Non-performance against NAC, Ajax out of Amstel Cup
0 (0) - 1
(0)
Amstel Cup, Round of Sixteen
Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam
Wednesday, 17 December, 2003
December 2003 has turned into a miserable month for Ajax
overnight. Only nine days ago the Amsterdammers had their fate
in their own hands in no less than three competitions. But,
just eight days after the European nightmare against Club
Brugge, Ajax's run in the domestic Amstel Cup was also
abruptly terminated, after only one round of participation.
Ajax suffered its second domestic defeat of the season
against the same club as the first: NAC
Breda, currently 14th (!) in the Eredivisie. More than
anything else, however, Ajax lost to itself, due to poor
tactics, poor defending, poor finishing and - last but not
least - a poor attitude.
Sonck: surrounded. [Photo:
ANP]
Let's start with the poor tactics. Coach Ronald Koeman
fielded something that looked a lot like a 3-3-4 formation, in
which Maxwell played as a left midfielder for the first
time in months and Julien Escudé started at left
back. The latter had a dreadful evening against NAC's
unstoppable dribbler Anouar Diba, who regularly showed the
Frenchman his heels. Moreover, Koeman abruptly stopped
using Wesley Sonck as a right winger. He was placed next to
Zlatan Ibrahimovic as a central forward, with Nicolae Mitea and
- remarkably - Anthony Obodai as the respective left and right
wingers. The experiment did not work and most certainly
did not impress the guests, who started
with Ajax loanees Nourdin Boukhari and Stefano Seedorf.
They humbled their official employer for the second
time this season.
Initially, NAC did not come across as a team with a
deep belief in a stunt at the ArenA. This belief, however,
rapidly increased as the Ajax defense turned out to be
extremely vulnerable. The most reliable of Ajax's threesome in
the back was Zdenek Grygera, but he had to be replaced on
the hour due to a hamstring injury - and may well be the newest
name on the injury list. Both Johnny Heitinga and Julien
Escudé, meanwhile, had enormous trouble throughout the
game. It was miracle that NAC did not take the lead as early as
in the 11th minute, as an Orlando Engelaar slammed
the post. No Ajacied was there to clear the rebound, so that
Engelaar got to try it again. His second attempt was saved with
the foot by Bogdan Lobont.
The poorest thing about Ajax's play, however, was the team's
total lack of determination. The Amsterdammers never seemed to
take the game entirely seriously, except in the final twenty
minutes, as elimination was coming close. In that final phase
Ajax stormed forward, but without any ideas or real faith in
its own power. Typically, the team's desperate offensive
yielded fewer chances than its nonchalant play in the first
half.
Yes, Ajax had chances to score. More than enough. A
Sneijder attempt in the first half had to be cleared off the
line by a defender, Zlatan Ibrahimovic (who wore the captain's
armband for the first time in an official game) failed
face-to-face with goalkeeper Van Zwam and shots by Zlatan and
Nicolae Mitea flew inches over the cross-bar.
Ajax had its best phase of the game immediately after the
half-time break. The undisputed 'Man of the Match', Arno van
Zwam, tipped a Sonck header over the cross-bar, was slightly
lucky as a sliding Anthony Obodai tapped a Mitea cross inches
wide and became the hero of Breda in the 66th minute by
spectacularly saving a Mitea shot from close range. Van Zwam
punched the ball straight up in to the air - and punched it off
the line once again as it came down.
By that time NAC had already scored the goal that would
turn out to be the winner. It was scored in a way that
typified Ajax's lack of form and sharpness. Escudé
did nothing to stop yet another Diba dribble. The
winger passed to Ali Boussaboun, who had all the
time and all the space in the world to fire under Lobont:
0-1 (54').
Wesley Sonck attempts to head
while De Jong
and Escude look on. [Photo: Gerard van
Hees/Ajax.nl]
A high quality football team can switch from a 4-3-3 to a
4-4-2 system, from defence to attack, from dictating the game's
pace to the use of delaying tactics. But Ajax found
out the hard way that one thing is impossible, even for a
high quality team: you can not succeed when you start
taking a game seriously halfway through the second half,
after having failed to do so for about an hour. Ajax rushed,
Ajax stormed, Ajax attacked - but the awareness that one
doesn't automatically make it to the more interesting stages of
the Amstel Cup simply sank in too late. NAC's defence was
not that solid in the first half, but stood
tall after Boussaboun's goal. Ajax's attempts were
energetic, but too poor to really deserve an
equalizer.
The only valid excuse for Ajax's miserably poor performances
against Belgium's #5 (Club Brugge) and Holland's #14 (NAC
Breda) is the injury list, which still features Trabelsi,
Pienaar, Galásek and this time also Van der Vaart,
who had a back-ache and sat on the bench for
'emergencies'. Almost the entire second half was a case of
emergency, but Van der Vaart remained invisible throughout. The
state Ajax is in right now was best illustrated by Maxwell, who
played one of his weakest games as an Ajacied: after the fourth
official had indicated that Ajax had no less than six minutes
of stoppage time, the Brazilian rushed forward over the
left flank, but simply let the ball slip off his foot and
trickle across the sideline.
Ajax has lost it. And even though this form-crisis is
likely to be temporary, it's still shocking.
It shines an interesting light on Ronald Koeman's recent
interview with newspaper Het Parool, in which the Ajax
coach said that none of his players is good enough yet to move
on to one of Europe's major leagues, and that none of them
is too good for the Dutch league. Against NAC it was as if the
players collectively wanted to prove him right.
One more game to go until the badly, badly needed
winter-break. The away fixture at FC Twente will have to be won
in order to enter the winter-break as the convincing
leader in what is the only remaining competition for Ajax: the
Eredivisie. (MP)
GOAL
Referee: Oskam
Yellow cards: Seedorf (NAC Breda),
Yakubu (Ajax)
Attendance: 19,910
Ajax line-up: Lobont; Grygera (60. Yakubu),
Heitinga, Escudé (76. Sikora); De Jong, Obodai (52. Van
der Vaart), Sneijder, Maxwell; Sonck, Ibrahimovic,
Mitea.
NAC Breda line-up: Van Zwam; Collen, Penders,
Schenning (64. Kerstens), Bakarat; Seedorf, Slot, Engelaar;
Diba (89. Vos), Bouusaboun (82. Stam), Boukhari.
Ajax eliminated
Amstel Cup, 'Round of Sixteen'
results
FC Twente - Young Ajax: 1-0
Sparta Rotterdam - RBC Roosendaal: 2-0
Heracles Almelo - Hoek: 4-1
PSV - Willem II: 2-0
Ajax - NAC Breda: 0-1
SC Heerenveen - NEC: 0-1
Feyenoord - Vitesse: 1-0
FC Utrecht - RKC Waalwijk: 3-1
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