Home game against Liverpool leaves several questions unanswered
0 (0) - 0 (0)
Pre-Season Friendly: Amsterdam Tournament
Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam
Friday, 01 August, 2003
Ajax presented itself to the Amsterdam crowd on Friday, the
opening night of the Amsterdam Tournament. It was the first
time the 'new' Ajax played in front of its home
fans, but the mediocre performance against Liverpool (0-0) left
the spectators with several unanswered questions. How strong is
the 'new' Ajax team, after the departures of Cristian Chivu and
Andy van der Meyde? And did the club finally find the top
striker it's been looking for in recent seasons?
Rafael van der Vaart and Wesley
Sonck clash with Sami Hyypiä of Liverpool. [Photo:
ANP]
Both questions remained unanswered. Chivu's successor in the
heart of defense, Julien Escudé, was hardly tested by
the Liverpool strikers. New striker Wesley Sonck, meanwhile,
remained invisible throughout the match, although he was also
responsible for Ajax's most dangerous moment of the game: his
fine header bounced back from the cross-bar. Due to a
minor injury for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, coach Ronald Koeman's
plans to line up both strikers together were not realized.
Ibrahimovic is expected to miss Sunday's game against
Internazionale also. He is now aiming for Ajax's first
Champions League qualifier against (almost certainly) Grazer AK
from Austria.
Koeman, by the way, was satisfied with the performance of
his team. "It wasn't an easy evening, because Liverpool played
very organized in the back. The only negative aspect was that
we didn't score." This had everything to do with the good
performance of Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek. The former
Feyenoord goalie had an excellent game, saving good attempts by
Pasanen and Van der Vaart.
In spite of his fine performance, not Dudek but Van der
Vaart was voted 'Man of the Match' by the ArenA crowd. It was a
quite understandable choice, as the Ajax youngster played a
great match and delighted the home crowd with two beautiful
movements. First he gracefully 'walked around' the ball,
humiliating defender Steven Gerrard and putting himself free in
front of Dudek. His shot, however, wasn't precise enough to
surprise the Liverpool goalie.
Ajax had some of its best chances in the latter minutes of
the game. In fact, the best one was probably Jari Litmanen's
last minute volley, which was saved by Dudek. If any side
deserved a goal, it would certainly have been Ajax: the
Amsterdammers had more possession and played the better
football throughout the game. However, it should be said that
both sides were in perfect looking at the number of scoring
chances. A draw seemed to be a fair result.
Julien Escudé goes over
Michael Owen to head the ball away. [Photo: Louis van de
Vuurst/Ajax.nl]
Van der Vaart started in midfield, but moved up front in the
second half. "It doesn't matter to me where I play", he stated
after the match. The vice-captain of Ajax, who wore the captain
band as first captain Jari Litmanen started on the bench, was
happy with the play of newcomers Escudé and Sonck: "They
did well. Sonck played better than he did in England and we're
getting more used to each other on the pitch. He will get
there."
The impatient Amsterdam crowd hopes that the Belgian
international will start scoring soon. The Ajax supporters
haven't seen too many easily scoring strikers in recent
years. In the past ten years only Shota Arveladze (once) and
Jari Litmanen (twice) were able to produce more than 20
goals in one season. Successors such as Ivan Gabrich,
Gerald Sibon, Benni McCarthy, Brutil Hosé, Nikos Machlas
and even Ahmed 'Mido' Hossam and Zlatan Ibrahimovic did not
live up to the goal-scoring expectations. Even Patrick
Kluivert didn't reach twenty in his first two years at
Ajax.
On Sunday Ajax will face Internazionale, the new club of
Andy van der Meyde. Inter won its first match with great ease,
beating Frank de Boer's Galatasaray by 3-0. The two sides
played each other in the tournament's opening game. Van der
Meyde received a standing ovation as he was replaced
in the second half. However, De Boer's decision to prefer
the money of Galatasaray over a return to Ajax was obviously
not appreciated: whistling was his share.
As a result of Inter's 3-0 win it will be hard for Ajax
to win the tournament for the third consecutive time. Due to
the alternative point system (every goal scored is a
point as well) Ajax has only one point, whereas Inter
already has six. Ajax will therefore have to beat the Italians
with a goal difference of at least two. Van der Vaart sees a
nice challenge in this: "This is nice for the fans. We will
surely make it an attractive game for them." (BV)
Referee: Bossen
Yellow cards: Trabelsi (Ajax), Hyypiä,
Vignal (Liverpool FC)
Attendance: 50,000
Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Trabelsi,
Escudé, Pasanen, Maxwell; Galásek, Van der Vaart,
Sneijder (69. Yakubu); Pienaar (69. Van der Gun), Sonck,
Wamberto (63. Litmanen).
Liverpool FC line-up: Dudek, Baros (82.
Heskey), Henchoz, Hyypiä, Kewell (74. Riise), Carragher,
Gerrard, Murphy, Owen (82. Sinama-Pongolle), Diouf, Vignal (74.
Smicer).
Other result on Day 1: Galatasaray - Internazionale
0-3
Table after Day 1:
- Internazionale: 6 points
- Ajax/Liverpool FC: 1 point
- Galatasaray: 0 points
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