to be a tough opening for Ajax, with a
first match against Roda followed by the return match against
Celtic and then classic in Rotterdam, all in one week. Ajax has
succeeded beyond all reasonable expectations, gathering seven
points in these three matches. The players of Ajax, the coach,
the board and not-least the supporters definitely needed this
actual and moral victory. And one can only hope that the good
performance of today can be continued in the next couple of
games. (BV)
Goals:
- 65' 0-1 Zlatan Ibrahimovic
- 83' 0-2 Rafael van der Vaart
- 95' 1-2 Jon Dahl Tomasson
Referee: Temmink
Yellow cards: Trabelsi (2x), Heitinga (Ajax), Tomasson
(Feyenoord)
Attendance: 42,000
Line-up Ajax: Grim, Trabelsi, Bergdølmo,
Vierklau, Chivu, Maxwell, Yakubu, Van der Vaart, Arveladze,
(69. Heitinga), Wamberto (81. Knopper), Machlas (62. Zlatan)
Line-up Feyenoord: Dudek, Emerton, Van Wonderen, De
Haan, Rzasa (80. Leonardo dos Santos), Bosvelt, Tomasson,
Paauwe, Kalou (46. Ono), Leonardo (67. Smolarek), Van Hooijdonk
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