Huntelaar, Rosenberg bust out against RBC: 6-0
6 (2) - 0
(0)
Eredivisie
Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam
Sunday, 19 February, 2006
Quiz
question! When did an Ajax player last score a real hattrick in
an official game (that's three goals in a row in one
half) and who was the scorer?
No...?
It
was in a cup game against MVV and the scorer was midfielder
Dean Gorré, who would score four times in total in
that game. Gorré...? MVV...? That must have been a long
time ago. Indeed: it was on 09 November 1997. Almost nine years
ago. Ajax were a goalscoring machine that season (1997-1998):
they lost only three league games and scored 112 goals before
hammering PSV in the cup final, 5-0 at De Kuip.
This
season's situation is slightly different. Before RBC Roosendaal
came to Amsterdam, Ajax netted 1.6 goals per game on average
and lost 33% of their games: 8 out of 24. A big score? The Ajax
supporters hardly remembered what it feels like. Until
today. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored three times in 13
minutes in the latter half hour of the game, giving the
soon-to-be First Division outfit from Roosendaal a spanking
almost singlehandedly: 6-0.
A
return to form? That would be a bit of an over-optimistic
conclusion. Some more statistics, now we're at it anyway: the
last time an Eredivisie team failed to book a single win in
their first 24 league games was in 1994-1995. Dordrecht were
the unfortunate ones at the time. They went on to win five out
of their last ten games, but it wasn't enough to avoid
relegation. Needless to say that RBC are completely and utterly
doomed. Even if miracles exist, it's probably too
late already.
Roosendaal's 'men in orange' have already bowed their
heads.
Huntelaar makes it 4-0... [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
That
fact makes it quite embarrassing that RBC actually
remained in the game for more than 70 minutes, in spite of the
fact that Ajax (playing without 'injury cases' Sneijder and
Grygera) had an excellent start: after only four minutes a
completely unmarked Klaas-Jan Huntelaar nodded a cross from the
right flank into the net. The assist came from Hatem Trabelsi,
who is back from Egypt (African Nations Cup) and returned to
Ajax-1 action. It was the only highlight of the first half
hour. Nothing noteworthy happened between Huntelaar's opening
goal and Markus Rosenberg's 2-0 (28'): goalkeeper Volders
failed to hold on to Mauro Rosales' shot, after which the Swede
resolutely converted the rebound.
2-0
at half-time. Not a bad scoreline, but Ajax hardly showed
any decent football in the first half. The only
interesting news was bad news: captain Tomás
Galásek had to be replaced after 25 minutes. It turns
out that the Czech picked up a hamstring injury and will be
sidelined for up to six weeks. On Wednesday, against Inter,
Danny Blind will have to miss out an entire Ajax midfield
(Galásek, Pienaar and Sneijder) and his best
man-marker (Grygera).
The home
side did not improve after the half-time break. In fact
- embarrassing but true - the hapless visitors could have
easily notched a goal or two in the first 20 minutes of the
second half, in which Ajax took the words 'poor defending'
to a surrealistic level. The first chances were for Sillah
and former Feyenoord man Henk Vos, who had face-to-face
encounters with Maarten Stekelenburg after stultifyingly
poor passing by Ajax defenders. Both RBC strikers waited
too long before pulling the trigger.
Michael Timisela makes his Ajax-1
début... [Photo: Ajax.nl]
Vos missed another 'sitter' when Björn Daelemans pulled
the ball back to him. The veteran striker was
unmarked on the edge of the penalty box and had plenty of time
to aim, but rocketed wide. Danny Blind replaced Thomas
Vermaelen (who suffered from diarrhoea but started
anyway) with Juanfran. The most remarkable thing the
Spaniard did with the ball was passing it straight to RBC's
Marcelino, who suddenly had the
visitors' biggest chance of the game in the 66th
minute. Just like Sillah and Vos,
however, Marcelino showed why his side scored
only 14 times so far.
A team that keeps wasting opportunities like that,
is asking for a stuffing, and that's exactly what RBC
got. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar decided the game in the 71st
minute, by stylishly turning away from Roumani on the edge
of the penalty area and clinically firing home: 3-0 (71'). It
was the first goal of a splendid hattrick by
'KJH'. His third of the day was a superb
first-time shot on another Trabelsi assist (4-0, 78') and his
fourth a slamming header on a corner kick from the
right (5-0, 83'). Hatem Trabelsi, by the way, graced
his return to Amsterdam with no less than three fine assists on
Huntelaar.
... and Rosenberg makes it 6-0.
[Photo: Ajax.nl]
Ajax are still everything but convincing, but it must
be said that both Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Markus
Rosenberg are doing the business in absolutely terrific
style. The Swede underscored his excellent form by hammering
his second (and Ajax's 6th) into the net in the 86th minute.
One of the team-mates to congratulate him on yet another
wonderful goal was young fullback Michael Timisela, the third
Young Ajax player to make his official first
team début in a relatively short time (Robbert
Schilder and Jeffrey Sarpong preceded him).
Sometimes football fans have a remarkably short
memory... In the 69th minute, when Ajax looked terrible
and RBC Roosendaal had chances to get back into the
game, the whistling of the home crowd lashed the
backs of the Ajax players like a hailstorm. Less than 15
minutes later the fans were singing at the top of
their voices, grateful for what were possibly the
most entertaining 20 minutes at the Amsterdam ArenA this
season apart from, possibly, the first four songs of
U2's Vertigo Tour in July...
6-0 against RBC Roosendaal. It doesn't mean much, but it
surely felt good. Ajax's next opponent will be
of a different caliber, though. On Monday afternoon
the Amsterdammers will go on a short training
camp in the town of Santpoort, near Haarlem. Two days
later, on Wednesday, it's time for Inter... (MP)
GOALS
- 04' 1-0 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
- 28' 2-0 Markus Rosenberg
- 71' 3-0 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
- 78' 4-0 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
- 83' 5-0 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
- 86' 6-0 Markus Rosenberg
Referee: Nijhuis
Yellow cards: Trabelsi
(Ajax), Paap (RBC Roosendaal)
Attendance: 46,383
Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Trabelsi
(79. Timisela), Vermaelen (55. Juanfran), Emanuelson;
Galásek (25. Heitinga), Maduro, Sarpong, Lindenbergh;
Rosales, Huntelaar, Rosenberg.
RBC Roosendaal line-up: Volders;
Daelemans, De Lange, Molenaar (46. Paap), Roumani; Lammens,
Loran, Marcelino (67. Kpaka); Smolders, Vos (81. Makhout),
Sillah.
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