Ajax hammer Heerenveen and cruise to play-off final
4 (2) - 0 (0)
Eredivisie Play-Offs, First Round
Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam
Sunday, 13 May, 2007
Ajax are still in the race for a berth in the last
preliminary round of next season's Champions League. Everybody
in Amsterdam expected a tremendously difficult afternoon
against SC Heerenveen after Wednesday's
1-0 stumble at Abe Lenstra Stadium, and the Frisian
visitors indeed showed their teeth in the opening phase,
but Ajax eventually booked a convincing
and impeccable 4-0 win. Two more confrontations with Louis
van Gaal's AZ have been added to Ajax's
agenda. The Amsterdammers have come close to the pot
of gold the club need so badly... but the last hurdles are
always the highest.
"We weren't as good as we were on Wednesday," said
Heerenveen's realistic head-coach Gert-Jan Verbeek after the
match. "And we would have required such a performance
to survive this one. Based on two games, Ajax
deserved to advance. I reckon they would be fine
representatives of The Netherlands in the Champions
League."
In the first 21 minutes Heerenveen were the better side, and
they also had the chances to score: Maarten Stekelenburg turned
a screamer of a free-kick from Afonso Alves around the post
(4') and for the third time this season Lasse Nilsson came face
to face with the Ajax goalkeeper in the 18th minute. On 04
March and 09 May he scored, each time giving his team a 1-0
lead (and eventually a 1-0 win), but this time he
failed. Maarten Stekelenburg is oft criticized, but it must be
said: thanks to Stekelenburg the deficit after the away leg was
'only' one goal, and thanks to Stekelenburg Heerenveen did not
get an early away goal at the ArenA - a goal that would
have made things tremendously difficult for Ajax.
"The first 20 minutes weren't easy," admitted Henk ten Cate.
"Heerenveen were far more dangerous."
Hard-working Wesley Sneijder created Ajax' first goal. [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
In the 22nd and 23rd minutes, however, Ajax netted twice in
less than 100 seconds. After fantastic work from Wesley
Sneijder (who perfectly controlled the ball and released a shot
that goalkeeper Vandenbussche couldn't hold on to) Klaas-Jan
Huntelaar converted the rebound. Yes, the ball was loose,
and yes, the goalkeeper was already on the ground, but it
wasn't an easy finish: Michael Dingsdag came sliding in,
so that 'KJH' had to chip the ball over a defender into
the far side netting from a pretty tight angle. Almost straight
from kick-off Ajax intercepted the ball and attacked over the
left flank, where Ryan Babel started an impressive and very
stylish solo run. He stormed past a few defenders, cut to the
middle, walked 'around the ball' in the way a tennis player can
'walk around the ball' in order to smash with his forehand -
and found the far corner with a pristine diagonal finish: 2-0
(23').
It is hardly an exaggeration to say that these two goals
made SC Heerenveen collapse: in the remaining 67 minutes Ajax
never came into trouble. In fact, the Amsterdammers should have
sent the visitors home with a much larger defeat than 4-0.
Sneijder, De Mul and Babel had chances in latter fifteen
minutes of the first half and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar would have
scored a hattrick in the first fifteen of the second half if he
hadn't missed two absolute sitters: he lifted the ball over an
empty goal after yet more superb work from Sneijder (51')
and nodded a great De Mul cross against the post (54').
Ryan Babel's impressive solo effort gave the hosts a 2-0 lead.
[Photo: Ajax.nl]
More Ajax goals were inevitable, and Heerenveen's defensive
problems were best illustrated by Brian Vandenbussche's foul on
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar in the 60th minute. On a deft little
thru-pass from Sneijder 'KJH' beautifully turned away from his
defender in one fluent movement, coming face to face with the
Heerenveen keeper, who had no other option than to bring
Huntelaar down. A penalty and a red card, decided
referee Bossen, and he was 100% right. In fact, defender
Michael Dingsdag should also have been sent off
for quickly stepping on the back of Huntelaar, who was
lying face down on the turf of the ArenA. Dingsdag's extremely
dirty foul went unnoticed, but luckily Huntelaar wasn't
impressed and calmly fired the spotkick past reserve goalkeeper
Rob van Dijk, who was brought on for an outfield player, namely
ex-Feyenoord veteran Paul Bosvelt. The substitution marked the
official end the 37 year old's career.
Ajax continued to create one chance after the other and
could have put a score of 7-0 on the board, but Van Dijk saved
well on a Sneijder free-kick, a low shot from Ryan Babel and a
header from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, and he also denied Babel his
second goal of the day when the Ajax winger showed up in front
of him. The only Ajacied to find the net in the latter half
hour of the encounter was substitute Kenneth Perez (86'), who
hardly seemed to be happy with his goal and dedicated it to the
F-Side. It felt a little bit like a 'farewell gift' to the
Ajax supporters, who always supported Perez. They chanted
his name throughout the season, but a year at the ArenA
has made clear that there is no chemistry between Kenneth Perez
and Henk ten Cate. There seems to be no future for the Dane.
His departure seems inevitable.
Kenneth Perez salutes the F-Side. A farewell gesture? [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
4-0... At kick-off no-one at the Amsterdam ArenA expectedit
to be that easy. Two more games against AZ are ahead and they
are of absolutely vital importance. Earlier in the week general
director Maarten Fontein underscored it once again: if Ajax
fail to qualify for the Champions League the club will have to
tighten its belt. "No Champions League football will mean that
we will have to re-consider our budget."
Remarks like that unnecessarily increase the pressure on the
team, you'd say, but apparently Fontein does not worry about
that. Ajax will have to brush AZ aside in the fourth and fifth
official games of the season between the two teams. Which won't
be easy, especially because Ajax will be without the three
players who epitomize the difference between last season's and
this season's Ajax: Gabri (suspended), Edgar Davids (suspended
after picking up a yellow card against Heerenveen) and Jaap
Stam, who was substituted due to a hamstring injury in the 76th
minute and may well miss both matches against AZ.
As important as the two AZ games are: they won't be played
at sold out grounds. Only 29,241 people came to the ArenA for
Ajax vs Heerenveen and it is a safe bet that Ajax vs AZ will
not sell out either. It proves once again that Holland simply
does not like post-season Eredivisie play-offs. The
2006-2007 Eredivisie had everything that makes a
season of football exciting: the play-offs feel unnatural,
everybody in Holland seems to agree that the runners-up in the
league deserve to play Champions League qualifiers and the
supporters don't like the fact that they have to buy tickets
for the play-offs (their season tickets are not valid for
play-off games). The Dutch football community is collectively
turning its back on the play-offs, which surely is something
for the KNVB to think about. For now, however, the play-offs
exist whether we like it or not... and they are of absolutely
crucial importance to Ajax's future. (MP)
GOALS
- 22' 1-0 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
- 23' 2-0 Ryan Babel
- 61' 3-0 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (penalty)
- 86' 4-0 Kenneth Perez
Referee: Bossen
Yellow card: Davids (Ajax)
Red card: Vandenbussche (SC Heerenveen,
60')
Attendance: 29,241
Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Ogararu, Stam
(76. Maduro), Vermaelen, Emanuelson; Heitinga, Sneijder,
Emanuelson; De Mul (69. Perez), Huntelaar, Babel (84.
Mitea).
SC Heerenveen line-up: Vandenbussche;
Zuiverloon, Hansson, Dingsdag (62. Bradley), Breuer; Poulsen,
Bosvelt (61. Van Dijk), Hanssen, Pranjic; Alves (77.
Tarvajärvi), Nilsson.
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