Utrecht again remain upright in Amsterdam ArenA: 1-1

'Utrecht away' is traditionally one of the toughest fixtures of the season for Ajax (the club's last league win in Utrecht was in August 1997), but home games against the outfit from Holland's fourth city in size are hardly more succesful this season: after Utrecht's spectacular resurrection in the dying minutes of this month's Johan Cruyff Shield match (2-4) Ajax once again left the pitch of the ArenA disappointed after the Eredivisie tie against the Utrecht side: 1-1. A missed opportunity for Ajax to jump to the top of the table alone, after both PSV (2-2 at NAC) and Feyenoord (1-1 at Vitesse) had dropped points.

Did Ajax deserve the win? Yes and no. Ajax dominated throughout, had their good moments and were unlucky when Johnny Heitinga's header on a Wesley Sneijder corner was cleared off the line and against the underside of the cross-bar by a defender (32'). It was also very unfortunate for the Amsterdammers that the referee was one Mr Roelof Luinge. Many of his calls were questionable at the very least - and on this particular day his errors did Ajax wrong considerably more frequently than Utrecht. Luinge's whistle sounded for almost everything. Except for two fouls on Ajax players inside the penalty area in the first half. TV footage made clear that the fouls on both Tom De Mul (brought down by Braafheid) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (mowed down by Alje Schut in the 24th minute) should have been punished with a spotkick.

Maarten Stekelenburg clears just ahead of FC Utrecht's
Darl Douglas. [Photo: Gerard van Hees/Ajax.nl]

With a bit more luck Ajax could have scored more than just once (unlike Utrecht, who created only one more chance after having taken the lead and focused on defending). On the other hand: the Amsterdammers did not always play well and - in spite of their occasional chances - lacked the decisive ideas to make the Utrecht defense seriously gasp for air. Moreover, after Ajax had finally equalized in the 62th minute (goalkeeper Joost Terol failed to hold onto Wesley Sneijder's shot, so that Pienaar could hammer the rebouncing ball into the roof of Utrecht's goal) the team totally failed to increase the pressure in the last half hour. Ajax never accelerated for a relentless offensive, so that Utrecht walked across the finish line quite comfortably in the end.

Utrecht had taken the lead in the 21st minute, as an erratic pass by Johnny Heitinga (Ajax's captain in default of both Rafaël van der Vaart and Tomás Galásek, who sustained a knee injury in training and will be out for some two weeks) was intercepted by Stefaan Tanghe, who quickly passed forward to Darl Douglas. The former Young Ajax winger dribbled in between two undecisive Ajax defenders (Heitinga and Escudé) and decided to give it a try. His shot did not seem unstoppable, but found the back of the net behind Maarten Stekelenburg: 0-1 (21').

Utrecht's goal did not seem to be too much of a problem for Ajax, mainly because the wingers (Tom De Mul) and Nourdin Boukhari once again performed well in the first half. Zlatan Ibrahimovic attempted to tap home on their crosses on two occasions and Boukhari actually fired home in the 40th minute on a Wesley Sneijder corner. Referee Luinge, however, had noticed that Boukhari pushed an opponent in order to get to the ball and disallowed. It was, in fact, one of his very few calls against which players and supporters did not protest vehemently.

Johnny Heitinga, meanwhile, did not exactly have his best game. Just before half-time he seemed to give Utrecht another 'present', this time by passing back to softly, thusly allowing Alje Schut a free passage to Maarten Stekelenburg. Schut's was apparently too surprised to convert.

Johnny Heitinga served as captain against
FC Utrecht. [Photo: Gerard van Hees/Ajax.nl]

Ajax's best phase of the game was immediately after the break. Zlatan Ibrahimovic saw two attempts saved, Pienaar equalized and almost immediately thereafter Wesley Sonck (who had replaced Julien Escudé minutes before) chose for a first-time volley on a smart Ibrahimovic pass, where he had the time and the space to dribble forward and take on goalkeeper Terol.

The Flemish Ajax striker once again had an extremely unlucky half hour on the pitch - and he wasn't the only substitute who utterly failed to make an impact. Coach Ronald Koeman's substitutions were unfortunate today: wingers Daniël de Ridder and Nicolae Mitea (who returned from injury) were hardly involved and walked around anonymously. Wesley Sonck, who was brought on as a #10 in Ibrahimovic's back, hardly made more of an impact. It was, in fact, one of the reasons why Utrecht easily nipped Ajax's final offensive in the bud.

More than by Ajax's inability to score a winner, coach Ronald Koeman was annoyed by his team's shaky defending. Koeman wished to underscore that this had nothing to do with the absence of Tomás Galásek. His replacement, Anthony Obodai, was one of Ajax's best players on the day. "Yet, if you look at what we give away, in spite of being totally dominant... it worries me. How that first goal goes in, I just can't believe it (...) We have to make sure we don't give anything away for a change. Simply hold on to a 0-0 scoreline for a while. On a domestic level we will always score our goal anyway."

Many of those goals will have to be scored by Zlatan Ibrahimovic this season. The Swede was linked with AS Roma this week, but according to Koeman no bid was ever received. The Ajax boss does not think that Ajax vs FC Utrecht was the striker's last game for Ajax. The  enfant terrible is expected to stay in Amsterdam. That is: to finish the season with Ajax. He will leave Amsterdam this week, just like many other players, because it's time for the first qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Most national teams will play two fixtures in the upcoming ten days. For that reason there will be no Eredivisie football next weekend. The journey continues on Sunday 12 September in The Hague. (MP)

GOALS

• 21'  0-1  Darl Douglas
• 62'  1-1  Steven Pienaar

Referee: Luinge
Yellow card: Pienaar (Ajax), De Jong, Schut (FC Utrecht)
Attendance: 44,932

Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; De Jong, Heitinga, Escudé (60. Sonck), Maxwell; Obodai, Pienaar, Sneijder; De Mul (70. De Ridder), Ibrahimovic, Boukhari (78.Mitea).

FC Utrecht line-up: Terol; Cornelisse, Braafheid, Schut, Di Tommaso; De Jong (68. Zuidam), Tanghe, Somers (70. Broerse); Douglas, Van de Haar (83. Rajcomar), Van den Bergh.

Related Links:

• Discussion: Eredivisie games 2004-2005
• Ajax.nl: Match report in Dutch and English