Laziness costs Ajax two points against Heracles: 0-0
0 (0) - 0
(0)
Eredivisie
Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam
Sunday, 15 October, 2005
"Four points dropped against ADO Den Haag and Heracles... I
can not live with that," sighed Ajax boss Danny Blind. His team
played four Eredivisie home matches so far, but won only
one of them. Against
ADO Den Haag, on 21 September, Ajax squandered a 2-0 lead
in overtime. Against Eredivisie newcomers Heracles Almelo they
performed even worse. The loss of two points against ADO was a
bitter setback after what was a fairly good
and energetic Ajax performance. The
Amsterdammers started furiously in that game, but
simply failed to score a few more goals. Today's 0-0 result
against Heracles was different. This time the hosts were
punished for their inability to convert chances, but also for
their laziness.
Markus Rosenberg fires on goal.
[Photo: Ajax.nl]
The start was alright against the ultra-defensive black
and white from Almelo: Sneijder, Boukhari and
Rosenberg had early chances but failed to beat Heracles'
excellent German goalkeeper, Martin Pieckenhagen. After some 20
minutes, however, Ajax's play became slower and their
passing less accurate. They just didn't seem to give
everything they had.
Ajax were without players such as Angelos
Charisteas and Edgar Manycharyan (injured), Steven Pienaar
and Hedwiges Maduro (rested for the upcoming Thun
fixture) and Juanfran (suspended). Olaf Lindenbergh (back
from a suspension) and Mauro Rosales (back from injury) played
from the start, while John Heitinga returned to the bench.
Julien Escudé, meanwhile, was not even on the bench. The
future does not look good for the French defender: Danny Blind
seems to prefer alternative solutions in the
back.
Until, roughly, the 75th minute the home side were
downright aloof, seemingly convinced that the liberating goal
would be scored sooner or later. In the latter fifteen minutes
of the game, when a happy ending started to become seriously
doubtful, the team suddenly shifted to the highest gear: they
were running, chasing opponents, battling in midfield and
increasing the pressure. It was too little, too late, although
both of Ajax's substitutes had the chance to make it 1-0: Ryan
Babel showed up in front of Pieckenhagen, but fired into the
side-netting from a tight angle. The very best chance was for
Yannis Anastasiou, who was unmarked in the 85th minute and had
an open header chance from less than five yards on a Wesley
Sneijder cross. The Greek nodded wide.
Why didn't Ajax start as energetically as they
played in the dying minutes...? It was a question that
deeply annoyed the 47,650 spectactors on the stands, who jeered
at their team when referee Van Sichem blew the final
whistle. Their team once again failed to give them a
win. This time, the team also failed to give
the fans the feeling that they had done everything they
could.
Yannis Anastasiou has just nodded
inches wide... [Photo: Ajax.nl]
"You can analyze our play for ages," said Danny Blind, "but
if you simply look at the number of chances we had, we should
have won this one easily." His Heracles colleague, Peter Bosz,
agreed with him: "We could have been 2-0 or even 3-0 down at
half-time."
Ajax created most of their 24-carate scoring in the
first and the latter fifteen minutes of the game, but even in
the (poor) hour in between there were plenty of
chances. In the second half Nigel de Jong had no less than
two face-to-face encounters with Martin Pieckenhagen. Both
times he failed miserably. On the hour Blind once again
replaced two miserably poor forwards (Rosenberg and
Boukhari) with the only two forwards he had on the bench (Babel
and Anastasiou). He made the same statement at Sparta
Rotterdam, two weeks ago. Once again the subs did
considerably better than the starters, but this time it did not
lead to a goal. The only Ajax forward who had a reasonably good
game was Mauro Rosales, who was voted 'Man of the Match'.
The visitors from the east had not come to Amsterdam to
attack, or even play football, and can we blame them? They
played in a sort of 5-3-1 formation and picked up six
yellow cards. Heracles seemed a little intimidated by the
Amsterdam ArenA in the opening phase (Ajax should have taken
advantage), but started to believe in an upset as the minutes
ticked away. On two moments they could have hurt Ajax even
more: just before half-time former Young Ajax striker
Kwame Quansah had an enormous chance from close range. Deep
into the second half Bernard Hofstede could
have taken advantage of the space the Ajax defense offered
him.
But he didn't - and that was probably the only good news of
the evening: Maarten Stekelenburg, who returned to the
Ajax goal after a few months of rehab (he got injured against
Boca Juniors on 31 July), kept a clean sheet in his
comeback game. It was only the third time for Ajax to
accomplish that, and the first time at home. The Amsterdammers
won only 50% of their league games so far and really have an
enormous 'goalscoring problem'. Their hapless play against
Heracles was even more disappointing than their inefficiency.
What happened to the team that seemed to be on the right track
in the Willem II and Sparta Prague games...?
Danny Blind has only three days to find that team back. A
Champions League win over FC Thun is the only way to wash the
bitter taste away and to avert the crisis that already looms at
the Amsterdam ArenA. (MP)
NO GOALS
Referee: Van Sichem
Yellow cards: Trabelsi (Ajax), Jansen,
Reekers, Klavan, Sluijter, Wuytens, Hofstede (Heracles
Almelo)
Attendance: 47,650
Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Trabelsi,
Grygera, Galásek Emanuelson; De Jong, Lindenbergh,
Sneijder; Rosales, Rosenberg (59. Anastasiou), Boukhari (59.
Babel).
Heracles Almelo
line-up: Pieckenhagen; Jansen, Reekers, Hoogma,
Klavan; De Vries (80. Tamerus), Maas, Hellings (46. Wuytens),
Höcher (62. Hofstede); Sluijter, Quansah.
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