Late goals see Ajax through in Heerenveen cup game: 2-0
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2 (0)
- 0 (0)
Amstel Cup, 4th round
Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam
Thursday, 27 January, 2005
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"This goal was very good for my confidence and also very
good for the fans," said Angelos Charisteas immediately
after Ajax's game against Heerenveen, in the 'round
of sixteen' of the Amstel Cup. Only a few
minutes before the Greek striker had resolutely headed
home for his very first official goal for Ajax, thereby
finally forcing Heerenveen to their knees after
88 minutes of Ajax superiority. It was beautiful to see
how intensely happy the Greek was with his first goal in
front of his home crowd: as the ball hit the net
and the ArenA erupted, Charisteas turned around and simply
ran away, screaming with joy. His team-mates had to chase all
the way to the middle line.
Charisteas celebrates his first
'official' goal for Ajax. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
The deadlock was finally broken and Heerenveen
- who just started to believe that extra time or
even an undeserved last-gasp win was possible
- were instantly beaten. A minute after Charisteas'
strike two Ajax subsitutes produced a stunningly beautiful
second goal: a pristine one-two with Steven Pienaar (who had
his first official appearance since 14 November 2004) sent Ryan
Babel on his way over the left flank. The youngster's low,
diagonal screamer slammed against the far side netting:
2-0. Once again, Babel needed only 31 minutes
to contribute a goal.
Only one team seriously went for the win in the Amsterdam
ArenA, where a (for Amstel Cup standards) surprisingly high
number of 33,000 spectators had to conclude that the new
pitch is of miserable quality. The exact same
Ajax eleven as last Sunday in
Utrecht started overwhelmingly energetic and should have
scored at least once in the first twenty minutes. The best
chance was for Nicolae Mitea in the 10th minute: the
Romanian picked up the ball on the left flank and nicely
dribbled to the centre, creating an open shooting chance
for himself. Goalkeeper Brian Vandenbussche punched it over the
cross-bar. It wasn't his only fine save in the opening
minutes, and when he was finally beaten Rafaël van
der Vaart was a step off-side as he tapped home
on Mauro Rosales' low cross (14').
Mauro Rosales was Ajax's best man in the first
half. Heerenveen's left fullback, Tomasz Rzasa, had a
nightmare against the unstoppable Ajax winger. Rzasa was
soon booked for 'pulling the emergency brake' and was
replaced as early in the 34th minute.
Charisteas is challenged by
Heerenveen players. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
Heerenveen (who missed players such as Arnold Bruggink,
Victor Sikora and Mika Väyrynen) had
their only seriously dangerous moment of the
game in the 38 th minute, as Hans Vonk had to fully stretch to
turn Klaas-Jan Huntelaar's shot around the post. Referee
Haverkort apparently thought that the ball went wide via
the outside of the post and gave Ajax a goal-kick, thereby
denying the Vonk a superb save against his former
club. Two minutes later Ajax did hit the woodwork:
Zdenek Grygera's header on a Van der Vaart free-kick hit the
underside of the cross-bar.
Ajax remained the dominant side in the second half, and the
visitors hardly showed any offensive intentions, but
Ajax had increasing difficulty to find the gaps in
Heerenveen's defense, which seemed to have the game more
or less under control. The Ajax engine wavered, although
the hosts still had their dangerous moments: attempts by
Johnny Heitinga (52') and Julien Escudé
(61') caused unrest in Heerenveen's defense
and Angelos Charisteas nicely created a shooting
opportunity for an onstorming Wesley
Sneijder, who should have done more with it
than wildly hammering it over the cross-bar (70').
And then, just when Heerenveen started to think about
the possiblity of notching a late goal, there was Angelos
Charisteas' late, but well-deserved strike. The Greek was
'assisted' by his unfortunate countryman, Heerenveen
striker Georgios Samaras, who wanted to clear
with the head, but flicked the cross on to
an unmarked Charisteas.
"A goal was always in the air," concluded
Ronald Koeman, "and we thoroughly deserved it." His
Heerenveen colleague, Gert-Jan Verbeek, had to agree: "It's a
cup game, so you're kind of hoping for an unexpected
goal or a chance to advance on penalties. But okay: Ajax
deserved the win."
As for Ronald Koeman: how much longer can he keep Ryan Babel
out of the starting line-up? "Mitea feels that someone's is
pushing forward behind him," said the Ajax boss. "At some
point I can no longer keep Ryan out of the team, but I don't
know when that moment will come. Right now I think he will
start on the bench again next time, but who knows I will have
changed my mind when I wake up on Sunday."
Ajax's opponent on Sunday is ADO Den Haag, who will come to
Amsterdam without their notorious support, as a KNVB
penalty for their verbal abuse during the home match against
Ajax in September 2004. Den Haag is not only Ajax's next
opponent in the Eredivisie, but also in the Amstel Cup: Den
Haag came out of the bowl first, which means that Ajax will
play their quarter final fixture in The Hague on 1, 2 or 3
March. (MP)
GOALS
- 88' 1-0 Angelos Charisteas
- 90' 2-0 Ryan Babel
Referee: Haverkort
Yellow cards: Heitinga (Ajax),
Rzasa, Huntelaar (Heerenveen)
Attendance: 33,000
Ajax line-up: Vonk; Trabelsi, Grygera,
Escudé, Maxwell; Sneijder (89. De Jong), Heitinga, Van
der Vaart (76. Pienaar); Rosales, Charisteas, Mitea (59.
Babel).
SC Heerenveen line-up: Vandenbussche;
Bakkati, Seip, Hansson, Rzasa (34. Drost); Radomski, Huntelaar,
Hestad; Yildirim, Samaras, Calincov (65. Van den Berg).
Quarter final draw:
- Feyenoord - NAC Breda
- Willem II - FC Den Bosch
- ADO Den Haag - Ajax
- PSV - TOP Oss
UPDATE (29 January): ADO Den Haag vs
Ajax to be played on Wednesday 02 March at 20:45
CET.
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