Title hopes gone after home loss to Twente: 1-2

Ajax's hopes to once again finish the season as the champions of The Netherlands have almost entirely evaporated after a 1-2 home defeat to FC Twente. The Amsterdammers started the second half of the season promisingly with a fine win at Utrecht, but only two weeks later the club is in a crisis. Two home games against opponents from the bottom half of the Eredivisie table (ADO Den Haag and Twente) brought Ajax only one point. Castigating whistling and the first "Koeman f##k off" yells were heard at the Amsterdam ArenA.

And it all started so well: after six minutes Ajax had already offered the crowd more exciting stuff than in the whole game last weekend. With Nigel de Jong replacing an injured Zdenek Grygera and Ryan Babel instead of Nicolae Mitea Ajax started energetically. An early Nigel de Jong header hit the cross-bar and shortly thereafter Wesley Sneijder's 6th minute corner landed perfectly on Julien Escudé's forehead: 1-0, the Frenchman's fourth goal of the season already.

Heitinga and Anastasiou after a missed opportunity. [Photo: Ajax.nl]

A good start, and the minutes thereafter saw opportunities for Sneijder and Charisteas. For some mysterious reason, however, it did not give Ajax the confidence for a good match. The level of the Amsterdammers' play almost immediately dropped to the level of last week's dreadful Den Haag fixture. Twente pulled forward, first reluctantly, later boldly. The first serious warning was an attempt by former Ajacied Jason Culina, who noticed that Vonk had left his goal and fired from the middle line. The goalkeeper had to run back to save inches before the goal-line.

The visitors were painfully outplaying Ajax in this phase, with Dmitri Shoukov as the architect in central midfield, Blaise N'Kufo as the ever dangerous target man and Daniel Majstorovic as an unbeatable giant in defense. The worst news for Ajax was the fact that Ryan Babel limped off injured in the 22nd minute. Nicolae Mitea replaced him. How bad the injury is is as yet unknown, but it surely is worrying with the Auxerre games in the UEFA Cup coming up, for which Angelos Charisteas is not eligible.

A Twente equalizer was almost inevitable in this phase - and it was scored in the 36th minute: Nigel de Jong once again underscored that he is not a central defender and Blaise N'Kufo took advantage of the space De Jong offered him by nicely lifting the ball over Hans Vonk: 1-1 (36'). Ajax once again entered the dressing rooms at half time under castigating whistling from the stands. An energetic Mauro Rosales and a flawless Julien Escudé were pretty much the only Ajacieden to perform above par.

The first minutes of the second half were typical: in less than 120 seconds' time Ajax had a good shooting opportunity, which John Heitinga hammered over the cross-bar, but Twente's counter-attack was more dangerous. It resulted in an open finishing opportunity for Sharbel Touma, who tapped it wide.

Ajax's form has mysteriously disappeared overnight. The players battled, but the second half was once again developing into a tragic spectacle, in which Ajax had tremendous difficulty to create chances and (when they had one) to shoot on goal. Ajax's best chance of the game was in the 57th minute, as a rare good attack culminated in a good turn and a fine shot by John Heitinga, which Sander Boschker punched wide.

 
Escudé's early goal got Ajax off to a promising start. [Photo: Ajax.nl] 

Ajax were slightly more dangerous than in last week's game against Den Haag, but they key difference with that game was the fact that they were extremely erratic in defense. It would eventually cost them three points. Simon Cziommer suddenly had a free passage to Hans Vonk in the 67th minute and the Ajax goalkeeper's interception was (to say the very least) unfortunate: he tapped the ball to Sharbel Touma, who had no trouble chipping it into the deserted goal: 1-2 (67'). 

Reason enough for two substitutions that must have been a blow in the face of the respective 'victims': early substitution Nicolae Mitea (hapless once again) was replaced by Yannis Anastasiou and hard working Rafaël van der Vaart made way for Steven Pienaar. "I disagreed with that one," Van der Vaart said, "I was playing okay. But I don't feel like starting a row over it again. Let's just play football, please." The ArenA crowd, meanwhile, was well fed up with both Van der Vaart and Koeman. The first was booed at, the latter heard the first "Koeman f##k off" chants roll from the stands. "Yes, I heard it," Koeman told AT5 television, "it just happens when you're losing."

The latter twenty minutes of the game were, admittedly, spectacular: both Yannis Anastasiou (80') and Angelos Charisteas (76') had a completely unmarked header chance, but both failed to even head on goal. Nigel de Jong's header went inches wide (83') Mauro Rosales was screaming with frustration as he had two excellent opportunities to volley from close range, but both of his attempts flew over the cross bar. At the other end Twente also had two 100% chances, including a free passage for Jason Culina, who fired into the side netting. In the end the Amsterdammers simply lacked the conviction and the ideas to equalize, even with eleven against ten (Ramon Zomer picked up a second yellow card seven minutes before the end).

Twente's victory was not at all undeserved and Ajax now find themselves eight points behind runners-up AZ and ten behind leaders PSV. PSV lost precisely ten points in twenty games so far. Now Ajax's deficit is ten, with fourteen matches left to play. The Amsterdammers have a strikingly poor home record this season: they won only seven out of fifteen home games in all competitions. In the Eredivisie they won only five out of ten home games, versus seven out of ten away games. Even more remarkable: Ajax scored 27 goals in ten away games, but only 17 in ten home games in the Eredivisie.

Next weekend could have been such an exciting weekend, with AZ vs PSV on the agenda. In the current situation that fixture is pretty much irrelevant for Ajax. Ajax better keep an eye on the teams below them, rather than the ones above them from now on. For that reason next weekend's road game at NAC Breda (painful 4-2 stuffing last season) must be won. As for Ronald Koeman's position: is it relevant to mention that his two predecessors (Jan Wouters and Co Adriaanse) were fired days after a home fixture against FC Twente...? Probably not. The show must go on. (MP)

GOALS

• 06'  1-0  Julien Escudé
• 36'  1-1  Blaise N'Kufo
• 67'  1-2  Sharbel Touma

Referee: Temmink
Yellow cards: Van der Vaart (Ajax), Touma, Schuurman, N'Kufo (FC Twente)
Red card: Zomer (FC Twente, double yellow, 83')
Attendance: 46,868

Ajax line-up: Vonk; Trabelsi, De Jong, Escudé, Maxwell; Sneijder, Heitinga, Van der Vaart (74. Pienaar), Rosales, Charisteas, Babel (22. Mitea [74. Anastasiou]).

FC Twente line-up: Boschker; Schuurman, Zomer, Majstorovic, Heubach; Cziommer (81. Rahim), Shoukov, Niemeyer; Culina, N'Kufo (88. Bouchiba), Touma (85. Touzani).

Related Links:

• Discussion: 06 Feb 2005: Ajax - FC Twente
• Ajax.nl: Match report in Dutch and English