Ajax suffer painful 4-2 defeat at AZ
4 (2) - 2
(2)
Eredivisie
Alkmaarderhout, Alkmaar
Sunday, 18 September, 2005
The scenes after the game were moving and painful at the
same time. Shota Arveladze, former striker of Ajax, walked up
to the section of travelling Ajax fans. They applauded him,
yelled his name, sang him the songs that they used to sing for
him when he played at the ArenA. Arveladze, who had just
scored twice for AZ against his old club, was visibly moved. He
applauded the fans, grateful for their gesture, and pressed his
right hand to his heart. Reporters and camera
teams surrounded him, determined to capture this moment.
Because it was so ironic and - from an Ajax
perspective - so bloody painful.
The story behind it...?
Just before the start of the season Shota Arveladze told his
agent, Rob Cohen, that he would love to return to Ajax. He was
out of contract at Rangers FC and could be landed on a
'Bosman'. His financial demands were nothing too outrageous. In
the words of Rob Cohen (in a recent TV interview with
AT5) Ajax head-coach Danny Blind was 'not interested' in
Arveladze's services, whereas general director Arie van Eijden
'did not even have the decency to give the boy a call and
explain the situation'.
The rest is history: Louis van Gaal, who quit his job as
Ajax's technical director in
October 2004, offered Arveladze a deal at his new
club, AZ Alkmaar. Van Gaal's strikers, Arveladze and Danish
international Kenneth Perez, scored a brace each in
today's game between AZ and Ajax at Alkmaar's Alkmaarderhout
stadium (4-2), while Ajax's 'hit men' (Rosenberg,
Charisteas and Babel) plodded along and never seriously
threatened AZ's goal. Arveladze netted nine times in
his first five league games for AZ. Perez scored six goals
so far. AZ won all of their five league games, are tops in the
Eredivisie and hit for a spectacular 21 goals (4.2 goals per
match on average). Meanwhile, Ajax suffered two defeats in
their first four matches, in which Markus Rosenberg scored once
and Angelos Charisteas twice. Arveladze scored three times
as many goals as Ajax's two centre forwards between
them.
This week Danny Blind will have to answer the questions
again: why didn't you want him? Why did you turn him
down?
Hatem Trabelsi duels with a
former Ajacied: Shota Arveladze. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
Unexpectedly, Ajax started with the same eleven as in
the past two games. Zdenek Grygera was sent off against Willem
II last week, but the disciplinary committee of the KNVB
decided that the red card should not have been given and did
not suspend the Czech, whose job it was to shadow
Arveladze wherever he went on the pitch of old Alkmaarderhout,
where Ajax played for the last time. AZ will move to their
brand-new Kooimeer Plaza this summer.
Ajax started well. The team seemed to have found the right
balance in midfield in the games against Sparta Prague and
Willem II, and was clearly dominant in the opening phase of the
game. Beautifully launched by Lindenbergh, Wesley Sneijder gave
his team an early lead by firing a left-footed diagonal shot
past (former Ajax) goalkeeper Henk Timmer, after only ten
minutes. Only two minutes later Lindenbergh concluded another
fine solo run with a great shot that hit the cross bar. AZ
were overwhelmed.
The turning point of the first half arrived in the 35th
minute. In a scrimmage in the Ajax goalmouth (the hosts' first
seriously dangerous moment) Shota Arveladze seemed to score,
but Ryan Babel hammered the ball off the goal-line
and against the underside of the cross-bar. It bounced
back onto the pitch, but according to the linesman it had
already crossed the line when Babel cleared. An outraged Ajax
team firmly disagreed, as you'd expect. Even the evidence
did not bring the discussion to an end: on close-up
photographs the ball seemed to have crossed the
line, but according to the computer on Talpa TV
that can 'translate' real footage to a geometric
animation, it had not crossed it entirely. Fact is
that the free-kick that led to the scrimmage should
not have been given in the first place. Another fact is
that referee Luinge and his linesman had no doubts and
resolutely pointed to the centre-spot. The goal stood: 1-1.
For a minute or five Ajax lost their heads
and were poorly concentrated. AZ took full advantage:
Shota Arveladze, a supreme actor, kneeled down acting
as if he was tying his shoes. Zdenek Grygera did not pay
attention for a split-second, which was enough for
Showtime Arveladze to fire Kenneth Perez's free-kick
into the net from close range: 2-1, roughly 100 seconds
after the equalizer.
Ajax had reason to feel wronged by referee Luinge and
did not deserve to enter the half-time break with a
2-1 deficit. Wesley Sneijder's equalizer (a great,
curling free-kick into the far corner, seconds before the
half-time whistle) was well deserved and the last
noteworthy moment in a spectacular and extremely
entertaining first half.
Urby Emanuelson duels with
another former Ajacied: Denny Landzaat. [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
AZ were a different team after the half-time break: sassier,
more aggressive, more determined to go forward. Tarik
Sektioui's thundering shot on Hans Vonk's fists (54') was a
warning shot. Three minutes later Kenneth Perez had
decided the game for his team with two absolutely stunning
goals. The first one brought back memories of one of Johan
Cruyff's most famous ones: Perez saw that De Zeeuw's
cross-pass was too high for Hatem Trabelsi. The Dane
waited behind Trabelsi's back, picked the ball up in
one fluent movement and released an absolutely superb shot over
Hans Vonk and into the far side netting (55'). Two
minutes later Trabelsi and Steven Pienaar once
again looked bad when Perez received the ball and beat
Vonk once again with a stunning screamer from outside the
penalty area: 4-2.
Game over.
In the remainder of the game Ajax, quite surprisingly, had
three good chances to get back into the game (Grygera,
Sneijder, Charisteas) but it must be said that the
Amsterdammers were outclassed by
AZ after Perez's goals and seemed up for a
stuffing. They could easily have conceded a fifth and even
sixth goal. The only Ajacied who had reason to be happy was
young Edgar Manucharyan, who made his official Ajax-1
début. To make the stumble even more painful, Olaf
Lindenbergh was red carded against his old team for (allegedly)
hitting Arveladze in the 88th minute. Even Arveladze thought
that the penalty was too harsh and attempted to talk referee
Luinge out of it, but the latter has a reputation to
protect: he is the first ever referee to have given more
than 100 red cards in Dutch professional football.
The runner-up on the 'ranking', Dick Jol, has not even
reached 50.
Ajax may have found a new balance in midfield, the
real problem of the current team lies upfront. Markus
Rosenberg once again had an absolutely terrible
performance and the man to replace him was
(unfortunately) not the Angelos Charisteas of recent
weeks, but the Angelos Charisteas of last season: a
loutish and slightly clumsy centre-forward who
doesn't seem to fit in. Rosenberg and Charisteas were
never dangerous and struggled in an almost pathetic way, but -
even more importantly - completely and utterly failed
to hold on to the ball upfront. Ajax simply
can't rely on them at the moment.
It is quite typical that the #1 and #2 in the
Eredivisie are currently AZ and Feyenoord, the clubs that have
Kalou/Kuyt and Arveladze/Perez as their respective
striker couples. These four men simply make the difference
for their teams, especially in their games against
Ajax. Ajax's forwards simply can't crack it and it must be
feared that this will remain a major problem for some time to
come. If Ajax want to stay in the race for the Eredivisie
championship, Wednesday's home game against ADO
Den Haag will have to mark the start of a
long series of wins. (MP)
GOALS
- 09' 0-1 Wesley Sneijder
- 34' 1-1 Shota Arveladze
- 36' 2-1 Shota Arveladze
- 45' 2-2 Wesley Sneijder
- 55' 3-2 Kenneth Perez
- 57' 4-2 Kenneth Perez
Referee: Luinge
Yellow cards: Opdam (AZ), Sneijder,
Galásek, Grygera (Ajax)
Red card: Lindenbergh (Ajax, '88)
Attendance: 8,747
Ajax line-up: Vonk; Trabelsi, Maduro,
Grygera, Emanuelson; Galásek, Sneijder, Lindenbergh;
Pienaar (62. Rosales), Rosenberg (62. Charisteas), Babel (84.
Manucharyan).
AZ line-up: Timmer; Jaliens,
Opdam, De Cler, De Zeeuw (84. Steinsson); Landzaat,
Schaars, Van Galen; Sektioui, Arveladze, Perez (86.
Huysegems).
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