Ajax also win on their bad days: 0-3 at Heracles Almelo
0 (0) - 3
(1)
Eredivisie
Polman Stadium, Almelo
Sunday, 05 November, 2006
If a football team wants to lift the championship shield at
the end of the season, they will have to grab to points on
their lesser days as well. Looking at it that way, Ajax are
perfectly on course. The Amsterdammers had a tough time at
Almelo's Polman Stadium, where hosts Heracles wasted a string
of chances after the much-discussed sending off of John
Heitinga (51') and would definitely have deserved a draw. It
really says a lot about the effectivity and team spirit of
today's Ajax team that even after this poor performance, there
was eventually a final score of 0-3 on the boards. Next Sunday,
Ajax will take on PSV as the league leaders of the Dutch
Eredivisie.
Heracles Almelo may be a modest side, they were still
unbeaten at home and seem to give every visiting side
a hard time on the artificial pitch of Polman Stadium, a
type of turf that no other Eredivisie team plays on
on a regular basis. "I hate artificial turf," said Ajax boss
Henk ten Cate in the days before the encounter in Almelo. "I
want mud on those boots, if you know what I mean." With an
eyewink: "I don't like the fake stuff, but it actually has my
name!" Indeed, the name of the world's number one developers of
artificial turf and jersey sponsors of Heracles Almelo, is Ten
Cate... Fortunately, Ajax have an artificial Ten Cate training
pitch at the ArenA, which they practised on for a whole
week.
Ajax started without Jaap Stam, who was kept sidelined for
two reasons: firstly, a yellow card against Heracles would have
ruled the Ajax captain out of the PSV game, and secondly,
Stam doesn't like artificial turf. "Big, tall players
normally experience more problems on it," explained Ten Cate.
"It's better for small, fast and skillful players."
Heracles defenders testing the
quality of Kenneth Perez's shirt. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
In spite of the special trainins sessions and the fact that
Henk ten Cate demanded a win from his men, Ajax
totally failed to impress in the first half, in which the team
visibly had problems adjusting to the unusual soil. A
player like Thomas Vermaelen, for example, had one of his
weakest games ever on it: his passes went across the sideline,
the ball kept bouncing off his boots - nothing seemed
to go his way, and he wasn't the only disappointing Ajacied in
the first half. Ajax (starting with Kenneth Perez and Tom De
Mul on the wings) had slightly more possession than Heracles,
who were without their top goalscorer Everton and Ajax loanee
Robbert Schilder due to a suspension. The best chance in the
first 45 minutes also fell to the visitors: an erratic pass in
Heracles' defense was intercepted by Tom De Mul, who suddenly
found himself face to face with goalkeeper Pieckenhagen. The
winger should have tapped the ball to Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who
was waiting in front of an empty goal, but De Mul went for
personal success - and failed.
It was a first half that didn't deserve a goal, yet Ajax
entered the dressing room with a 0-1 lead. The Amsterdammers
scored out of nowhere in the 37th minute, when Wesley
Sneijder's beautiful and intelligent thru-ball sent Kenneth
Perez on his way. The on-form Dane smoothly tricked Björn
Daelemans and fired the ball into the far corner, via the
inside of the post: 0-1 (37').
The pivotal moment of the encounter arrived six minutes into
the second half, as Heracles' excellent, speedy left winger,
Diego Biseswar, got the ball and was brought down by John
Heitinga, who clearly went for the ball, but slipped and made
contact with Biseswar's legs. Free kick? Definitely. Yellow
card? Perhaps. But referee Kuipers surprised literally
everybody at Polman Stadium by showing the Ajax
defender the red card.
Heitinga himself reacted like a gentleman after the game: "A
red card was too much, but the referee is human. And humans can
make a mistake. I have good hopes that I'll be available for
the PSV game." Ajax coach Henk ten Cate walked onto the
pitch after the incident. He pushed his outraged players away
from the 'man in black' and had a brief, man to
man talk with Kuipers. Remarkably, Kuipers nor the fourth
KNVB official sent Ten Cate to the stands for breaking the
number one rule for football coaches: stay inside the
designated area in front of your dug-out.
"John started his tackle a split-second too late, but there
is absolutely no way that he deserved a red card," added Ten
Cate after the game. "Just like players and coaches, referees
can sometimes have a bad day, but this was ridiculous." Even
his Heracles colleague, Ruud Brood, had to admit it: "Honestly,
that wasn't a red card. Perhaps a yellow."
Johnny Heitinga can not believe
that referee Kuipers just showed him the red card. [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
The game had been tepid and of rather poor quality up 'til
then, but as soon as Ajax were down to ten men, everything
changed. Heracles smelled blood and Ajax totally lost
the plot for a phase of approcimately ten minutes, in
which Heracles got to take a series of corner kicks and Maarten
Stekelenburg singlehandedly kept his
team upright. The Ajax goalkeeper turned a diagonal
long range screamer from Biseswar around the post (54'), an
attempt from Mark Looms on a corner kick from the right was
cleared off the goalline by Gabri and Stekelenburg triumphed in
a face-to-face encounter with Stefaan Tanghe (57'). Ajax were
now really, really fortunate indeed to still be a goal up. The
Amsterdammers could have paid a high price for resting Jaap
Stam...
Henk ten Cate restored the order in his disorganized team
after the five to ten minutes that were easily the scariest
phase of the game for Ajax. George Ogararu and Olaf Lindenbergh
were brought on for Tom De Mul and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar,
respectively. Ajax reverted to a 4-4-1 line-up, with Kenneth
Perez as the lone striker. The two newcomers on the pitch
brought balance to the team, made Ajax look more solid. One
minute after his arrival Olaf Lindenbergh's superb cross from
the left reached Perez in the penalty area. Pieckenhagen
stormed out of his goal and brought the Dane down. He hardly
touched the ball. A 24-carate penalty, you'd say, but Kuipers
didn't think so.
It was oh so ironic that the spectacularly erratic referee
did point to the spot after a fast Ajax break
in the 81st minute. Wesley Sneijder was indeed brought
down from behind by Ajax loanee Emmanuel Boakye, but the
Ghanaian defender seemed to touch Sneijder just outside of the
penalty box. A very questionable call, but Kenneth Perez showed
no mercy and gave Heracles the knock-out blow from the penalty
spot: 0-2 (82').
The resistance of the brave hosts was now broken. Olaf
Lindenbergh should have made it 0-3 (unmarked header
opportunity from close range, 83') and Wesley Sneijder
eventually did it, after a great run down the right flank and a
truly maginificent cross from George Ogararu, perfectly timed
for Wesley Sneijder who rocketed the ball into the low corner:
0-3 (87'), a result that didn't do justice to Heracles'
excellent resistance.
"It wasn't a great game, but I think we should be
satisfied," said Henk ten Cate. "And I have to say that the
conditions are a bit of an excuse for the way we played. We are
not used to playing on artificial grass. Heracles play on this
stuff every week. I am a happy man. We won a difficult away
game today, so what more can you ask for?"
Next up if Thursday's cup match against ADO Den Haag at the
Amsterdam ArenA, but every football fan in The Netherlands is
already talking about Sunday's 'Big One' against PSV, a fixture
that has almost everything to become a true cracker. Ajax
have now won ten games straight and - in their last five
matches - didn't concede a goal while scoring fourteen
times. Indeed, the Amsterdammers can take on the
reigning champions with confidence. (MP)
UPDATE (06 November): Immediately after the
game Henk ten Cate announced that Ajax were going to protest
against any KNVB suspension of John Heitinga. On Monday
morning, however, the Amsterdam club decided to accept a
settlement proposal from the KNVB prosecutor: two games, of
which one conditional. This means that Heitinga will be
suspended for the ADO Den Haag cup game, but eligible for Ajax
vs PSV. An Ajax spokesperson explained in newspaper De
Telegraaf: "We decided to forget about our principles in
this case and be pragmatic about it. We still believe that
Heitinga should never have been sent off and this penalty shows
that the KNVB also have their thoughts about it. But we feel it
wouldn't be worth it to forward this case to the disciplinary
committee. John has now been suspended for the Den Haag game,
but he will be back for PSV, which is of major importance."
(MP)
GOALS
- 39' 0-1 Kenneth Perez
- 82' 0-2 Kenneth Perez (penalty)
- 87' 0-3 Wesley Sneijder
Referee: Kuipers
Yellow cards: Boakye (Heracles Almelo),
Ogararu (Ajax)
Red card: Heitinga (Ajax, 51')
Attendance: 8,500
Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Heitinga,
Grygera, Vermaelen, Emanuelson; Gabri, Maduro, Sneijder; De Mul
(56. Ogararu), Huntelaar (66. Lindenbergh), Perez (85.
Manucharyan).
Heracles Almelo
line-up: Pieckenhagen; Boakye, Bosnar
(73. Hofstede), Klavan, Looms; Daelemans, Maas, De Vries,
Tanghe; Quansah, Biseswar.
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