Weak Den Bosch are piece of cake for Ajax: 0-5

Roughly, there are four categories of opponents for Ajax in the Eredivisie. 'Category A' are PSV and Feyenoord: big, internationally renowned opponents and Ajax's direct rivals for the Dutch championship. 'Category B' are the 'best of the rest' (Utrecht, Heerenveen and others), who can give the 'Big Three' a tremendously hard time. The centre group (category C) will normally only bring Ajax into trouble if the Amsterdammers fail at certain point. Finally, there is the poor D category: sides that even a wayward Ajax team will almost always beat easily, unless some kind of miracle occurs. Ajax travelled to Den Bosch knowing that the local FC are in the D category, but also knowing that a 3-0 lead was squandered against a team from that category last weekend. The lesson ADO Den Haag taught Ajax: miracles do happen if you ask for them. At FC Den Bosch, however, Ajax did not make the same mistakes - and things were instantly back to normal: a good performance wasn't even required to book a whopping 0-5 triumph.

 
So simple... Ajax players celebrate Van der Vaart's first goal (0-2). [Photo: Ajax.nl]

Tomás Galásek and Mauro Rosales were still unavailable due to injury. One day before the game they were joined by Maarten Stekelenburg, who picked up a knock against the knee in training and had to be replaced by 'good old' Bogdan Lobont. Nicolae Mitea, meanwhile, was not ready for a full game yet and started on the bench. Last Wednesday, against Juventus, these facts were big problems for Ajax boss Ronald Koeman. At Den Bosch it did not matter. Even Wesley Sonck's amazing miss in the 48th minute (two yards in front of an empty goal, on a Pienaar cross) made no difference. Bogdan Lobont, meanwhile, had almost nothing to do while his team-mates took it easy, creating once chance after the other. If every Ajax player simply does what he has to do against a team like Den Bosch, the difference in quality is painfully huge.

The sun was shining in Den Bosch, where Ajax had already wasted three chances (Boukhari, De Mul) when a Peter Uneken error allowed Wesley Sonck to send Wesley Sneijder on a free passage to goalkeeper Chris Mampaey: 0-1. This was after only 13 minutes. The Amsterdammers shifted to an even lower gear after that and almost indifferently knocked the ball around and kicked it over the sideline several times to make injury treatment possible for Den Bosch players (Joost Volmer and, in the second half, former Ajacied Dennis Schulp had to be replaced injured, but not after hard fouls from an Ajax player). It felt as if the ball didn't even roll most of the time: Den Bosch were simply unable to perform, while Ajax didn't really have to.

Maxwell and De Mul had promising shooting opportunities, but fired straight into Mampaey's hands. A De Mul shot hit the outside of the post. A second goal was, in spite of Ajax's weariness, a matter of time. It came in the 41st minute, as Wesley Sneijder's free kick bounced back from the wall (from Mourad's face, to be precise) and was picked up by Rafaël van der Vaart, whose superb, curling shot found the top corner of Mampaey's goal: 0-2. Nice half time score, especially because it hardly cost any energy.

Yet, the nagging feeling remained: Ajax were two goals up at half time in The Hague last week, but over there it all went wrong after the break. It would be unforgivable if such a thing happened again, especially because Feyenoord suffered a spectacular 0-3 home defeat against FC Utrecht earlier on the day. A win would lift Ajax to the second slot of the table, two points behind PSV. Besides, it was about time to keep a clean sheet for a change, and to improve the goal differential a little bit. In the second half of the game the Amsterdammers seemed aware of this and actually started playing better in spite of the seemingly safe scorline. Defenders Grygera, De Jong, Heitinga and Maxwell, meanwhile, remained concentrated, so that Den Bosch never came close to scoring.

After Sonck had missed another chance goalkeeper Mampaey failed to hold on to a slamming Nigel de Jong header. The rebound (although from a very tight angle) was an easy prey for Zdenek Grygera, who calmly tapped his first ever goal for Ajax into the far side netting: 0-3 (58'). Other than in the first half a few Ajacieden were now actually playing well. Steven Pienaar, for example, had a very good game, especially after his move from midfield to the right wing, where he was a constant threat. Feyenoord loanee Ferne Snoyl could hardly keep up with the South-African. After one of Snoyl's many fouls on Pienaar, Van der Vaart rocketed the free kick into the box, where Nigel de Jong only had to step forward and place his boot against the ball to make it 0-4 (74').

As dreadful as last week's visit to The Hague was for Van der Vaart (the Ajax captain was visibly upset as his girlfriend was constantly insulted by the local supporters), as great a time he had in Den Bosch. A great goal, a fine assist and - in the very last minute - another great goal, this time from a free kick, which he superbly lifted over the wall and into the bottom corner, out of Mampaey's reach.

One minute later referee Van Egmond decided to bring Den Bosch's suffering to an end. Many people feared that his final whistle was going to sound much earlier than in the 91st minute: after last weekend's much discussed 'verbal violence' during ADO Den Haag vs Ajax the KNVB instructed all referees to resolutely interrupt their games in case of any unacceptable chants. There hardly were any in Den Bosch, where the result did not really surprise anyone.

What does a win like this actually mean for Ajax? Do the red and white still have anything to learn against opponents like these? Ronald Koeman: "I am aware that the opposition wasn't top notch today, with all due respect. But last weekend I thought: we still have to learn a lot, indeed. Today I guess we did learn a few things: we kept a clean sheet, we kept playing football like we should. A player like Maxwell, for example, did not take as much risk in defense and resolutely kicked the ball away a few times. That was good."

Nevertheless, Dutch football would be a very boring affair if every opponent rolled over as easily as the Blue Dragons did. Luckily, not all of them won't. Den Bosch were from the D category; the next are one from the B category and traditionally a tougher nut to crack: Roda JC. (MP) 

GOALS

• 13'  0-1  Wesley Sneijder
• 41'  0-2  Rafaël van der Vaart
• 58'  0-3  Zdenek Grygera
• 73'  0-4  Nigel de Jong
• 90'  0-5  Rafaël van der Vaart 

Referee: Van Egmond
Yellow cards: Van de Laak (FC Den Bosch), Heitinga (Ajax)
Attendance: 7,023

Ajax line-up: Lobont; Grygera, Heitinga (60. Escudé), De Jong, Maxwell; Sneijder, Pienaar, Van der Vaart; De Mul (72. Mitea), Sonck, Boukhari (59. Obodai).

FC Den Bosch line-up: Mampaey; Verhaegh, Uneken, Volmer (24. Beekmans), Snoyl; Van den Ouweland, Schulp (57. Biekman), Biyadat; Mourad (75. Powel), Van de Laak, Haemhouts.

Related Links:

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