Ajax fall to Borussia Dortmund in last quarter: 2-1
2 (0) - 1
(1)
Friendly
Nattenberg Stadium, Lüdenscheid, Germany
Saturday, 29 July, 2006
"This game was a very useful lesson," said Henk ten
Cate after Ajax's second defeat of the pre-season campaign. In
the German town of Lüdenscheid, Bundesliga giants Borussia
Dortmund (with former Ajax man in their line-up!) proved too
strong, wiping out Klaas-Jan Huntelaar's 31st
minute goal in the latter quarter of the match, to win by
the score 2-1. Mistakes were made. Several things went
wrong. Ten Cate: "We learned a lot today and we can't
make the same mistakes again."
The game at Nattenberg Stadium was particularly
useful because 'BVB' seems to be an opponent of the 'FC
København-type': playing in a 4-4-2 (or 5-3-2)
formation, relying on a solid defense, physically strong,
experienced and with more than enough football quality to
give Ajax a hard time. It was an important test and (given
the result) an important warning. The actual
result wasn't the only thing to worry about: on
top of that Ajax didn't play well. Dortmund's late triumph
was fully deserved.
Huntelaar opened the scoring by pouncing on a fumbled free
kick. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
Henk ten Cate's analysis: "The boys needed help from the
bench. They were unable to convert things themselves. The boys
who will normally take care of that, couldn't do it now.
Jaap Stam was too busy in defense and for Gabri it's still
a matter of communication. He did see what went wrong, but
he was unable to say anything about it until the half-time
break." Ten Cate had instructed his central defenders to
play one-on-one against BVB's two strikers. "But they
didn't dare to play," the Ajax boss said. "Which
was a problem today anyway: most players didn't want the ball,
it seemed."
In spite of all that, Ajax were a goal up at half-time. The
first major chance of the game was for Dortmund's Nelson
Valdez, who failed on a face-to-face encounter with Maarten
Stekelenburg. The yellow and black 'home side' (the game was
played in their country, but not in their town...)
were the clearly dominant side, but Ajax scored the only
goal of the first 45 minutes, when goalkeeper Pirson couldn't
hold on to a Wesley Sneijder free-kick and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
was the first to react: 0-1 (31').
The Germans may have been the better side in the first
half, but all in all Ajax had the better chances. After 10
minutes Sahin had cleared a Gabri shot of the goal-line and
almost immediately after his goal 'KJH' seemed on his way
to a second, when he slipped past several defenders but failed
to finish. In the second half, the first major chance
was another one for Ajax: a Perez thru-pass gave
Huntelaar a free passage, but the striker simply wasn't as
deadly today as he normally is.
One of the best BVB players was midfielder Steven Pienaar,
the former Ajacied, who met most of his former team-mates
for the first time since he left Amsterdam. According to the
official BVB website the South-African has been convincing
in pre-season so far. Ironically, Pienaar arrived to
Nattenberg Stadium on the Ajax team bus... and so did
the rest of the Dortmund team: their bus had broken down
on the highway and Ajax decided to turn around and pick their
opponents up. "A very nice gesture," said BVB manager
Hans-Joachim Watzke. Because of this little accident the
game started about 50 minutes late.
Steven Pienaar played well against his former team. [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
The well-deserved equalizer arrived in the 75th minute when
Wesley Sneijder lost the ball and almost every Ajax defender
seemed to do the wrong thing. Florian Kringe's low shot was
unstoppable for Stekelenburg: 1-1 (75'). "After that goal you
could see us lose the plot," said Ten Cate. Ajax
constantly lost possession, as Dortmund increased the pressure
and (in the 81st minute) got the goal they deserved over
all, although it was a rather unfortunate one for
Ajax. Captain Christian Wörns went down after minor
contact with Jan Vertonghen (frankly, it seemed a perfect
example of what they call a Schwalbe in
German, or a 'dive' in English...) and referee
Metzger pointed to the spot. Kruska converted: 2-1
(81').
"There is no reason to panic when you lose a friendly
against an opponent of this caliber," said Henk ten Cate. "The
players have now found out what it's like against
opponent that plays to win. Standing tall
against an opponent that plays so physically is a mental
thing: you mustn't be afraid of pain and you must
want to win every duel, at all cost."
Did Ajax learn something from this defeat, like Ten Cate
said? We will find out soon enough, as next weekend
it's time for the annual Amsterdam Tournament, the climax
of pre-season and the first test against top drawer opposition.
At the Amsterdam ArenA, Ajax will present themselves to
their home crowd in friendlies against Inter and
Manchester United. After that... it will be for real.
(MP)
Sources: Ajax.nl, Borussia-Dortmund.de
GOALS
- 31' 0-1 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
- 75' 1-1 Florian Kringe
- 81' 2-1 Marc André
Kruska (penalty)
Referee: Metzger (Germany)
Yellow cards: Stam, Vertonghen
(Ajax)
Attendance: 10,334
Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Heitinga (79.
Ogararu), Stam, Vermaelen, Grygera (46. Emanuelson); Gabri,
Maduro (46. Vertonghen), Sneijder (80. Lindenbergh); Rosales
(46. Babel), Huntelaar, Perez (64. Rosenberg).
Borussia
Dortmund line-up: Pirson; Degen (83.
Ricken), Brzenska, Kruska, Wörns, Dede; Kringe, Sahin (66.
Tyrala), Pienaar; Frei (60. Smolarek), Valdez (60. Amoah).
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