Tired Ajax beats FC Utrecht with difficulty: 1-0
1 (0) - 0
(0)
Holland Casino Eredivisie
Amsterdam ArenA,
Amsterdam
Sunday, 15 December, 2003
If the home game against FC Utrecht made one thing crystal
clear it's that Ajax is craving for the winter-break: a few
weeks of badly needed vacation to recover from injuries,
to get rid of pains and ailments, to fresh up mentally and to
forget about the painful Champions League disaster in Brugge.
The cogs in the red and white engine were creaking under the
closed roof of the ArenA, but a spoonful of inspiration by
Zlatan Ibrahimovic and a late goal by Rafaël van der
Vaart were just enough for a gray win in an
appallingly poor game: 1-0.
It was easy to predict that the fixture against FC
Utrecht was not going to be an easy one. In spite of the
departure of several key players the team of coach Foeke Booy
is fifth on the Eredivisie table, having lost only one
away so far (at PSV on 13 September). Ajax
coach Ronald Koeman, meanwhile, still had to miss out on
injured players such as Hatem Trabelsi, Steven Pienaar
and Tomás Galásek, and decided to rest
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is still suffering from the toe
injury inflicted by the studs of AC Milan's Paolo
Maldini. Koeman made room for Anthony Obodai in the
starting line-up, fielded Rafaël van der Vaart as a
central forward and added Young Ajax's supreme
Australian goalscorer, Jason Culina, to the squad of
eightteen. The Aussie did not see action.
In spite of all the good intentions Ajax came across as
mentally and physically worn out in the first half, which was a
slow, dull and downright appalling affair. It seemed as if
the players on the pitch had adapted to the
subdued atmosphere in the F-Side and 410
sections, who commemorated Para Smit, a prominent
F-Side supporter who tragically died on 7 December due to an
apparently self-inflicted shotwound. His fellow supporters
payed moving hommage to him by holding up sheets of black paper
-- colouring their sections black -- and remaining silent
for 28 minutes (one minute for each year of Para's short life)
before lighting countless flares and torches in his honour.
The singing from the ArenA's most fanatical sections
started in the 29th minute, but it was not enough to get the
Ajax engine running. Literally nothing worth mentioning
happened until referee Dick Jol blew the half-time
whistle. The dissatisfied crowd followed his example and
also whistled for half-time...
'It's okay, the points are
secured'. Rafaël van der Vaart
has made it 1-0 to Ajax. [Photo: Gerard van
Hees/Ajax.nl]
The difference in the second half was made by one man:
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who came on for the invisible Nicolae Mitea
and alsmost immediately added spice to the game: first by
sending Nigel de Jong on his way over the right flank with a
beautiful backward flick, then by dribbling past several
Utrecht defenders on the edge of the penalty box. He
was brought down, but Wesley Sonck picked up and fired
home. 1-0? No. Referee Dick Jol had already whistled for a
free kick for Zlatan - and did not give Ajax the advantage.
It wasn't the only unlucky moment of the 'man in black', who
was right when he disallowed a Johnny Heitinga header goal due
to off-side (55th minute), but also had two blatantly incorrect
off-side calls (on both occasions Ibrahimovic had a free
passage) and should have given Ajax a penalty as Keller pulled
Sonck to the grass inside the box.
Ajax's play was improving, but the guests also got
their first major scoring chance in this phase: Fujita, the
Japanese superstar who will return to Japan in the winter
break, diagonally passed to Stefaan Tanghe, who aimed for the
low corner, but saw his attempt go inches wide, while Lobont
(who didn't see Tanghe coming) seemed frozen.
Time was ticking away, FC Utrecht started to believe in
a 0-0 result and - also an important factor - referee Jol
refused to pull out the yellow card for some of Utrecht's
countless fouls. The normally pugnacious side hardly committed
any truly heavy fouls this time, but made one smart,
pace-breaking, attack-interrupting foul after the
other. Due to Jol's tolerance they were allowed to break
the rhythm of Ajax's play.
And then, out of nowhere, the decisive moment was there. The
75 minutes before were a struggle, but in the 76th it all
looked so simple for a second or two: a silky smooth Maxwell
cross from the left flank landed perfectly in front of an
unmarked Rafaël van der Vaart, who calmy tapped home past
goalkeeper Ponk: 1-0.
Utrecht, however, appeared to have one shot left: four
minutes after Ajax's goal former Ajacied substitute Joost
Broerse had the perfect opportunity on a cross from former
Ajacied Dave van den Bergh. Broerse seemed to hesitate for a
split-second whether he was going to do the job with his head
or with his foot. He chose for the latter option, but saw his
volley fly over Bogdan Lobont's goal via the cross-bar.
"After the setback in Brugge we really wanted to win today",
said Ronald Koeman. "But we didn't really have the power and
Broerse could have made it 1-1." The Ajax coach admitted that
his team can well use the winter break: "Ibrahimovic
still can't play without painkillers. He can't just train
on an indoor-bike all week and then play a game. But there are
more players with physical problems. Maxwell, for example,
hasn't been the Maxwell we've come to know since his return
from the Brazilian Olympic team. We can use a break."
That break is coming closer, but there are two more
games of major importance on the agenda: the
first (at home to NAC Breda on Wednesday) because it's
a 'knock-out' game in the Amstel Cup, and the other (FC
Twente away on Sunday) because it must be won to become the
'winter champion' of The Netherlands. (MP)
GOALS
- 76' 1-0 Rafaël van der Vaart
Referee: Jol
Yellow cards: Shew-Atjon (FC Utrecht),
Sneijder, Ibrahimovic (Ajax)
Attendance: 46,972
Ajax line-up: Lobont; Grygera, Heitinga,
Escudé, Maxwell; De Jong, Obodai, Sneijder; Sonck (77.
Litmanen), Van der Vaart (88. Van Damme), Mitea (46.
Ibrahimovic).
FC Utrecht line-up: Ponk; Lamey,
Zwaanswijk, Keller (83. Calabro), Shew-Atjon; De Jong (88. De
Groot), Bosschaart, Fujita (60. Broerse), Van den Bergh;
Tanghe, Van de Haar.
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