NEC easily remain upright against clueless Ajax: 1-1
1 (1) - 1 (1)
Eredivisie
Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam
Sunday, 15 January, 2006
Quote from the interview with NEC defender Peter Wisgerhof
in the official match programme: "In the past we used to travel
to Amsterdam thinking that we had no chance. That is no
longer the case."
A painful statement to anyone with an Ajax heart,
but it makes perfect sense, as Wisgerhof and his NEC
team-mates underscored at the Amsterdam ArenA by very
easily remaining upright against a pathetic Ajax team
that never looked like they were going to win. Ajax have
started the year 2006 'in style', namely
by failing to grab the points in another home game
and sliding from 4th to 6th place in the Dutch Eredivisie.
It wasn't exactly the official début match Klaas-Jan
Huntelaar had hoped for...
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar's official
Ajax debut was less than memorable. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
'The Hunter' started as the central
forward in what seemed to be a rather sudden
return to 4-3-3 formation, in which Rosenberg played
on the left and Rosales on the right. Nourdin
Boukhari started in the 'Sneijder role', in default
of both Sneijder himself (suspended) and Steven Pienaar
(injured). Zdenek Grygera returned in the right zone of the
Ajax defense, replacing Hatem Trabelsi, who is
currently representing Tunisia at the Africa Cup in Egypt.
Hedwiges Maduro, finally, started at the unlikely position of
right midfielder.
Huntelaar came very close to the perfect
start for his new club: only sixteen seconds had ticked
away when Mauro Rosales was launched over the right flank.
Markus Rosenberg deftly pulled the Argentinian's
cross back to Huntelaar, who suddenly had an
open chance from close range. The ball was an inch too
high for the striker, who nodded just over the cross-bar.
The ArenA crowd could not have guessed that it was Ajax's
best chance of the afternoon...
The first fifteen minutes at the ArenA were spectacular: one
minute after Huntelaar's chance goalkeeper Gabór Babos
had to punch a Galásek free-kick over the
cross-bar. In the 6th minute his Ajax colleague at the other
end, Maarten Stekelenburg, showed once again that he is still
terribly unreliable on corner kicks: he seemed
paralyzed on Tininho's corner (and was let down by his
defenders), so that Robbie Wielaert could calmly nod home at
the far post, completely unmarked: 0-1 (6').
Two minutes later, striker Romano Denneboom should have
doubled NEC's lead on a face-to-face encounter with
Stekelenburg. This time the Ajax goalie saved well and
another four minutes later the score was level. Mauro
Rosales (who had a good first half) was once again faster
than Leiwekabessy, after which Babos failed to punch the
cross out of the goalmouth. Instead, he tapped it to
Markus Rosenberg, who resolutely set himself up and hammered
home: 1-1 (12').
An interesting game seemed ahead, but it all turned out very
differently: in the remaining 78 minutes there were hardly
any proper attacks, only one or two 'half' chances and a
truly overwhelming quantity of absolutely terrible
football, especially from the home side. NEC were almost never
dangerous or even threatening, but they were well-organized,
determined and never inferior to Ajax on any aspect of the
game whatsoever. Their best man was Björn van der Doelen,
NEC's blonde pitbull in midfield, who seemed to be everywhere
at the same time. He battled, hard but never
dirty. All of his tackles were merciless;
all of his passes adequate.
As for Ajax: Rosales and Rosenberg had a good opening
phase. The Swede, in fact, was probably the only
Ajacied to perform reasonably well throughout the game. What
the rest had to offer was either nothing special
(Galásek, Grygera, Juanfran, Huntelaar) or downright
horrible (Boukhari, Heitinga). It is getting increasingly
mysterious why Danny Blind keeps playing the latter two.
Boukhari as Sneijder's replacement and not Olaf Lindenbergh...?
Heitinga as a starter while Julien Escudé isn't
even in the squad...? Even the most objective Ajax supporters
will sigh that the Ajax boss can hardly mean it.
But he does. He really does.
Rosales began well at left wing.
[Photo: Ajax.nl]
For Nourdin Boukhari Ajax vs NEC must have been a
journey through hell, a 73 minute battle against
himself. Watching the Moroccan was a journey
through hell as well, and it wasn't the first time. The
crowd's disgust came to a painful outburst in the
second half, when many turned against Boukhari, whistling
and jeering at him and chanting that he should "f##k off". When
Blind finally brought on Urby Emanuelson, the man
he took off was... Juanfran, and not Boukhari. The crowd was
dumbfounded by that decision, especially when Blind moved
Zdenek Grygera (a central defender and a right footer) to the
position of left fullback. On moments like that even the most
devoted Blind fans should understand that the average Ajax
supporter slowly starts to question the
man's consistency and tactical insight...
In the 73rd minute Boukhari had to be replaced after
all, after he had stepped on the ball and injured
himself. His departure (and the arrival of Angelos
Charisteas) elicited loud cheering from the stands.
Painful. It made for a cynical and grim atmosphere. But then
again: can the Ajax supporters be blamed, after years and years
of inferior, sometimes downright embarrassing football by their
heroes in red and white...?
As for Heitinga: the defender is a product of the Ajax youth
system and very popular with the fans. He will probably never
be whistled or jeered at, even if he plays another dozen
of horrible games. On more than just occasion Heitinga
was fully responsible for complete and utter
chaos in the Ajax defense and his build-up was even worse:
several of his passes simply went across the
sideline. For a few weeks (in December) it seemed like Heitinga
had found a way out of his misery, but in the Heerenveen
and NEC matches it became painfully clear once again that
he is almost consistently one of Ajax's weakest.
In the latter phase of the game Ajax played with three
central strikers: Huntelaar, Rosenberg and Charisteas.
It didn't have the desired effect. There wasn't
even an 'all or nothing' offensive. The team simply didn't
have the power for it. The best chance in the dying minutes was
for the visitors: on a well executed counter-attack substitute
Rutger Worm could have given Ajax the knock-out blow from close
range, but he lifted the ball over Stekelenburg's goal.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar must have been very disappointed, not
only with the result, but also with the qualities of some of
his team-mates. The former Heerenveen man hardly received any
service, but he did show his class in the second half.
He was off-side on a long, high pass from the back, but the
way he controlled the ball in one fluent movement and
fired it past Babos showed what 'The Hunter' is capable of.
What might have been... [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
"This was a very poor performance," said Danny Blind after
the game. "There was not a single phase in which
we could have won the game. We didn't create anything, there
was no confidence and too many players are simply performing
below par at the moment."
You can say that again, Mr. Blind.
Ten months after Danny Blind's début as head-coach of
Ajax the Amsterdam club are having another nightmare of a
season. They are now 14 points behind leaders PSV and 13
behind runners-up Feyenoord. This weekend Utrecht and Groningen
leapfrogged Ajax, pushing the Amsterdammers down to the 6th
position. Ajax won only 9 out of their 19 games,
dropped 11 points in 9 home games and score only 1.63
goals per game on average. But the worst and most
depressing thing is that Ajax's play is as poor
again as in the darkest 'Koeman days'. Firing another
head-coach is not going to solve the problem. Nevertheless, the
conclusion that Danny Blind might not be the man to change the
tide is slowly coming closer... (MP)
GOALS
- 06' 0-1 Rob Wielaert
- 12' 1-1 Markus Rosenberg
Referee: Bossen
Yellow cards: Vermaelen
(Ajax), Niedzielan, Wielaert, Van der Doelen,
Takak (NEC)
Attendance: 44,658
Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Grygera,
Heitinga, Vermaelen (39. De Jong), Juanfran (61. Emanuelson);
Maduro, Galásek, Boukhari (73. Charisteas); Rosales,
Huntelaar, Rosenberg.
NEC line-up: Babos; Wielaert,
Wisgerhof, Olsson, Leiwekabessy; Barreto (73. Takak), Boutahar
(83. Jones), Van der Doelen, Tininho; Niedzielan (90. Worm),
Denneboom.
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