Summing Up the Season

In 2002 Ajax finished with 73 points, in 2003 with 83 points and this year with 80. Strangely enough the 83 point peak of 2003 did not bring the Amsterdammers a Dutch title, whereas 2002 and 2004 did. It's the same story if we look at the number of goals the team scored: 96 goals in 2002-2003 was not enough for a Dutch championship. Respective totals of 73 and 79 goals were in 2001-2002 and this season.

More football logic: the departure of Cristian Chivu at season's start was generally regarded as a major loss for Ajax. His replacements in the Ajax defence, Julien Escudé and Zdenek Grygera, were oft criticized. Remarkably, the new, 'shaky' Ajax defence was Ajax's most solid in the Eredivisie since 1997-1998. Only 31 goals were conceded, an average of 0.91 per game (last year the opposition scored 0.94 goal per Eredivisie game).

	PLAYED	WON	DRAWS	DEFEATS	POINTS	GOAL DIFF.
2000-2001:	34	18	7	9	61	85-43
2001-2002:	34	22	7	5	73	73-34
2002-2003:	34	26	5	3	83	96-32
2003-2004:	34	25	5	4	80	79-31

As for Ajax's own production: the team scored 2.32 goals per game on average (2.82 last season and 2.15 the season before). Interestingly, no less than four non-Ajax players contributed to Ajax's production, a remarkably high number of own goals in one season. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was Ajax's most productive man in the league with 13 goals, the same number as last season. Last year this was not enough to beat Rafaël van der Vaart's 18 goals. This season it was enough to become Ajax's Eredivisie topscorer. The fact that Ibrahimovic became a more effective player is underscored by the fact that he required 25 games for his 13 goals last season (of which 13 full games). This season he struggled with injuries, had 23 appearances but played the 'full 90' only five times. The runners-up on Ajax's list of Eredivisie topscorers are 'the Wesleys' (Sneijder and Sonck), who both netted 9 times.

Once again Ajax was a team without a true 'killer', but more of a team in which almost everyone can score a goal every once in a while. Just like last season 17 different Ajacieden found the net, not counting the four unlucky gents of other teams who scored for Ajax against their will. The fact that Ajax's squad had depth is underscored by the fact the coach Ronald Koeman used no less than 28 players in total, including six youth players who made their Eredivisie débuts. Last season even more players saw Eredivisie action (29).

The man regarded as Chivu's direct successor, Julien Escudé, would have finished as the man who played the most games for Ajax this season, if he hadn't sustained an ankle injury in the final weeks of the season. Due to that injury Maxwell leapfrogged him just before the finish line. No other Ajacied saw more minutes of action than the Brazilian, who was also voted 'Player of the Season'. Both Escudé and Maxwell had 31 Eredivisie appearances. Both played the full game 29 times and were replaced twice. Those substitutions, however, cost Maxwell 54 minutes of Eredivisie action and Escudé 66 minutes. Moreover, Maxwell played the full 90 minutes in all of Ajax's eight European fixtures, whereas Escudé missed one.

Ajax's 'behaviour on the pitch' continued to improve: after having picked up 45 yellow cards in the Eredivisie in 2001-2002 and 33 last season, 27 players were booked in the Dutch league this year. Tomás Galásek received most official warnings (5). The number of 27 includes the two yellow cards John Heitinga picked up in The Hague. Only one Ajacied was sent off directly: Rafaël van der Vaart, for kicking Mark van Bommel in the away game at PSV. Last season four Ajacieden were sent off in the Eredivisie. Another two were handed suspensions based on TV footage, which did not happen this season.

Final standings Eredivisie 2003-2004. [Image: NOS Teletekst]

The domestic league was succesful for the Amsterdammers; the team dropped out of both other competitions in the earliest possible stage. The Champions League campaign will be remembered as a painful disappointment. After having won the first two home games the injury-battered team lost three times straight and finished bottom. Remarkably, Wesley Sonck, who had such a hard first season in Amsterdam, was the scorer of four out of Ajax's six Champions League goals. If we include the two Champions League qualifiers against Grazer AK, Ajax scored nine goals in eight European games. The Amsterdammers picked up 18 yellow cards in those matches, including three for Rafaël van der Vaart and two in one game (at Celta de Vigo) for Zdenek Grygera.

The Amstel Cup campaign was not even a 'campaign' this year, but a one game affair. Ajax suffered a 0-1 home defeat to NAC Breda. One player was booked (Abubakari Yakubu) and a meagre 19,910 saw Ajax in 'cup action' this season (last season's attendances in Amstel Cup home games were even some 25% lower).

AC Milan (Champions League) and NAC Breda (Amstel Cup) were the only two teams to notch a win in the Amsterdam ArenA this season. In the Eredivisie not a single opponent left Amsterdam with three points. RBC Roosendaal, in fact, was the only team to notch a draw at the ArenA (1-1). It is a fair conclusion that the 2004 league title was mainly grabbed in home games. Ajax was remarkably inconsistent 'on the road': nine wins, four draws and four defeats. In the Champions League all three away games were lost.

The largest victory of the season was the 28 September demolishing of Willem II (6-0). Ajax traditionally scores easily against the Tilburgers, who conceded another five goals in their home game against Ajax (2-5). The largest victory in an away game was booked with the finish line in sight: 0-5 at FC Zwolle. Some trivia: the last time two Eredivisie opponents managed four goals against Ajax in one season, like NAC Breda (4-2) and SC Heerenveen (4-1) did this year, was in 1987-1988, and back then one of those two times was actually a 6-4 win to Ajax...

On a more positive note: it's been a while since Ajax's results in the traditional top fixtures were as good as they were this season: both PSV and Feyenoord grabbed only point against the Amsterdammers. Both teams stumbled in the ArenA. Ajax was not only the champion this season, but also the undisputed winner of the 'battle of the Big Three'. The last time both PSV and Feyenoord lost in Amsterdam was in 1994-1995. The last time Ajax did not lose a game against either of its rivals was in 1995-1996.

One more positive statistic: attendance in the ArenA was close to the maximum. Last season's impressive figures were slightly surpassed. Ajax's 17 home games in the Eredivisie attracted a crowd of 48,344 on average (last season: 47,571), whereas the European fixtures had an average attendance of 48,991 people (last season: 47,218). (MP)