Ajax easily rolls over timid Volendam: 5-1
5 (3) - 1
(1)
Holland Casino Eredivisie
Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam
Friday, 17 November, 2003
Prior to the Eredivisie fixture between Ajax and FC Volendam
the ArenA announcer welcomed the guests as "our friends from
Volendam". The relationship between the clubs and their
respective sets of fans is traditionally very friendly. Even
the Volendam players were very polite in the ArenA, where Ajax
got to prepare for its crucial Champions League fixture against
Celta de Vigo in a pleasant, relaxed pace: 5-1.
'The Other Oranje', as FC Volendam is nicknamed, got
promoted to the Eredivisie by winning the post-season play-offs
in a rather fortunate way this year. The team is inexperienced
and seems to be a bit too 'light' for the highest level.
Volendam is hoping to gather just enough points to stay in. In
the ArenA, however, the team did not seem to nurse any hopes of
notching a point whatsoever, not even when they unexpectedly
wiped out Wesley Sonck's early opening goal: a gracious,
diagonal 5th minute header on a fine Soetaers cross from the
left flank.
Volendam's Ajax loanee, Ruud
Kras, battles with Wesley Sonck. [Photo: ANP]
The crowd at the neary sold-out ArenA rubbed its hands
after Sonck's excellent opening goal and prepared for a night
of Ajax goals. To everyone's surprise, however, the score was
level only eight minutes later, after collective negligence in
the Ajax defense. It started with striker Dion Esajas, who got
a free passage to Bogdan Lobont. The Ajax goalie saved, but saw
Julien Escudé nonchalantly losing the ball to Jack Tuyp.
His shot was once again saved by Lobont, but the Romanian was
once again let down by Julien Escudé and Petri Pasanen,
who apathetically watched how Esajas took care of the rebound:
1-1 (13').
"These things make me very angry", said Ronald Koeman after
the game. "Moments like these determine whether you make it to
the next round of the Champions League or not. Conceding a goal
like that really hurts (...) Volendam gave the final push
itself, but we gave them all the assistance they required."
Nevertheless, it never became a difficult evening for Ajax.
FC Volendam, known as a well full of skilful, gracious football
players, showed some good combination play in midfield, but
their equalizer was the first and last time that they managed
to properly launch one of their strikers. Ajax, meanwhile,
played fairly well and required only a few accelerations to
secure the win well before the half-time break.
The man to wrap it all up for Ajax was Rafaël van der
Vaart. The Ajax captain had a difficult start of the season and
did not score a single goal for Ajax so far. However, a few
fine performances for Holland helped him in finding a way out
of the crisis. Against Volendam he literally was a few inches
away from netting a first half hattrick. He put Ajax in the
lead by rocketing a diagonal shot past goalkeeper Van Westerop
(32'), then took advantage of a poorly placed Volendam 'wall'
on a free-kick (37') and almost added his third just before the
break, but his beautifully curling long range attempt bounced
over Volendam's goal via the cross-bar. "Finally it went in",
said Van der Vaart. "I got rid of a lot of frustration
today."
The second half was a formality, which is always pleasant
for a team that has an important midweek fixture coming up.
Ajax was freewheeling rather indifferently, but still managed
to create one chance after the other. Wesley Sonck and Zlatan
Ibrahimovic failed on several opportunities. The key difference
between the two was their body language: Sonck was angry with
himself after a missed chance, shaking his head and slamming
his fist into his palm, whereas Zlatan seemed indifferent and
aloof. The Swede tortured Van Westerop's fists with a few
thundering shots, but was otherwise selfish in his actions and
had one of his weaker games of recent weeks.
Ajax's best chance was missed by Hatem Trabelsi, who had a
free passage, but showed that he's a defender by clumsily
tapping the ball wide by a yard or two from close range. As for
Volendam: the guests had only one dangerous moment after the
break, as Maxwell had to clear a Luirink header (on a Jack Tuyp
corner kick) off the goal-line.
The second half was slowly petering out and it seemed like
the eagerly awaited return to Ajax-1 of young Johnny Heitinga
was going to be the most memorable moment. Heitinga's return
elicited the beautiful Amsterdam evergreen Oh Johnny
from the F-Side stand. It's almost exactly a year ago (25
October) that the youngster sustained the second heavy injury
of his tender career. Zdenek Grygera also returned from his
injury and, finally, young Nicolae Mitea was granted his third
first team appearance.
The Romanian dribbler almost immediately scored his second
Eredivisie goal (in less than 45 minutes of Ajax-1 football in
total). He rushed past two opponents and saw his shot carambole
into the netting via Van Westerop's fingertips and the inside
of the post. Mitea stormed all across the pitch to jump into
the arms of coach Ruud Krol, who has served as the unofficial
patron of the young Romanian during his first weeks with the
first team.
Ajax would return to the dressing-rooms with a respectable
final score in its pocket after all, as a fine Van der Vaart
chip sent Wesley Sonck on his way. The Belgian striker
controlled the ball beautifully, nicely slipped past the
goalkeeper and then noticed that the onstorming Hatem Trabelsi
was in a better position to score. The Tunisian calmly finished
for his second ever Ajax goal: 5-1 (85').
After the game, quite typically, Volendam coach Henk Wisman
seemed happier with the result than his Ajax colleague, Ronald
Koeman. The latter was aware that Ajax played fairly well, but
never needed to give everything against the charming, but
hapless opposition from 'Eel Village'. This will be very
different in the tremendously important ten days that lie ahead
and will see matches against Celta de Vigo and PSV. (MP)
GOALS
- 05' 1-0 Wesley Sonck
- 13' 1-1 Dion Esajas
- 32' 2-1 Rafaël van der Vaart
- 38' 3-1 Rafaël van der Vaart
- 78' 4-1 Nicolae Mitea
- 85' 5-1 Hatem Trabelsi
Referee: Wiedemeijer
Cards: none
Attendance: 49,521
Ajax line-up: Lobont; Trabelsi, Pasanen,
Escudé (58. Grygera), Maxwell; Pienaar, Galásek
(63. Heitinga), Van der Vaart, Soetaers (71. Mitea); Sonck,
Ibrahimovic.
FC Volendam line-up: Van Westerop;
Wilson, Kras, Breinburg, Koning (78. Fung A Wing); Buijs,
Luirink, Faria (46. Woudenberg); Tuyp (70. Henar), Esajas,
Ouhsaine.
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