Twente own goal ends Ajax's scoreless streak: 2-0
2 (0) - 0 (0)
Eredivisie
Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam
Saturday, 19 November, 2005
How ironic... Ajax's first goal after some 440
scoreless minutes of Eredivisie football was
not scored by an Ajacied. The Amsterdammers, once
again powerless upfront, needed some help from the
opposition: Swedish Twente defender Daniel Majstorovic
broke the spell for Ajax by - highly unfortunately
- tapping Hatem Trabelsi's cross into his own net
(70'). The journalists on the stands were
probably already preparing some cynical jokes for
their report on Ajax's meagre 1-0 win when substitute
Markus Rosenberg (arguably the Ajacied who needed it the most)
added a real Ajax goal in stoppage time. And what a
fine goal it was: he elegantly slipped past his defender and
fired the ball under goalkeeper Sander Boschker.
2-0, three points, relief all around.
"I was not hard to imagine what the headlines
in the papers would have been, had we won on a single
goal that we didn't score ourselves," chuckled Danny Blind
after the game. "This result is very welcome. Right
now, the fact that we won is more important than how we
did it."
Ironic detail: the words 'Twente at home' have a rather
ominous sound to them. Ajax coaches Jan Wouters (2000) and
Co Adriaanse (2001) were fired after 'Twente at home', whereas
Ronald Koeman resigned two weeks after a 1-2 home defeat to the
Enschede outfit... Danny Blind survived the 2005-2006 edition
of the fixture. Oh well, the Ajax boss is not a
superstitious man.
'Man of the Match' Mauro Rosales
takes on his fullback. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
The question is: does this win mean that Ajax's crisis is
over?
The optimists will say 'yes', and in the world of football
you never know what positive effect a shaky win may have
on the team, but until the 70th minute it surely
didn't seem like Ajax were seeing light at the end of the
tunnel. In fact: hundreds of supporters left the
F-Side stand behind the south goal just before half-time, as a
statement. Several players, including Mauro Rosales, were
whistled at from the very start. For 70 minutes Ajax vs
Twente was as bad and dull as, say, the home game against
Twente's 'little brother', Heracles Almelo (0-0).
The ArenA grumbled. After the game fanatical
supporters caused unrest by the main entrance: if it wasn't for
the riot police the supporters would have paid the
board-room a visit, in order to demand an explanation for
Ajax's most dismal start in the Dutch league since 41
years. Over all, Ajax played better against Twente than they
did at FC Thun and NEC. But good...? No.
Absolutely not, unfortunately.
It seems like all of Ajax's games have the same
pattern. The opening phase was alright, as it was so
frequently this season. Without Steven Pienaar (suspended),
Angelos Charisteas and Ryan Babel (both injured), with De Jong
on the bench and veterans Anastasiou and Lindenbergh in
the starting line-up, Ajax played
fairly energetically in the opening minutes, creating
(and wasting) a few reasonable chances, including a good
volley from Sneijder (14', just wide), a face to face encounter
between Hatem Trabelsi and Sander Boschker (21') and a
near-perfect Sneijder free-kick into the low corner that
Boschker spectacularly turned around the post (34').
Like in so many of this season's
games, Ajax's forward drive faded away around
the 30th minute mark, so that - in the latter ten minutes of
the first half - the ultra-defensive visitors started to
believe in themselves. This was underscored by Twente's
first chance, created in the 39th minute: Maarten
Stekelenburg couldn't hold on to Touma's shot and was lucky
that Twente midfielder Kennedy (a.k.a. Bakircioglü) fired
the rebound into the side-netting.
In the second half the head-shaking spectators could see how
insecurity and fear of losing paralyzed the struggling
Amsterdammers -- not for the first time. In this
phase Ajax could consider themselves lucky that Twente
were overly cautious against the shaky and vulnerable home
team. The men of coach Rini Coolen could have gone
for a goal in the first fifteen minutes of the
second half, but never seemed to have that intention, until
they went 1-0 down.
The turning point in the game was the arrival of Ajax's
Swedish problem child: Markus Rosenberg. It did not come as a
surprise to Danny Blind, who saw his purchase return from a
trip to Sweden with a goal for the national team in his pocket
and a smile on his face. "We're seeing a different Markus on
the training pitch," Blind said a few days ago.
The man who started, Yannis Anastasiou, did a good job at
holding up the ball and setting up team-mates, but Ajax
definitely became more dangerous after the arrival of
Rosenberg, who missed his first chance (62'), but was breathing
down Majstorivic's neck when the latter scored for Ajax and
netted the liberating second goal himself, in remarkably
resolute fashion. In between Twente could easily have
equalized, but Maarten Stekelenburg pushed Afonso's
attempt over the cross-bar in impressive style. A
superb save, that effectively secured the much-needed
win for the red and white.
Every Ajacied will hope that this result is the turning
point, but the play of the Amsterdammers absolutely
doesn't guarantee good results in the upcoming away
games at Utrecht (27 November), Vitesse (11 December) and NAC
(18 December). There is still more than enough for
Ajax to worry about.
Strangely enough, an F-Side statement against the
team's poor play and the celebration of a slot in the next
round of the Champions League may only be three days apart.
Ajax face Sparta Prague on Tuesday evening, and if Arsenal beat
FC Thun in the other game, a draw will be enough for the
Amsterdammers to advance for the first time since 2002.
Failure and success can go hand in hand in the fascinating
world of Ajax... (MP)
GOALS
- 70' 1-0 Daniel
Majstorovic (own goal)
- 90+3' 2-0 Markus Rosenberg
Referee: Wiedemeijer
Yellow cards: Boukhari
(Ajax), Boschker, Niemeyer (FC Twente)
Attendance: 45,120
Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Trabelsi,
Grygera, Maduro, Emanuelson; Galásek,
Sneijder, Lindenbergh (60. De Jong); Rosales (88.
Manucharyan), Anastasiou (60. Rosenberg), Boukhari.
FC Twente line-up: Boschker;
Rahim, Majstorovic, Zomer, Heubach;
Brama, Bakircioglü (68. Afonso), Niemeyer; El Ahmadi,
N'Kufo, Touma.
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