Disorganized Ajax drops points in RBC home game: 1-1
1 (1) - 1
(1)
Holland Casino Eredivisie
Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam
Sunday, 18 April, 2004
Were the Ajax players still distracted by Thursday's
outbreak of violence at De Toekomst? Did fear of
retaliation by Feyenoord hooligans paralyze them? Whatever the
answer may be: Ajax's performance against RBC Roosendaal was
weak, especially in the second half. While Ajax struggled and
played against itself, the guests from Roosendaal had the best
chances and saw a Niño attempt bounce back from the
inside of the post in the very last minute. RBC Roosendaal was
the first Eredivisie team to leave the ArenA with a point.
And it could have been the full three. In the words of coach
Robert Maaskant: "As strange as it may sound here in the ArenA,
we should have claimed more than just two points."
The muffled sound of the punches in the faces
of Feyenoord players such as Jorge Acuña and Robin
van Persie were almost audible in the silent ArenA,
where coach Ronald Koeman read a statement before
kick-off. "A game of football is supposed to be a party. But
today there is a black edge to Ajax vs RBC. This is
due to the scandalous incidents after Young Ajax vs Young
Feyenoord. This is a disgrace to Ajax and we owe the
players of Young Feyenoord our sincere apologies," the
Ajax coach said, with general director Arie van Eijden and
chairman John Jaakke standing next to him. The ArenA crowd
responded with loud applause.
Rafael van der
Vaart. [Photo: Gerard van Hees/Ajax.nl]
Ajax (starting with Daniël de Ridder and Yannis
Anastasiou, but without Wesley Sneijder and Zlatan Ibrahimovic)
was apparently thrown out of balance by the whole affair,
as within three minutes' time Bogdan Lobont had to pick the
ball out of the netting behind him. Defender Eric Hellemons
was free as a bird on a corner kick by Ajax loanee
Pius Ikedia and headed home at the far post, which was
poorly guarded by De Ridder.
The Amsterdammers seemed to recover well from the early
setback. Yannis Anastasiou and Rafaël van der
Vaart had chances to equalize, but Anastasiou's seemingly
unstoppable header was miraculously punched from the goal-line
by RBC's superb goalkeeper Maikel Aerts. Nevertheless, Ajax's
equalizer slammed against the nets early
enough for the ArenA crowd to assume that all
would end well. Tomás Galásek's shot
was decisively grazed with the forehead by Rafaël van
der Vaart. All Aerts could do was watch how the ball
disappeared into the top corner: 1-1 (30') - and more than an
hour left to win the game.
The quality of Ajax's play in the first half was no
more than acceptable. After the break it was downright
dramatic. It is hard to explain why, but it is a sure thing
that some of Koeman's second half substitutions did not
exactly have the desired effect, to say the least. The Ajax
boss brought Wesley Sneijder for Steven Pienaar and
(fourteen minutes later) Zlatan Ibrahimovic for Victor Sikora.
All of a sudden several Ajacieden seemed to be playing
in positions where they felt utterly uncomfortable:
Daniël de Ridder, strong on the right flank in the first
half, was invisible on the left flank in the second. Yannis
Anastasiou found himself on the right flank, but is far too
slow for that and hardly did anything right. Meanwhile,
Sneijder and Van der Vaart were frequently in each other's
way in midfield.
No surprise that, in spite of the Amsterdammers' offensive
intentions, the best chances were for RBC
Roosendaal. Sammy Youssouf missed an enormous chance from
close range early in the second half. Later on Pius
Ikedia had a free passage to Bogdan Lobont, but showed
that finishing is still not his strongest point. The biggest
chance, however, was for Pablo Niño, who saw his shot
hit the inside of the post in the very last minute.
At the other end Ajax was not nearly as dangerous as
the guests, but the Amsterdammers were responsible for the
most beautiful moment of the game, as Rafaël van der
Vaart turned away from his defender and let his boot graciously
kiss the ball for a stuning chip, that would
have sailed into the top corner of the goal if it wasn't
for Aerts, who dived gracefully and saved with the
fist.
Ronald Koeman reads statement.
[Photo: ANP]
"Based on the second half we really should be happy with a
point," Koeman said after the game. "Thanks to a great save by
Lobont, the post and a few good interceptions by Maxwell we
held on to it. We actually won a point here, rather than
that we lost two."
Rafaël van der Vaart played fairly well, given the fact
that the Ajax captain hired a personal bodyguard this weekend
and admitted in his column in newspaper De Telegraaf
that the "dangerous situation" caused by "a group of idiots"
and the chance of retaliation by Feyenoord hooligans frightened
him. "Obviously, our preparations for this game have not been
that great. I've had some rather difficult days (...) We had
some good moments, but didn't show enough as a team. We've been
kind of lucky, as RBC had some very dangerous people upfront.
Pius Ikedia is simply a very good player."
The 90th minute of the game saw a highly remarkable incident
in front of the RBC Roosendaal dug-out, which the 49,112
spectators did not notice, but was revealed in newspaper de
Volkskrant: RBC coach Robert Maaskant told Nigerian
substitute Ode Thompson to prepare for action. The player
refused to do so, unwilling to warm up for only a few
minutes of play. The Nigerian was fired on the spot.
Maaskant: "I told him I never want to see him on an RBC pitch
again. Has he gone totally off his rocker or something?!"
Thompson wasn't even welcome on the RBC team bus and had to
take a train to Roosendaal.
The gap between Ajax and PSV (3-0 win over NEC on
Saturday) is now down to eight points. Still more than
enough to comfortably play towards the Eredivisie championship.
If RBC is also able to keep PSV down to a draw next
Saturday, Ajax can win the shield by beating NEC
in Nijmegen on Sunday 25
April. Otherwise, the Amsterdammers will have
to be patient for one more week, until the away game at FC
Zwolle on 02 May. (MP)
GOALS
- 03' 0-1 Eric Hellemons
- 30' 1-1 Rafaël van der Vaart
Referee: Van Egmond
Yellow cards: Molenaar (RBC
Roosendaal)
Attendance: 49,112
Ajax line-up: Lobont; De Jong (84. Obodai),
Heitinga, Escudé, Maxwell; Pienaar (46. Sneijder),
Galásek, Van der Vaart; De Ridder, Anastasiou, Sikora
(60. Ibrahimovic).
RBC Roosendaal line-up: Aerts; Lammens,
Molenaar, Hesp, Hellemons; Oliseh, Tininho, De Graaf; Ikedia
(78. Cas), Youssouf, Niño.
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