Midfield veterans lead Ajax to 0-2 win in Tilburg
0 (0) - 2
(1)
Eredivisie
Willem II Stadium, Tilburg
Saturday, 10 September, 2005
After Willem II vs Ajax head-coach Danny Blind was a
genuinely satisfied man for the first time in three Eredivisie
games. "We played dominantly and had control. And we
played some good football. I find that
important." Indeed. Hosts Willem II created their first
real chance of the game in stoppage time when Ajax
had already pocketed the points. Ajax determined the pace
of the game and were in control throughout. That's
how Danny Blind wants it. His
boys should definitely have won by a larger score
than 0-2.
Ajax's inspirational leader
in Tilburg: Tomás Galásek. [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
At a nowhere near sold out Willem II Stadium the
Amsterdammers were taken by the hand by two veteran
midfielders who have had a bit of a rough season's start.
Tomás Galásek (a former Willem II player and
still living in Tilburg with his family) was dropped from
the starting eleven at the start of the campaign
because Blind felt that his play was "too
safe" and lacked thrust. The Ajax
boss preferred Hedwiges Maduro in midfield. Olaf
Lindenbergh, meanwhile, joined Ajax from AZ but the
'highlights' for him so far were a nagging muscular injury
and two disastrous performances for Young Ajax
(including a 7-1 stuffing by Young Vitesse).
Due to the absence of Julien Escudé (back injury) and
Nigel de Jong (benched) the two thirty-somethings
played from the start for the first time this season. For
Lindenbergh (a graduate of the Ajax youth system and 32 years
old...) it was in fact his official Ajax-1 début.
Lindenbergh had a flawless performance, always
smartly taking the right position, always ready to
receive the ball, always playing one-touch and always passing
intelligently and constructively. Galásek, meanwhile,
was probably even better: in Tilburg he was, in every thinkable
way, the 'Great Leader' that this Ajax team
lacks according to almost everyone. He wore the
captain's armband, too.
The new order in midfield was the foundation of Ajax's
convincing win in Tilburg, where the game started almost a half
hour late and on a soaked pitch, due to a heavy cloudburst
and thunderstorm that forced referee Haverkort to keep the
players safely inside for 25 minutes. The hosts, who are having
an extremely poor start of the season, were never in
it. Ajax played them off the park in the first half and should
already have scored at least twice (open chances for
Maduro, Babel and Sneijder) when Tomás
Galásek proved once again what an
excellent 'cannoneer' he is: he doesn't shoot on
goal too often, but when he does... goalkeepers
beware. In the 34th minute Galásek fired with his
left from just outside the box. The ball beautifully
slammed into the far side netting: 0-1.
"It was a little bitter for me to start the season on
the bench," said Galásek after the game, "but you have
to stay calm and wait for your chance. (...) When the ball went
in I did not exactly know how to celebrate the goal. But I was
very happy indeed."
Danny Blind: "To me Galásek was the 'Man of the
Match'. He was fantastic and his goal was brilliant."
Steven Pienaar duels with two
former Ajax players:
Kevin Bobson (behind him, left) and Michel Kreek (far right).
[Photo: Ajax.nl]
Ajax's should scored more goals in the first half,
which leads us to the problem that is (still) Ajax's biggest:
the strikers' inefficiency. Markus Rosenberg and Ryan Babel
both had a very poor performance, just like two weeks ago
against Feyenoord and Brøndby. Both Ajax
strikers (the team seemed to revert to a sort of 4-4-2
formation in certain phases) were replaced in the second
half. Angelos Charisteas, Rosenberg's replacement, had
more good moments in his first ten minutes than
Rosenberg and Babel between them in the entire first
half.
How remarkable: Charisteas is deemed a 'bad buy'
by many Ajax supporters, but the Greek starts doing the
business now that his two competitors are having
a bad slump. Blind did not want to say anything about it
after the game, but there is a more than serious
chance that Charisteas will start in Prague on
Wednesday. And it must be said: he deserves it. In Tilburg
he moved a lot, normally did something good with it
when he had the ball, took on his defenders and... netted
Ajax's decisive second, four minutes before the
end. Charisteas calmly 'walked around' Urby
Emanuelson's fine thru-pass and pushed it past Moens:
0-2.
Ajax's lead was never in peril in the second half, but
the Amsterdammers were forced to improvise in the
60th minute. The reason was Zdenek
Grygera's dismissal. The Czech defender was up
against Willem II's new Hungarian striker, the gigantic Zsomber
Kerekes. Grygera did not have much of a hard time against
the human 'battering ram'. Even in the 59th minute,
when Kerekes suddenly had a free passage to Hans
Vonk, the Hungarian still had a long way to go
and seemed to have no control over the ball. Grygera,
however, pulled him down and knew what the penalty was
going to be.
Willem II were numerically superior in the last
half hour and put Ajax under pressure for a while, but after a
simple tactical change (Heitinga for Babel) Ajax seemed
unimpressed, easily remained upright and created the by
far best chance of the latter quarter: Wesley Sneijder cut to
the middle and released one of his beautifully
curving shots from the edge of the area, which Moens
punched out of the top corner. Shortly after that
Charisteas wrapped it up for Ajax. Jatto Ceesay's chance in
stoppage time (his attempt went past Vonk but hit the
outside of the post) was Willem II's first and, given the score
at that point, just an irrelevant detail.
All in all, the only bad news in Tilburg
was Grygera's red card. He will be suspended for at least
one league game and is set to miss next week's confrontation
with Louis van Gaal's AZ, who demolished RBC Roosendaal
(7-0), have a 100% score after four matches
and netted 17 times (!). Seven of those goals were scored
by former Ajax man Shota Arveladze. Grygera
would normally have been the man to shadow
him in Alkmaar.
Apart from that, however, there were reasons to leave
Tilburg with a smile. Ajax played well and did not
sustain injuries in what was the perfect 'dress-rehearsal'
for Wednesday's Champions League opener at Sparta
Prague. (MP)
GOALS
- 34' 0-1 Tomás Galásek
- 86' 0-2 Angelos Charisteas
Referee: Haverkort
Yellow cards: Heitinga (Ajax), Reuser,
Dembele, Féher (Willem II)
Red card: Grygera (Ajax, 59')
Attendance: 11,000
Ajax line-up: Vonk; Trabelsi, Maduro,
Grygera, Emanuelson; Sneijder,
Galásek, Lindenbergh; Pienaar, Rosenberg (46.
Charisteas), Babel (64. Heitinga).
Willem II line-up: Moens; Wau,
Victoria, Kreek (77. Dembele), Van der Haar; Fehér,
Smit, Caluwé; Reuser (60. Ceesay), Kerekes,
Bobson.
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