Tired Ajax humbled by energetic Haarlem: 0-0
0 (0) - 0 (0)
Friendly
Haarlem Stadium, Haarlem
Wednesday, 11 January, 2006
After a winter break of only one week, plus a very
heavy four-day training camp in the coastal town of
Zandvoort, a visibly tired Ajax team returned to competitive
action in Haarlem, where the local First Division side
(currently 12th on thr table) were considerably more inspired
than their pale opposition from the Dutch capital. The
hosts, in their classic blue jersey and red shorts, showed the
better football and had the better chances, but the
final score was as lame as the game itself: 0-0.
"I can think of only one explanation," said Danny Blind
after the game. "and that is that we trained seven times
in the past four days." That may be, but then again: a goalless
draw at the numbers 12 of the First Division...? Not exactly a
stylish start of the new year.
Unofficial debuts for Huntelaar... [Photo: Ajax.nl]
The evening in Haarlem started with a minute of silence to
commemorate Gerrie Kleton, who was a young reserve for the
'Golden Ajax' of the 1970s and spent the best years of his
career as the architect of some of the best Haarlem teams in
the history of the club. Kleton lost his battle
against fatal disease this week, aged 52.
Danny Blind seemed to regard the friendly fixture as a
testcase for Sunday's Eredivisie home game against
NEC. The Ajax boss decided to stick with the 4-4-2
formation he fielded in recent weeks, while Wesley
Sneijder (who will be suspended on Sunday) did not see action
in Haarlem. Blind tested the match fitness of
three players who recently recovered from injuries:
Grygera, Maduro and Emanuelson. He granted a Young Ajax rookie
(Robbert Schilder) his first 'unofficial' minutes in Ajax-1.
And, last but not least, the game marked the unofficial Ajax
début of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.
... and Schilder. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
The Ajax support at sold-out Haarlem Stadium would have
loved to see 'The Hunter' score, but they were out of
luck: after having missed a major chance from close range after
only three minutes, Huntelaar was 'isolated' upfront for most
of the 68 minutes of action that he saw. There wasn't much
service and his fellow striker, Markus Rosenberg, did not have
a great evening either. And after Urby Emanuelson's fine
shooting attempt was punched out of the corner by goalkeeper
Heijblok, the quality of Ajax's play dropped to a
rather embarrassing level. The Amsterdammers failed to
create a single scoring chance in the second half.
In fact, most of the danger came from FC Haarlem's sassy
wingers, Cairo and Ahahaoui. The first could have scored in the
18th minute, but waited a split second too long so that his
shot could be blocked. Another Cairo attempt (a beautiful chip
over Stekelenburg) went inches wide of the top corner and
Arturo ten Heuvel's screamer from 25 yards was saved by Maarten
Stekelenburg. The Ajax goalkeeper was nailed to the ground when
Haarlem got their best chance of the game in the 71st minute:
Van Beelen tapped the ball back to an onstorming Achmed
Ahahaoui, whose low shot went just wide.
And that was about it. Poor game, poor performance
and not a very memorable evening at Haarlem's tiny,
ramshackle home ground, except for young Robbert Schilder,
who made his début with jersey number 33 and was
one of Ajax's best in the latter 20 minutes of
the encounter, in spite of the fact that he played in the
unlikely position of left midfielder.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar did not worry about the fact that
he hadn't scored, or about the poor play of his new team: "It's
a pity that we didn't win and we must
definitely play better than we did tonight, but that's not
what it's about right now. This was part of our preparations.
Sunday's game, that is what counts."
Quite. Roll on the second season half. (MP)
Sources: Ajax.nl, FC Haarlem.nl, Het Parool
NO GOALS
Referee: Bossen
Cards: none
Attendance: 3,500
Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Grygera,
Heitinga, Vermaelen, Juanfran; Rosales, Galásek (68.
Lindenbergh), Maduro (46. De Jong), Emanuelson (68. Schilder);
Huntelaar (68. Charisteas), Rosenberg (61. Babel).
FC Haarlem line-up: Heijblok;
Bezzai, Ravensbergen, Van der Kruis (68. Fränkel), Axwijk
(68. Katipana); A. ten Heuvel, Van Beelen (68. Verweij), Van
Toor; Cairo (86. Stolp), L. ten Heuvel (82. Lokken), Ahahaoui
(82. De Graaff).
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