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Match Report: Surprisingly strong Ajax makes its own trouble at RBC

RBC Roosendaal vs Ajax was a strange game. In between two Champions League ties, Ajax quite surprisingly played by far its best league game so far. The Amsterdammers should have scored at least five or six goals. Three seemed more than enough as well, but in the final ten minutes of the game, the orange side from Roosendaal was allowed to pull a brace of goals back, making for an unexpectedly hot finish: 2-3.

The first surprise was there even before kick-off, as Ajax coach Ronald Koeman decided to leave most of the team that beat Olympique Lyonnais intact. Jari Litmanen was replaced by Steven Pienaar and Victor Sikora by Wamberto, but Cristian Chivu - struggling against a minor injury before the Lyon game - played the full ninety in Roosendaal, where Ajax opened with some of its best football of the season, but failed to score in the first half.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic came closest to first half success: on an intelligent pass by Steven Pienaar (probably Ajax' best man on the pitch), the Swede's fine attempt hit the post. RBC Roosendaal, where veteran striker Henk Vos played his 400th game as a professional footballer, was dangerous on a few counter-attacks, but was virtually powerless against Ajax' supremacy. As referee Wegereef's half-time whistle sounded, the only thing Ajax had done wrong was failing to score.

After some ten minutes in the second half, Koeman thought it was about time for the decisive goal to come. He brought on Jari Litmanen, who almost immediately provided Zlatan Ibrahimovic with a superb thru-pass. The Swede scored (58). Only minutes later, Litmanen was subbed again, having played only nine minutes, but it was more than enough. Litmanen reportedly sustained a minor injury, but he was not replaced because he could no longer play. Litmanen and the Ajax staff wanted to take no risk, with the big Inter game coming up.

Now the first one was netted, more goals simply had to follow, since Ajax kept playing with surprising determination and accuracy. The score was doubled by Tomás Galásek, who has a devastating shot in both his right and his left. This time, he got the ball just outside the penalty box, provided himself the required space by dribbling a few yards to the left hand side, and slammed home in stunning style, with his left, from some 20 yards, right into the upper ninety: 0-2 (66).

As Cristian Chivu got to convert a penalty only several minutes later (75), a monster score seemed possible, in spite of the fact that Ajax started scoring so late. However, what many Ajax fans expected to be the case from kick-off, happened in the final ten, fifteen minutes: the Ajacieden's minds already took their plane to San Siro. With a comfortable 0-3 score in hand, Ajax' determination and concentration suddenly vanished. This was the case during only ten minutes, but it was almost fatal.

Former Ajacied Nordin Wooter, who played a superb game and was a constant plague for John O'Brien, was the first one to take advantage of Ajax' ten minutes of sleepwalking. After having furiously hit the post only seconds earlier, he picked up the ball again and beat Maarten Stekelenburg with a low shot: 1-3 (82).

The bogey-man on Ajax' side was Andy van der Meyde, who played a weak game and annoyed his coach and team-mates in the final ten minutes. First, he decided to give a Wamberto finish the final push, while standing in an off-side position. Quite a clumsy thing to do, since the ball would have gone in anyway. Wamberto was not off-side, so the goal would have counted. Van der Meyde's intereference left referee Wegereef no other choice than to disallow it. Only minutes later, Van der Meyde was apparently sleeping at the side-line, ignoring his defensive tasks and allowing the RBC forwards to provide Geert den Ouden with an unmissable chance: 2-3 (88).

Amazing. It should have been 0-5 at least; now Ajax had to give everything for a few minutes in order not to collapse and let go of two points. The victory was secured, but the figures of 2-3 were almost unreal, after such a superior performance.

But all's well that ends well: Ajax still has the 100% score in the Eredivisie, the game was much better than expected, Chivu is still fit and Litmanen's injury is nothing serious. Now: off to San Siro, Milan! They're exciting times... (MP)

GOALS

• 58' 0-1 Zlatan Ibrahimovic
• 66' 0-2 Tomás Galásek
• 75' 0-3 Cristian Chivu (penalty)
• 82' 1-3 Nordin Wooter
• 88' 2-3 Geert den Ouden

Referee: Wegereef
Yellow cards: Oliseh (RBC Roosendaal) and Chivu (Ajax)
Attendance: 5,000

Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Trabelsi, Chivu, Yakubu, O'Brien (71. Pasanen); Galásek, Pienaar, Maxwell (55.Litmanen [64. Van Halst]); Van der Meyde, Zlatan, Wamberto.

RBC Roosendaal: Aerts; Keller, Nascimento, Oliseh, Fleur; De Graaf (65. Den Ouden), Heije, Tininho (75. Piqué); Wooter, Vos, Sillah (90. Van Wetten).

Related Links:

• Discussion: Eredivisie Games
• Supershota: Goals (AVI video)
• Ajax.nl: Match Report (in Dutch, with pictures)