Ajax easily breaks short-lived Heerenveen resistance
3 (2) - 1
(1)
Holland Casino Eredivisie
Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam
Sunday, 23 November, 2003
The Eredivisie home game against SC Heerenveen marked the
start of a thrilling and probably exhausting week for Ajax, in
which (after Heerenveen) AC Milan and Feyenoord will visit a
sold-out Amsterdam ArenA. Don't waste more energy than
necessary, were Ronald Koeman's orders for the Heerenveen game.
The players surely followed the coaches instructions, but
against the hapless Frisians it was more than enough for an
easy win: 3-1.
A fine result, given the fact that Ajax had to miss out on
more than just a few players, due to suspensions (Van der
Vaart, Heitinga) and injuries (Trabelsi, Pienaar, O'Brien).
Availability against AC Milan will hardly be better, as Van der
Vaart is also suspended for one European fixture, whereas the
return of Johnny Heitinga is undone by the suspension of Zdenek
Grygera. The line-up against Heerenveen made clear that Nigel
de Jong is Koeman's preferred stand-in for Hatem Trabelsi,
while Anthony Obodai surprisingly made his Ajax-1 début
as a right midfielder. Another remarkable fact: for the moment
young Nicolae Mitea appears to have leapfrogged Wamberto and
Koeman's purchases Soetaers and Sikora in the hierarchy for the
position of left winger.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic causes unrest
in front of Heerenveen goalkeeper Vonk. [Photo:
ANP]
Perhaps the improvisations in the line-up were the reason
why Ajax had a tough start against Heerenveen. The guests were
well-organized and seemed to have come to the ArenA to give
Ajax an extremely hard time. Ajax was unable to produce more
than a harmless Ibrahimovic header in the first fifteen
minutes, shortly after which Heerenveen took the lead from
their first corner-kick of the game. Ironically the corner was
taken by one former Ajax player (Richard Knopper) and slammed
home with the head by another: Gerald Sibon, who scored only
four Eredivisie goals in two seasons as an Ajax striker: 0-1
(18').
The start of a tough afternoon for Ajax? Quite mysteriously:
not at all. Almost immediately after the opening goal the ArenA
crowd saw the first symptoms of what coach Foppe de Haan refers
to as the 'Heerenveen disease': a mysterious tendency to be
overwhelmed by its own goals, to shrivel up offensively after
having taken the lead and to display a mysterious fear of
physical duels. SC Heerenveen is usually one of Holland's
better sides, but somehow they are almost always an easy prey
for Ajax in Amsterdam.
This season's edition was no exception. Hans Vonk managed to
keep Ajax's first attempts (including a well-taken De Jong
shot) out of his nets, but then had to bow his head twice in 90
seconds. Wesley Sonck, who did not score but played a very good
game on the right flank, showed up in front of Vonk, was
brought down by Edman, but referee Roelof Luinge noticed
sharply that Wesley Sneijder was in the position to tap home
for the equalizer: 1-1 (36').
Ajax won the game less than a minute later, as left winger
Nicolae Mitea once again showed that coming to the far post at
the right moment is one of his specialties: it was a piece of
cake for the young Romanian to push Wesley Sonck's excellent,
low cross into the nets: 2-1. Once again the attack was set up
by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the last man to touch the ball before
the scorer was Wesley Sonck. So much for Ajax's false start and
Heerenveen's ambitions.
It's hard to believe that Ajax's second goal, scored well
before half time, was decisive - but it was. Heerenveen's only
chances in the remainder of the game were created when it was
far too late for the guests to change their fate. A Sibon
header and a fine shot by substitute Samaras in the dying
minutes of the game were spectacularly saved by Bogdan Lobont,
who had to show his qualities only because the concentration of
his team-mates' had almost dropped to zero at that point.
Ajax was 3-1 up at that point. It could - and should - have
been more. Zlatan Ibrahimovic calmly pushed home only eight
minutes after the game, once again after great work by Wesley
Sonck. The Swede was already celebrating his goal when he
noticed that Luinge had disallowed the goal due to off-side -
and he was right in doing so. It didn't matter for Zlatan, who
nonchalantly fired his next chance past Vonk a few minutes
later, this time on an assist by Anthony Obodai, who did fairly
well in his first Ajax-1 game.
Despite playing in the lowest gear Ajax had chances to score
some more. Ibrahimovic, however, preferred the artistic over
the easy option a few times (and why not?), whereas Nigel de
Jong and substitute Jari Litmanen saw Hans Vonk intercept well
as they came face to face with him. It did not matter.
Everyone, including the uninspired visitors, seemed at peace
with the result.
The only worrying moments for Ajax in the second half were
when Julien Escudé and Maxwell sustained unnecessary
knocks and had to be treated. The Frenchman was alright, but
the Brazilian's knee worried Ronald Koeman after the game. "It
doesn't look good", the Ajax coach said. Maxwell will be Ajax's
most important 'question mark' the next couple of days, during
the preparations for Ajax vs AC Milan. A crucial game? Not if
you look at the plain facts: a win can see Ajax through to the
second round a game before the end. A defeat, however, can
impossibly mean elimination. Which is the perfect starting
point to receive the Italians with boldness - and to go for the
win that Ajax would have deserved on several occasions in the
past year. (MP)
GOALS
- 18' 0-1 Gerald Sibon
- 36' 1-1 Wesley Sneijder
- 37' 2-1 Nicolae Mitea
- 59' 3-1 Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Referee: Luinge
Yellow cards: Sneijder (Ajax), Hansson
(SC Heerenveen)
Attendance: 49,331
Ajax line-up: Lobont; De Jong, Grygera,
Escudé, Maxwell; Obodai, Galásek, Sneijder;
Sonck (74. Sikora), Ibrahimovic (70. Litmanen), Mitea (60.
Soetaers).
SC Heerenveen line-up: Vonk; Van Hoving
(67. Verbiest), Hansson, Seip, Edman; Väyrynen, Knopper
(79. Hakansson), Radomski, Selakovic (74. Samaras); Correia,
Sibon.
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