Ajax ride Huntelaar hattrick to pale win: 1-3
1 (0) - 3
(1)
Eredivisie
Woudestein Stadium, Rotterdam
Sunday, 17 December, 2006
Sometimes a brief post-game analysis by a football coach can
sum up a whole game. Here's what Henk ten Cate had to say after
Ajax's pale win of 1-3 against Excelsior, who were with eleven
men for 36 minutes, ten men for 17 minutes and nine men for the
latter 37 minutes of the encounter: "My team annoyed me from
the beginning to the end today. This was poor. We were poorly
concentrated and if that's the case we're a very mediocre
football team. Apparently, we are unable to play two good games
in a row. This was a non-performance and that is a shame. I
want to forget about this match."
Ryan Babel stylishly evades
Christian Gyan's tackle. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
Indeed, it was poor, and the absence of Kenneth Perez
(suspended) and Wesley Sneijder (eligible but suffering from a
back injury), two of Ajax's more creative forces, was
absolutely no excuse in a game between the clubs with,
respectively, the largest and the smallest annual budgets
in the Dutch Eredivisie: Ajax (65 million
euros) versus Excelsior (4 million euros). The black and
red from the Rotterdam neighborhood of Kralingen are doing
better than anyone ever expected, but still: Ajax's slow, tepid
and uninspired performance was miles below par. "This
was Ajax's worst performance since I became head-coach of this
club," said Ten Cate.
The only noteworthy moments in the first 20 minutes of the
encounter were a shooting attempt from Tom De Mul (wide, 5')
and a long range shot from Daniel Guijo-Velasco that went over
Maarten Stekelenburg's goal (12'). Apart from that it was a
yawnfest of the very worst kind, although it was clear from the
start that Ajax were probably not going to drop points against
Rotterdam's modest 'waste paper club'. The three points
were safely in Ajax's pockets well before half-time. In the
24th minute Klaas-Jan Huntelaar received the ball outside of
the penalty area, the striker turned, dribbled and fired a low
shot into the left corner: 0-1.
Twelve minutes later defender Jos van Nieuwstadt flushed
his team's hopes down the toilet by picking up one of
the daftest red cards in recent memory. He concluded a
fine rush across the pitch ('Jaap Stam-style'!) with
a good shot, which went just over the cross-bar. Did
Maarten Stekelenburg touch the ball or didn't he? Van
Nieuwstadt, for one, thought so, but referee Nijhuis had a
different opinion and gave Ajax a goal-kick. Van Nieuwstadt
then almost exploded with rage, stormed towards the referee
and got the yellow card for his conduct, which he then
attempted to hit out of the referee's hand. Nijhuis managed to
hold onto his equipment - and had no other
choice than to show it to Van Nieuwstadt once again. A
'double yellow' in approximately ten seconds' time.
0-1 and ten versus eleven.
Done deal.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar celebrates
with the section of travelling Ajax fans. [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
When Klaas-Jan Huntelaar made it 0-2 as early as in the 48th
minute (good header on a Tom De Mul corner kick) and, only five
minutes later, left fullback Sieme Zijm became the second
Excelsior player to get his second booking (he
fouled De Mul from behind) everybody at
Woudestein Stadium sensed that Ajax had the chance
to put a large, large result on the boards against
nine Excelsior players, with more than half an hour left
on the clock. But it simply wasn't one of those days. Ajax were
utterly unable to shift to a higher gear and rip their
numerically inferior opposition apart. There were some attempts
and little chances (De Mul, Babel and Roger, who had replaced a
slightly injured Zdenek Grygera just before half-time), but the
Ajacieden simply lacked conviction and determination. If you
don't really want to score seven or eight goals, you won't get
them - plain simple.
Ajax did get a third goal: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored his third
in the 74th minute (underscoring that he's back on-form)
on yet another beautiful, 'sweeping' cross from George Ogararu,
who has been one of Ajax's best in recent games and provides
the forwards with better crosses than any of the wingers seems
to be capable of.
Gabri duels with former Feyenoord
man Christian Gyan. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
But the latter 30 minutes of the match were not exactly
a half hour to be proud of. Just before Huntelaar made it 0-3
John Heitinga picked up one of his typically stupid yellow
cards (for a clumsy foul from behind near the halfway
line) and will be suspended for next week's tough road trip to
Vitesse Arnhem. And - oh, the embarrassment! - instead of
scoring a few more goals and improving their differential, the
Amsterdammers actually conceded a goal
in stoppage time, when former Ajax man Mitchell
Piqué ran away from a sleepwalking John Heitinga's
back and converted nicely: 1-3. There were only eight
team-mates left to congratulate Piqué...
"There was so much space," said right winger Tom De Mul,
slightly embarrassed. "We should have done more with that.
Indeed, that goes for me, too: loads of space on the right
flank. After that first red card we thought things would become
easier. Perhaps we took this one a bit too lightly, but in the
end we won the game on routine and individual class, I
guess."
After such a poor game of football only one thing
can save the day: dry football humour. Henk ten Cate and
his former assistant at NAC Breda, Ton Lokhoff, did not have
much to say about the game during the press conference. Was
there something they actually liked about this
afternoon in December?
"Well, let's see," said Ten Cate. "It was good to see Ton
again. We worked together for three years. That was the only
thing I enjoyed, really."
Lokhoff: "Yeah. It was nice to see Henk again. Any more
questions?"
(silence in the press room...)
Ten Cate: "Quite. Before we go: did I tell you how nice it was
to see Ton Lokhoff again?"
Next up: Vitesse away. Without Perez and Heitinga
(suspended), but probably with Grygera
and possibly Sneijder. Needless to say that Ajax will have
to be better at the Gelredome than they were
today. (MP)
GOALS
- 24' 0-1 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
- 48' 0-2 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
- 74' 0-3 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
- 90+1' 1-3 Mitchell Piqué
Referee: Nijhuis
Yellow card: Heitinga (Ajax)
Red cards: Van Nieuwstadt (Excelsior, 'double
yellow', 36'), Zijm (Excelsior, 'double yellow', 53')
Attendance: 3,500
Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Ogararu,
Stam (67. Maduro), Grygera (38. Roger), Vermaelen; Gabri (64.
Krohn-Deli), Heitinga, Emanuelson; De Mul, Huntelaar,
Babel.
Excelsior line-up: Zwarthoed; Bandjar,
Van Nieuwstadt, Gyan, Zijm; Bruins, Drost, Simr (83. Rothman);
Guijo-Velasco, Grot (55. Jansen), Steur (31. Piqué).
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