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Match Report: Painful first stumble, conceding five in Heerenveen

It had to happen some day - it happened on Wednesday, in rainy Heerenveen: Ajax lost its unbeaten status. Since winning the championship without a defeat is hardly possible, a defeat after nine games is nothing to be ashamed about. Abe Lenstra Stadium is one of the places in Holland where losing is - reasonably - possible. A defeat there is no disgrace as such, but to Ajax it did happen in disgraceful style: 5-1.

After having conceded only three goals in the first eight league games, a suddenly and amazingly leaky Ajax defense allowed the Frisian side to strike no less than five times; it was a defense in which Tim de Cler lost his spot and John O'Brien was the least unsettled player, at left back. Tomás Galásek and Mido returned to the team, pushing the American to the defensive ranks.

The sights before the game were unique and hilarious: the Ajax board - including chairman Michael van Praag, general director Arie van Eijden, financial director Arie van Os and technical director Leo Beenhakker - sitting in the empty away supporters' section, wearing Ajax shirts and even performing a small 'wave' as the teams entered the pitch. Their ludicrous protest, against the unacceptably low number of tickets SC Heerenveen offered Ajax, was appreciated by the 1,000 Ajax fans watching the game on big screen in the Amsterdam ArenA. It would have been the ultimate revenge for Ajax to score a goal for every 50 tickets Heerenveen refused to make available to Ajax. However, the team was pretty much to concede a goal for every 50 tickets instead.

Ajax' collapse was incredible, especially because there seemed to be no problem at first. SC Heerenveen pushed Ajax back and was clearly dominant for 75% of the game, but Ajax' defense seemed reliable as always, and the self- esteem and ease with which the Amsterdammers took the lead could almost be described as 'usual': Rafaël van der Vaart perfectly headed home from a John O'Brien free kick (20), surrounded by three blue and white defenders. In that phase, Ajax played well for 20, maybe 25 minutes and saw Van der Vaart release a superb lob which landed on the cross-bar.

SC Heerenveen took over in the final ten minutes before the break, but still: there was no real danger. Swedish striker Markus Allbäck showed up in front of Fred Grim once, but visibly played the ball with his arm. Fred Grim's save was magnificent, but referee Luinge's whistle had already sounded.

Reasonably, Heerenveen deserved the equalizer, which came in stoppage time of the first half. At that point, it was typical that the northern team needed a Chivu injury to score it. While the Romanian was taken care of at the sideline, Heerenveen's excellent Finnish midfielder Mika Nurmela curled a free kick exactly to where Chivu should have been. Now, Allbäck was there alone: 1-1 (45), a half-time score which seemed fair, over all.

It turned out to be the breaking-point of the game. Hardly anything went right for Ajax after the break. No proper attack was built, no combination succeeded, no individual duels were won, no chances created. Ajax was outplayed, ripped apart and - in the end - totally humiliated by SC Heerenveen, in what was by far the weakest half of league football of the season. Fred Grim, playing his 100th game in Ajax-1 and having been beaten only three times so far this season, had to pick the ball out of his net four more times.

The two goals defender Gérard de Nooijer added in the latter 25 minutes of the second half (2-1 in the 69th and 5-1 in the 86th minute) were tactically identical to Allbäck's equalizer: De Nooijer was able to slam his head against two more perfect Nurmela free-kicks. He showed up right in the middle of the Ajax penalty box, where Cris Chivu and André Bergdølmo were unbeatable in the air in recent games. But in Heerenveen, everything was obviously different.

The 'Man Of The Match', no doubt, was Markus Allbäck, a genius striker, who was invisible in the first half, but showed all the outstanding stuff you can imagine in the second. After his first marvellous scoring attempt was saved by Grim and finished by Denneboom (3-1, 72th minute), he flabbergasted everyone with a superb goal six minutes later. A high pass dropped dead on his foot, and he turned around and slipped past Chivu in one fluent movement and fired a low shot past Grim: 4-1 (78). Definitely one of the most brilliant goals scored in this year's Eredivisie.

This defeat has not only terminated Ajax' unbeaten status in the Eredivisie, it has also enabled Feyenoord to come alongside Ajax at the top of the table, if they win the game they still have in hand. If they do so, the Rotterdammers will be the official league leaders on goal difference. After this defeat, Ajax' rock-solid defense has instantly dropped back to the poor level of last year: an average of almost one goal conceded per game. For the record: the last time Ajax lost with this devastating difference was not so long ago, on 10 February, 2000 (4-0 at PSV). However, the last time Ajax conceded five goals in an Eredivisie game was over seventeen years ago: on 6 May, 1984 (5-2 at Sparta).

Despite all that, it would be unreasonable to make too much out of this disappointment. After all, every Eredivisie teams suffered defeats earlier than Ajax did and still, only three teams have lost only once. The Amsterdammers are still top in the Eredivisie. Feyenoord will have to win their remaining game to join Ajax at the top - leapfrogging is not possible. A dramatic 25 minute black-out should never be enough to make Ajax forget how good the past weeks have been, even though the Dutch sports press will revel in seeing Ajax lose, since they never expected to see this club at the top after 25% of the competition.

The last few games were really good, this one was horrendous and the next one is on Sunday. The facts are neither nicer nor worse than that. (MP)

GOALS

• 20' 0-1 Rafaël van der Vaart
• 45' 1-1 Markus Allbäck
• 69' 2-1 Gérard de Nooijer
• 72' 3-1 Romano Denneboom
• 78' 4-1 Markus Allbäck
• 86' 5-1 Gérard de Nooijer

Referee: Luinge
Yellow cards: Trabelsi, Bergdølmo (Ajax), Denneboom (SC Heerenveen)
Attendance: 14,011

Ajax line-up: Grim; Trabelsi, Chivu, Bergdølmo, O'Brien; Galásek (79. Machlas), Yakubu, Van der Vaart; Van der Meyde, Mido, Wamberto.

SC Heerenveen line-up: Vonk; Venema, Klompe, G. de Nooijer, Edman; Radomski, Nurmela, Jensen; Lurling (76. Hakanssson), Allbäck, Denneboom (87. D. de Nooijer).

Related Links:

• Discussion: Ajax current form