Ajax increase pressure on PSV with win over Heracles
3 (1) - 0
(0)
Eredivisie
Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam
Sunday, 01 April, 2007
Three points the gap, four matches left to play... If PSV
did not yet take Ajax seriously as resurrected,
onstorming title contenders, they will now sure as
hell have to. Once again, the reigning champions from
Eindhoven failed to win their fixture (a hard-fought 1-1
draw at NAC Breda on Saturday evening), after which Ajax
increased the pressure at the top to the maximum by comfortably
cruising to a 3-0 win over Heracles Almelo at the Amsterdam
ArenA. The Amsterdammers won their last three matches straight
and netted 12 goals. The heat is on. PSV can't afford
another defeat and are within reach. An exciting apotheosis
lies ahead.
Were Heracles Almelo, the team of Ajax loanees Emmanuel
Boakye and Robbert Schilder, going to be brushed
aside with ease on the brand-new pitch of the Amsterdam
ArenA? More than 50,000 spectators were certainly
expecting it. Heracles were 16th on the table before the
game and they are also the Eredivisie's least productive side
(only 24 goals scored in 30 matches). On the other hand:
relegation candidates never roll over just like that
in this phase of the season and Heracles were still unbeaten at
the Amsterdam ArenA (they notched a 0-0 draw in the
only game they ever played there...)
Wesley Sneijder curls in a
free-kick for the opening goal. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
Most importantly: Ajax had some of their weakest
performances against - with all due respect - teams like
Heracles (remember
Excelsior...?) and they had to do without a number of
starters, including Gabri (suspended), Maduro, Vermaelen (both
injured) and Zdenek Grygera, who sustained a hamstring
injury during the Euro 2008 qualifier against Cyprus
and has almost certainly played his last game as an Ajacied.
John Heitinga returned to the heart of defense, next to captain
Jaap Stam. Roger - rather surprisingly - started in
midfield.
The first noteworthy detail of the day: Ajax entered the
pitch with the name 'Florius' on their jerseys, instead of the
usual ABN AMRO. A new sponsor...? Yes, but only for one day.
Florius is a brand-new Dutch mortgagor and a sister company of
Ajax's main sponsor. Ajax added lustre to the launch party
by wearing the name of the new mortgage registry on their home
kits. It was only the third commercial name to
grace the Ajax jersey since the advent of jersey sponsoring in
The Netherlands in 1983, after TDK and ABN AMRO.
The visitors from Almelo were not too bad in the first
half of the encounter. They didn't dig in, but had come to
play football and actually created one or two chances
in the first 45 minutes, the best of which was wasted by Ajax
loanee Robbert Schilder, who suddenly had a shooting chance
from close range, but hastily fired wide (7'). It was
the first real scoring chance in the first 15
minutes, but Ajax on the 15th minute mark
Ajax were 1-0 up thanks to Wesley Sneijder,
who beautifully converted a free-kick from some 20 yards
out. Goalkeeper Martin Pieckenhagen could not possibly
have punched the ball out of the top corner: 1-0
(11').
The first half of Ajax vs Heracles was never spectacular or
exciting, but the difference in quality was painfully enormous.
The Amsterdammers should have scored at least a goal or three
in the first 45 minutes, but Pieckenhagen saved two Klaas-Jan
Huntelaar attempts with his feet (the first one, in the 18th
minute, was an absolute sitter), saw Wesley Sneijder's low shot
from the edge of the box trickle just wide (20')
and punched yet another Huntelaar attempt out of the
goalmouth. Tom De Mul could have calmly converted the rebound
with the inside of his right boot, but the right winger
preferred to blast with maximum force... and hit the cross-bar
(42').
"We played too slowly," was Henk ten Cate's opinion on the
first half. "During the half-time break I told the lads that we
did not look like a team that's playing for the title. The
second half was better, if you ask me."
Defender Gregory van der Wiel,
who came on as a substitute for Ajax,
duels with former Young Ajax man Kwame Quansah [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
It was, indeed. When referee Haverkort put the
second half in motion Heracles were still 'alive'. Seven
minutes later all of their hopes were gone. Two minutes
after Jaap Stam had tapped a Sneijder free-kick inches wide
of Heracles' goal, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar received the
ball inside the penalty box, his back towards the goal.
His pirouette was beautiful, his diagonal strike into the top
corner even more so: 2-0 (49'). Heracles staggered...
and crashed to the canvas only three minutes
later, when Wesley Sneijder picked up a loose ball in
midfield and stormed towards Pieckenhagen's goal. To his
own surprise Heracles' defenders allowed him a free
passage, after which Sneijder altruistically tapped the
ball to Klaas-Jan Huntelaar for the final push: 3-0 (52'). Who
ever said that these two can't play together...? Since
newspaper Algemeen Dagblad suggested it, both Sneijder
and Huntelaar scored at least one goal each in every
game. Huntelaar's second against Heracles was his 7th (!) in
the last three matches.
Anyway: time to start thinking
about goal-differential! PSV's was
slightly better before the game: 66-21 (+45) versus Ajax's
70-31 (+39). At 3-0, Ajax's balance was +42 and the
difference with PSV only three goals. Against a Heracles side
that had already bowed their heads it was well possible to wipe
out that difference completely. To cut a long story short: Ajax
failed to do so. A fourth goal was constantly in the air,
but 38 minutes and a few minutes of stoppage time was,
eventually, not long enough to score it. No Ajacied came as
close as Heracles' Rob Maas in the 66th minute: the former
Feyenoord man almost fired the ball into his own net. Heracles
also created one major scoring opportunity at the other end,
but Maarten Stekelenburg denied Kwame Quansah and (in the
rebound) Everton-loanee Ramos da Silva.
3-0 it was. Fair enough. Henk ten Cate appeared to have done
the math after the game. "That tiny difference in
goal-differential doesn't worry me," the Ajax coach said - and
his explanation made perfect sense: Ajax are three points
behind PSV. If they manage to close that gap, it
automatically means that PSV will lose another game (by, of
course, a difference of at least one goal), whereas Ajax will
win another one (by at least one goal). In other words:
if goal-differential ever becomes relevant, the
difference will almost certainly be zero, or even slightly in
Ajax's favour. The Amsterdammers score much more easily than
PSV at the moment. They also play more home games than the
reigning champions. Conclusion: "By winning this game we've
made the league exciting again. The pressure on PSV has
increased."
Was there no bad news at all for Ajax on this sunny
afternoon at the ArenA? Unfortunately, there was. Just before
the final whistle, captain Jaap Stam walked off the pitch
rubbing his hamstring. Immediately after the game Henk ten Cate
believed that the injury was nothing serious, but Ajax.nl later
had to correct the head-coach: Stam will be out for "a number
of weeks". Possibly for the rest of the season, according to
unconfirmed rumours. PSV may be without their 'giant' in
defense (Alex); Ajax now have the same problem - and the
Amsterdammers have also lost Zdenek Grygera.
Nonetheless: Ajax are back in the race, while PSV boss
Ronald Koeman admitted that he is starting to worry. Next
weekend, the Amsterdammers face another relegation candidate
(RKC Waalwijk). The evening before, on Saturday 07 April,
PSV travel to NEC in Nijmegen, only four days after their first
Champions League battle against Liverpool. On the last four
matchdays of the Eredivisie anything can happen...
(MP)
GOALS
- 11' 1-0 Wesley Sneijder
- 49' 2-0 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
- 52' 3-0 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
Referee: Haverkort
Yellow cards: Looms, Boakye (Heracles
Almelo)
Attendance: 50,109
Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Ogararu,
Heitinga, Stam, Emanuelson; Roger (71. Van der Wiel), Sneijder,
Davids; De Mul (63. Manucharyan), Huntelaar, Babel (75.
Perez).
Heracles Almelo
line-up: Pieckenhagen; Boakye, Smit, Bosnar,
Looms; Quansah, Maas, Tanghe, Schilder (74. Klavan); Friend
(67. Everton), Gluscevic (74. Bridji).
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