Ajax battle to win in snowy The Hague, advance to semi final
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- 2 (0)
Amstel Cup, Quarter Final
Zuiderpark Stadium, The Hague
Wednesday, 02 March, 2005
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'King Winter' came late this year, but when he
finally arrived in The Netherlands he covered the entire
country with the thickest layer of snow in twenty years.
Schools remained closed, and many public transit services
did not run. Some people in the north couldn't leave
their houses. At The Hague's Zuiderpark Stadium, however,
'the mother of all high risk fixtures' was scheduled: ADO
Den Haag vs Ajax in the quarter final of the Amstel Cup. 1,500
riot police were on duty. City and clubs had invested
in security measures of different kinds and TV network
SBS6 was going to show the game live. Mayor Deetman
of The Hague initially wanted to veto the fixture, but now
that the match was on it simply
couldn't be called off. So, Den Haag
and Ajax played each other for the third time this season.
After two draws in the Eredivisie the hosts were unable to pull
that stunt once again: 0-2.
Escude passes the special 'snow
ball' on a frozen pitch in Den Haag. [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
The grass was still kind of green as Den Haag and Ajax took
the pitch. Dozens of volunteers had covered the pitch with
enormous pieces of weather cloth. In the hours before kick-off,
enormous quantities of snow were shoveled to the side of the
pitch and the cloth removed. But it kept coming down. Minutes
later the yellow lines were almost invisible, while the two
teams were trying desperately to get used to the bizarre
circumstances.
The determined and pugnacious host did the by far best
job in the first half of the match, using long slidings
and aggressive but never dirty tackles as their weapons,
opportunistically kicking the ball where the space was - and
chasing it. Simple as that. Den Haag defied King Winter in a
similar way as
Club Brugge in December 2003 and a similar
spanking actually seemed ahead for
Ajax. The Amsterdammers were chasing shadows
and seemed utterly incapable of adjusting to the
conditions -- young Hedwiges Maduro (once again in the
team) and Anthony Obodai (surprisingly replacing an
injured Nigel de Jong at left fullback) even more so than the
rest.
The home side had at least a couple of enormous chances to
open the scoring, including a Cedric van der Gun shot from
close range (specactularly punched out of goal by Maarten
Stekelenburg) and - after erratic defending by Maduro - a
face-to-face encounter of Roy Stroeve with the Ajax goalkeeper,
who kept his cool and saved his team once again, this time with
his legs.
Ajax hardly created any danger at the other end. One of
their best moments came in the form of a quick one-two
involving Maxwell that almost put Angelos Charisteas
face-to-face with goalkeeper Dorus de Vries. Ajax's most
dangerous attempt on goal was a Charisteas header on a Wesley
Sneijder corner kick, which Youssef El Akchaoui cleared off the
goal-line. Apart from that the 'canaries' of Zuiderpark, who
have picked up form in the Eredivisie and no longer have
relegation worries, were the clearly dominant side in the
first half.
Coaches Ruud Krol and Tonnie Bruins Slot did the right thing
at half-time: they taught their boys a lesson or two about
keeping things simple on a pitch (?) like this and
gave Anthony Obodai and Maxwell orders to change
positions. For the second time under the new coaches, Maxwell
started the game as a left midfielder (surprisingly keeping
Rafaël van der Vaart benched). After the break Obodai
moved to midfield as the Brazilian returned to left
fullback.
The changes and instructions had the desired effect.
Ajax's took control of the game with more direct,
more opportunistic, faster and more determined play. The
reward, nine minutes into the second half, was the
opening goal: Angelos Charisteas turned well and slipped past
his man, flicking the ball on to Hedwiges Maduro. The latter's
shot hit the post, but the rebound was for Wesley Sneijder: 0-1
(54').
Ajax played well in the twenty minutes thereafter, given the
circumstances. The only thing the Amsterdammers could be blamed
for in this phase was the fact that they failed to score the
decisive second. Hedwiges Maduro was completely unmarked on a
perfect free-kick from the right but nodded wide
(65'), Mauro Rosales managed to lift a
low Nourdin Boukhari cross over the cross bar while almost
standing on the goal-line (75') and Angelos Charisteas smoothly
slipped past goalkeeper De Vries when he had a free passage in
the 78th minute, but failed to tap it into the deserted
goal.
The Greek striker, who had a handful of very good moments
and two hands full of alarmingly bad ones, picked up
a minor injury minutes later and was replaced by Ryan Babel. It
was Ajax's 'boy wonder' who decided the game in the last minute
with a precsion low cross to Mauro Rosales, who tapped home
from close range in what was the second 'snow match' in his
life (last weekend's game at Roda was the first...): 0-2 (90').
Den Haag finally bowed their heads: Ajax' counter-attack goal
came after Scotsman Jamie Smith had missed a
24-carate opportunity to level the score. A defensive
error by John Heitinga caused a scrimmage in
Stekelenburg's goalmouth, but when Smith turned and fired
from close range, the ball went diagonally wide.
Good football was impossible on the snowy tundra of
Zuiderpark Stadium, but Den Haag vs Ajax was a real cup tie, a
real battle, with chances in front of both goals. More good
news: the home club's hard work to create a
positive atmosphere was fairly succesful. Hot coffee was
available for free to the spectators, including 600 travelling
Ajax supporters in the visitors end, and everybody received a
free copy of the match programme. There was no trouble (except
a large-scale snowball battle inside
the Ajax end...) and hardly any 'hurtful chants'
were heard this time. Ajax finally booked a win
over ADO Den Haag and will be in the bowl on
Thursday evening for the semi-final
draw. (MP)
GOALS
- 54' 0-1 Wesley Sneijder
- 90' 0-2 Mauro Rosales
Referee: Luinge
Yellow cards: Grujic, Swerts, Van der Leegte
(ADO Den Haag), Trabelsi (Ajax)
Attendance: 9,123
Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Trabelsi,
Heitinga, Escudé, Obodai; Sneijder (83. Van der Vaart),
Maduro, Maxwell; Rosales, Charisteas (79. Babel), Boukhari.
ADO Den Haag line-up: De Vries;
Saeijs, Grujic (82. Verhoek), El Akchaoui, Swerts; Bodde, Van
der Leegte, Stroeve; Van der Gun, Den Ouden (65. Edson),
Smith.
Amstel Cup - Quarter
Finals
Wednesday 02 March
ADO Den Haag - Ajax: 0-2
Willem II - FC Den Bosch: 3-0
Thursday 03 March
Feyenoord - NAC Breda
PSV - TOP Oss
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