Ajax painfully humbled by Spakenburg amateurs: 3-2
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3 (2)
- 2 (0)
Friendly
Sportpark De Westmaat, Spakenburg
Tuesday, 18 July, 2006
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"This was not good, plain simple," said Henk ten Cate,
shaking his head. It was an understatement. In their last
pre-season friendly against amateur opposition
Ajax suffered a humiliating and deeply embarrassing
defeat against Hoofdklasse amateurs SV
Spakenburg: 3-2 - a highly remarkable stumble after a series of
very good performances. Ten Cate: "It doesn't mean
that suddenly everything is bad now, after a defeat in
pre-season."
The Ajax boss is right: not everything is bad. But
it was a historic defeat. The last time Ajax
failed to beat an amateur opponent in pre-season was
exactly ten years ago today: 1-1 against Hollandia on
18 July 1996. The last defeat against amateur opposition was on
12 July 1986 (that's precisely twenty years ago), against a
special regional squad of players from the area known as De
Veluwe. Two years before that, on 21 August 1984, Ajax
lost to the 'Reds' of the town of Spakenburg:
IJsselmeervogels (2-1). 22 years later, their local
rivals, the 'Blues' pulled off a similar stunt.
Urby Emanuelson started as a left midfielder. [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
Alright: there were a few excuses. The experienced
players that last season's Ajax team lacked so obviously
were all missing: Jaap Stam and Gabri were rested, whereas
Roger appears to have broken
his toe in Saturday's Bennekom game and will be
out for up to two weeks. The Spakenburg game came too
early for the 'World Cup boys', who went in training
on Monday, but did not see action yet at Sportpark De Westmaat.
As a result of all that, the Ajax line-up was young,
inexperienced and - perhaps more than anything else -
tired.
But hey: no poor excuses! Ajax have been in training
for more than two weeks now. SV Spakenburg only had three
training sessions so far. And hey: they're amateurs,
so what are we talking about...?
Spakenburg were tough, determined and pugnacious, but never
dirty. They performed tremendously well, period.
And their goals were of great quality, too. Arthur van
Metelen's smart little chip over Kenneth Vermeer (31')
was of great beuaty and so was Roderick de Harder's quick
turn inside the area, six minutes later. His low, dry shot
wasn't too bad either, and Ajax were 2-0 down. The local
fans couldn't believe their eyes.
Kenneth Perez wore the captain's armband
in place of a rested Jaap Stam. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
In the second half Tom De Mul's low shot after a fine
dribble (58') brought Ajax back into the game and the
Amsterdammers were close to equalizing when Rydell
Poepon's attempt caramboled between the cross-bar and the post,
before bounding back into the goalmouth. Jan Vertonghen also
hit the post, just after Mustafa Aksit had decided the game for
the home side in absolutely marvellous fashion: his lob from
outside of the penalty box was stunning - and landed in the net
behind Kenneth Vermeer: 3-1 (84'). Robbert Schilder's goal in
stoppage time didn't matter anymore. The 'blue part' of
Spakenburg went bananas when referee Stofkooper blew the final
whistle. Their boys had just beaten Ajax.
"We looked very tired," said Henk ten Cate, "although that
can never be an excuse. We should have played simpler. I saw
solo actions when it wasn't necessary. There was too much
running with the ball. Too many players passed sloppily. All of
that shouldn't happen, but it did. The opposition played
agressively. We should have responded with combination play. I
wasn't satisfied about anything tonight, except for Jan
Vertonghen's play."
Oh well, no matter how you look at it: this must have been
an accident. Roll on the next game, especially because it's
such a wonderful one. Ajax will travel to London for the last
big hurrah to Dennis Bergkamp, who called it quits this summer
and will be honoured with a testimonial. Ajax will be there to
play Arsenal and it is a safe bet that they will look better
than they did today... (MP)
Source: Ajax.nl
GOALS
- 31' 1-0 Arthur van Metelen
- 37' 2-0 Roderick de Harder
- 58' 2-1 Tom De Mul
- 84' 3-1 Mustafa Aksit
- 90' 3-2 Robbert Schilder
Referee: Stofkooper
Cards: Creutzburg (SV Spakenburg)
Attendance: 5,979
Ajax line-up: Vermeer; Ogararu (46.
Schilder), Boakye, Vermaelen, Vertonghen; Manucharyan (46. De
Mul), Lindenbergh (46. Sarpong), Emanuelson; Rosales (55.
Charisteas), Huntelaar, Perez (72. Poepon).
SV Spakenburg line-up: Benlahsen (46.
El Kaddouri); Bouw (66. Nijhof), De Harder (46. Mijnals), Homan
(46. Netteb), Hopman, Zijl (68. Bos), Aksit, Onyeike (46.
Rooijen), Oudhshorn (80. Homan), Van der Wilt (46. Scheenstra),
Van Metelen.
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