Ajax Cape Town beat Amsterdam mothership: 3-1
3 (0) - 1
(1)
Friendly
Athlone Stadium, Cape Town, South-Africa
Sunday, 14 January, 2007
Ajax Cape Town will remember Sunday 14 January
2007 as one of the most glorious days in the short history
of the club. The South African outfit, modest 'sister
club' of the once mighty Ajax Amsterdam, beat the Dutch
mothership in the third ever friendly between the two sides:
3-1 at Cape Town's Athlone Stadium, a result that made
goalkeeper Hans Vonk the happiest man in Cape Town. Ajax boss
Henk ten Cate: "The small Ajax have beaten the big
Ajax. That's an enormous loss of prestige. I just don't
understand why we let them overwhelm us this easily.
They were playing to win. We didn't."
Earlier this week, Ten Cate had submitted a request to
change the kick-off time for the friendly fixture (scheduled
for 3:45 PM local time), due to the afternoon temperatures
of well over 30 degrees Celsius (up to 90 Fahrenheit). It
did not happen, but the Ajax eleven that played the first 45
minutes did not seem bothered by it. The game was a rather
dull affair, but the Amsterdammers were in complete
control, as almost all of the action happened
on the home team's end of the pitch. Ryan Babel
- playing as a central striker for the first time in many
months - converted a Tom De Mul cross in the 14th
minute to give the Dutch visitors the lead. 0-1 at half-time.
Not bad.
Emanuelson contends
with an Ajax Cape Town player. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
Henk ten Cate replaced his entire team during the
half-time break. Jaap Stam and an injured John Heitinga were
the only Ajacieden to see no action at all. They were on
the bench, watching how Ajax's concentration evaporated in
an eyewink as the South-Africans shrugged off their diffidence
and started to play from the heart. The 64th minute
of the encounter was a memorable moment for Ajax Cape Town, as
they scored their first ever goal against their Amsterdam
namesake. The scorer was Granwald Scott and his goal sparked
wild celebrations from the 7,000 spectators at Athlone Stadium,
who were in for a real treat in the five minutes that
followed.
Scott's equalizer marked the start of one of those
incomprehensible five-minute stretches in which Ajax totally
and completely collapsed. Five minutes after Scott's goal the
home side were 3-1 up. Scott himself netted again in the 66th
minute after a fine one-two with midfielder Mfundo 'Hadji'
Shumana, after which Nathan Paulse was brought on as a
substitite only to deal the Amsterdammers the knock-out
blow one minute after his arrival: cross from Nazir Allie,
clinical header from Paulse, 3-1.
At the other end of the pitch, good old Hans Vonk couldn't
believe what he was seeing. "Yesterday, during our last
practice, everybody was really nervous and I thought it would
go wrong against Ajax. But we put them under pressure in a
really great way and we played with our hearts. This is what we
all want. (...) Granwald Scott was almost never in the
squad in the past six months. At some point in the second
half almost all of our players were teenagers. And then
you beat Ajax, 3-1... When the second goal went in I was
thinking: this can't be happening. But we did it."
"Do I need to say that the second half team was considerably
poorer than the first half team?" said Ten Cate. "I never
expected the difference to be this big. The first half and
second half teams seemed of similar quality. This result
really annoys me because I had such a good feeling about this
week. We have done some good work this week and we trained
really well. I really wanted to finish this week off in
style."
In spite of the result, Ten Cate had praise for a few
players. Throughout the week, Ten Cate has been deeply
impressed by Mitchell Donald, player of Ajax's A1 youth
team and one of the three rookies from De Toekomst who joined
the first team to South-Africa (the others were Vurnon Anita
and Jeffrey Sarpong). Ten Cate praised only one player from the
second half line-up: newcomer Leonardo, who played his first
(unofficial) match for his new club: "He was threatening a few
times."
Ajax debutante Leonardo was one
of the few players praised by Ten Cate. [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
The Ajax boss was much more criticial of Klaas-Jan
Huntelaar, who kept the linesman busy by constantly being
off-side. Ryan Babel's starting slot as a center forward
and Ten Cate's praise for Leonardo only added to the rumours in
The Netherlands that 'KJH' is currently out of his
manager's favour. Journalist Hugo Borst even claimed that
Ten Cate will play Babel and Leonardo in the first league game
of 2007, at home against FC Utrecht on 21 January, and that
Huntelaar will start on the bench.
Whatever happens, Ajax Amsterdam's visit to the
Cape Town 'satellite club' was a memorable one for the
South-Africans. Director John Comitis: "This was the third
time for us to play Ajax. The first time they beat us 5-0, the
second time 3-0 and now we've beaten them for the first ever
time. This says something about the progress this club is
making. We believe in what we're doing, in spite of our small
budget."
Ajax Cape Town can continue to develop at their new home
ground, Philippi Stadium, which will be constructed with
help from Amsterdam in black township of the South-African
metropole. Football does not mean much to the
white population of Cape Town. In the first eight years of
their existence (1999-2007) Ajax Cape Town have been a
'black' club in a 'white' neighbourhood. With help from
Amsterdam, Ajax Cape Town will soon live closer to their
fans, close to the people that are passionate about
football. Ajax also has plans for several social projects
in the area, including a school for local children.
Some background information... Ajax Cape Town was
founded in 1999, as Seven Stars and Cape Town Spurs joined
forced and signed a partnership with Ajax Amsterdam. In
the eight years that followed, not too many South-African
prospects made the big jump to the Amsterdam ArenA. Steven
Pienaar did it, but Ajax scouts had
already discovered him before the foundation of
Ajax's Cape Town sister club. Earlier this year Ajax signed
ACT's Stanton Lewis, who is currently playing for
Young Ajax. "So far, he's been disappointing,"
admitted technical director Martin van Geel earlier this
month.
It is a fair conclusion that Ajax Cape Town did not (yet)
yield the talent Ajax were hoping for. However,
the Cape Town 'satellite club' does not cost
Ajax much money, either. During their most recent
visits to Ikamva (Ajax Cape Town's equivalent of De
Toekomst) the Amsterdam delegation was impressed by
the professionalism of ACT's youth development
program. Ajax's managing director, Maarten Fontein, says:
"There are a few very good players in Ajax Cape Town's youth
system at the moment. We expect the first ones to come to
Amsterdam in about two years' time. The partnership is
working."
In spite of their defeat in their only winter break
friendly, Ajax had a good week in South-Africa. The training
camp was excellent, the meetings with the Ajax Cape Town
management positive and - last but not least - the Ajax players
learned a thing or two, and not just about football. During
their visit to one of Cape Town's townships, they saw what
true poverty looks, smells and feels like. They also visited
the tiny little Robben Island prison cell where Nelson
Mandela spent 27 years of his life because for the crimes
of being black and having an opinion. They were deeply,
deeply impressed. If this week in South-Africa did not
make them better football players, they will
surely return to The Netherlands (on
Wednesday) as wiser people. (MP)
Sources: Ajax.nl, Ajax CT.com, de Volkskrant
GOALS
- 14' 0-1 Ryan Babel
- 64' 1-1 Granwald Scott
- 66' 2-1 Granwald Scott
- 69' 3-1 Nathan Paulse
Referee: (unknown)
Cards: none
Attendance: 7,000
Ajax Amsterdam line-up, first
half: Stekelenburg; Anita, Grygera, Vertonghen,
Lindenbergh; Donald, Perez, Gabri; De Mul, Babel,
Rosenberg.
Ajax Amsterdam line-up, second half:
Gentenaar; Ogararu, Maduro, Vermaelen, Emanuelson; Leonardo,
Krohn-Dehli, Sarpong (79. Manucharyan); Rosales, Huntelaar,
Mitea.
Ajax Cape Town line-up: Vonk
(76. Petim); Allie (79. Moon), Ngobeni
(46. Scott), Shumana (82. Woodington), Carelse
(67. Paulse), Dikilu
(86. Tshinyama), Mwafulirwa
(70. Claasen), Cale
(70. Julius), Evans, Jagers, Fanteni
(55. Siwahla).
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