Ajax advance to semi-final after win at Heerenveen
0 (0) - 3 (1)
Gatorade Cup, Quarter Final
Abe Lenstra Stadium, Heerenveen
Thursday, 02 February, 2006
The fifth week of 2006 is a crucial one for Ajax.
On the agenda were a quarter final fixture in the only
competition Ajax can (reasonably) still win, plus a league
game at supreme arch-enemies Feyenoord, who can throw Ajax
back to the bottom half of the Eredivisie table, almost as
close to the relegation zone as to the four
positions that are good for a play-off berth
(positions 2 to 5).
Ajax took the first of this week's two
hurdles with remarkable ease, at least: judging by the figures.
Heerenveen were beaten at their own Abe Lenstra Stadium in the
quarter final of the Gatorade Cup: 0-3. Ajax advance to
the semis and did themselves a great favour with the
'Classic' at Feyenoord coming up next.
Coach Danny Blind once again changed his team at several
positions: Urby Emanuelson got the nod instead of
Juanfran, whereas Zdenek Grygera (suspended against
Utrecht) and Wesley Sneijder (recovered from a
hamstring injury) returned to the team. The victims were
Johnny Heitinga and Angelos Charisteas. Sneijder played at
'number 10' again, so that former Heerenveen man Klaas-Jan
Huntelaar returned to his normal position of centre
forward.
Ryan Babel. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
The statistics were meaningless beforehand. Ajax never lost
a cup game against Heerenveen, but all of those cup fixtures
(most recently in
January 2005) were played in Amsterdam. Recent
Eredivisie visits to Abe Lenstra Stadium made painfully clear
that 'Heerenveen away' is a different story: the last three
league matches in Heerenveen were lost and Ajax conceded 10
goals in total them. But (everyone will have
noticed): things have changed in Heerenveen.
The two high-quality strikers that gave Ajax such a
painful spanking on
30 December have left: Georgios Samaras for
Manchester City, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar for Ajax. Huntelaar
played against his former team-mates for the first time.
Heerenveen made 16.5 million euros in January, but have a huge
problem in their forward line.
In December, with Huntelaar and
Samaras, almost every Heerenveen attack was threatening.
Just over one month later, without them, Heerenveen
had plenty of possession and put Ajax under
pressure most of the time, but they hardly ever
created themselves a serious scoring chance. At the other end,
meanwhile, the normally reliable Frisian defense was remarkably
shaky and erratic. Heerenveen started the game energetically
and offensively as always, but shot themselves in the foot
after only 9 minutes. Michel Breuer had a black-out and
passed sloppily through the heart of defense. Mauro Rosales
said "thank you very much": 0-1 (9'). Maybe it should actually
have been Ajax's second goal. A few minutes earlier Rosales and
Markus Rosenberg had a free passage against just one Heerenveen
defender. Rosales did everything wrong: he passed too early,
too hard and too high.
Heerenveen vs Ajax was a poor game of football, between two
teams like ships adrift. In the first half, in particular, both
teams seemed unable to string more than two proper passes
together. Yet, it was not a boring game, simply because both
sides defended so poorly. It was a piece of cake for the
physically superior hosts to cause unrest in Ajax's penalty
box, simply by launching high crosses into the goalmouth,
where Hedwiges Maduro and Thomas Vermaelen formed the
central duo. Both defended shakily, but - luckily for Ajax
- goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg was flawless this time and
more convincing on high balls than usual.
At the other end, Ajax got plenty of space to
counter-attack, so that the visitors actually had the
better chances over-all. Wesley Sneijder had a free shooting
opportunity from the edge of the box, but saw his attempt go
inches wide (53'). Seven minutes later goalkeeper
Vandenbussche turned Sneijder's next attempt around the post.
Markus Rosenberg would have had a free passage in the 67th
minute if it wasn't for the linesman, who - mistakenly -
thought that the Swede was off-side. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was
awfully close to his first Ajax goal when he turned, fired and
hit the post (78'). And substitute Ryan Babel missed an
absolute sitter when he came face-to-face with Vandenbussche in
the 86th.
Muro Rosales. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
Heerenveen never had chances as enormous as those, but
were extremely unfortunate when Lasse Nilsson was brought down
by Thomas Vermaelen in the 81st minute. The Swede deserved a
penalty, but didn't get one from referee Haverkort.
Given their chances Ajax should have decided the game
earlier in the second half, but they finally did it in the 89th
minute, when Ryan Babel penetrated the penalty area from the
right flank, Tomás Galásek's shot took a decisive
deflection off a defender and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar tapped home
from close range. 'KJH' showed respect for Heerenveen's
loyal fans by not celebrating. The striker kept his
arms down and walked away. The home fans, in their turn,
warmly applauded Huntelaar before and after the
game.
Huntelaar did not have a good game at all, mainly due to a
complete lack of support from the wings and midfield,
but he was very effective. Basically, he had
only three good moments: a shot against the post
(78'), a goal (89') and an assist (90+2'). In stoppage
time, when Heerenveen had already bowed their heads, 'The
Hunter' beautifully turned away from his defender and pulled
the ball back to Urby Emanuelson: 0-3, a final score that was
way too flattering for Ajax.
A tremendously important win and a great result, but will
it turn things around for Ajax? Will it give the
Amsterdammers such a confidence boost that things
wil be better from now on?
The Ajax fans know the answer by now: of course
not. For that, Ajax's play was simply too poor again. Not
promising at all. No structural improvement
whatsoever. Ajax advance in the cup, but did not make
a step forward in any other way. It feels like every Ajax
result (good or bad) is an incident. Touch and
go. And it will stay like that this season. Ajax can win
in De Kuip on Sunday, just like they won in Heerenveen.
They can lose, too. Or get torn apart completely.
The players have no other choice than to look at the bright
side. Hedwiges Maduro, after the game: "This can
still turn into a very nice season. We can qualify
for the play-offs and we're still in the Champions League and
the Gatorade Cup." Then, philosophically: "We live in a
strange world this season." (MP)
GOALS
- 09' 0-1 Mauro Rosales
- 89' 0-2 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
- 90' 0-3 Urby Emanuelson
Referee: Haverkort
Cards: none
Attendance: 20,500
Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Grygera,
Maduro, Vermaelen, Emanuelson; Galásek, Sneijder (68.
Heitinga), Lindenbergh; Rosales (72. Babel), Huntelaar,
Rosenberg.
SC
Heerenveen line-up: Vandenbussche; Seip,
Hansson, Breuer, Drost (74. Derveld); Bosvelt, Kissi (74.
Hanssen), Pranjic; Yildirim (61. Tarvajärvi), Bruggink,
Nilsson.
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