Ajax sustain more damage... 2-2 draw at NEC
2 (0) - 2
(0)
Eredivisie
McDOS Goffert Stadium, Nijmegen
Saturday, 30 December, 2006
Ajax have finished the year 2006 'in style', one could say
with a healthy sense of irony. In many ways the Eredivisie
road game at NEC summed up a whole year for
Ajax: a first half in which the fact that Ajax
'controlled the game' eclipsed their cautious
and shaky football, followed by a rollercoaster ride of a
second half, in which - initially - everything seemed to
be alright when Kenneth Perez gave Ajax the lead. Then,
not for the first time, the Amsterdammers seriously lost
the plot. Ajax seemed to collapse (2-1), but
resurrected just in time to avoid defeat: 2-2. All in all,
not good enough for a victory and not good enough to keep up
with PSV. Indeed: NEC vs Ajax was - in many ways - Ajax's
story of 2006 (and, for that matter, that of 2005). The (short)
winter break has arrived. Ajax are eleven points behind PSV,
who lost 7 points in their first 20 matches - and are now
'supposed to' lose at least 11 in the remaining 14.
The people of Nijmegen got to see another very poor
Ajax performance, but - in all honesty - Ajax did not look like
a losing team for 75 minutes. The Amsterdammers had a poor
opening phase at cozy McDOS Goffert Stadium, but didn't allow
the home team any chances. The latter half hour of the first
half was controlled and in every way dominated by the visitors.
Ajax looked a bit slow, and overly cautious, but
they enjoyed possession for most of the first half and
created a few tiny chances, including a dangerous solo run from
Ryan Babel, a diagonal attempt from Urby Emanuelson after a
fine one-two and a shooting opportunity for Kenneth Perez,
who returned to action after his suspension of five games.
Gabri also returned (from a one game ban due to
accumulated yellow cards).
Dennis Gentenaar played in his
former home stadium. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
The match was a very special one for Ajax goalkeeper Dennis
Gentenaar, who once again replaced Maarten Stekelenburg (still
in bed with the flu) for the encounter with 'his' NEC.
Gentenaar, a born and raised 'Nijmegen boy', was in NEC's first
squad for ten seasons and won the hearts of the local fans by
painting his hair red and green for a derby against
arch-enemies Vitesse Arnhem. The NEC supporters welcomed
Gentenaar with an ovation and a gigantic banner behind the
goal: 'Gentenaar Nijmegenaar', it read. "A welcome
like that is fantastic for a footballer," Gentenaar said after
the game. "I hadn't expected it and I felt shivers down my
spine when I saw it. Unbelievable that they're doing something
like that for me."
The game, then... It was the same old story, really:
the center of Ajax's defense (with Jaap Stam and Zdenek
Grygera) was solid, but the three midfielders seemed to
lack ideas, while the forwards were struggling -
and 'struggling' was, in this particular case, an
understatement. Kenneth Perez started on the right wing, but
seemed to refuse to actually take position there. He constantly
drifted to the center, thereby closing down all
the spaces. Ryan Babel was sometimes threatening, but
suffered from his old 'disease' again: a poor first
touch and remerkably poor control of the ball. Klaas-Jan
Huntelaar, finally, had one of his worst ever performances
for Ajax. The striker had a complete off-day and it wasn't just
down to limited service from the flanks: 'KJH'
constantly took the wrong decisions (like trying solo
runs) and his passes were mostly useless.
Ajax head-coach Henk ten Cate was criticized for some of his
recent substitutions. But in the 57th minute he did exactly the
right thing: replacing Huntelaar with Tom De Mul and moving
Kenneth Perez to the middle. The change yielded the desired
result five minutes later: good work from Babel and
Gabri, good turn from Perez and a splendid right-footed shot
from the edge of the penalty box: 0-1 (62'), a lead that Ajax
more or less deserved at that point, even though they were
anything but impressive.
Less than two minutes after the opening goal Ajax should
have doubled their lead after what was easily their best attack
of the game. Two beautifully subtle touches from team-mates
gave Kenneth Perez a totally unmarked shooting chance from
close range. An absolute sitter, especially because goalkeeper
Gabór Babos was out of position. Perez could simply
pick a corner, but he fired straight into Babos'
body. A second goal would probably have wrapped
things up for Ajax.
Kenneth Perez scored the opener.
[Photo: Ajax.nl]
Instead, the visitors' lead was 'only' 0-1 and, after NEC
had created their first two chances (a Niedzielan header in the
68th and a Holman opportunity in the 70th minutes) the
Amsterdam side had one of their mysterious black-outs again.
No-one knows why, but Ajax always seem to have a
stretch in the second half in which they're shockingly
vulnerable. Loss of concentration, even after the 'Vitesse
disaster'? Who knows. Fact is that NEC turned the game upside
down in less than 200 seconds' time. Seconds after Urby
Emanuelson had cleared the ball off the goal-line, Romano
Denneboom beat goalkeeper Dennis Gentenaar with
a well-timed volley on an Edgar Barreto pass (76')
and less than two minutes later the home side were 2-1 up:
free-kick Andrzej Niedzielan, close range header from defender
Peter Wisgerhof (78') - and it happened again: another
grotesque Ajax collapse, in no time and out of nowhere.
Spicy detail: NEC's equalizer was scored after Wesley
Sneijder had clumsily lost the ball. Ten Cate took the
midfielder off one minute later... "We were in control of this
game for an hour and after our first goal we should have scored
a second," Ten Cate said. "Instead, Wesley Sneijder lost the
ball in a pretty daft way. He's not a young player anymore. At
his age you're not supposed to make mistakes like that
anymore."
The football game that had been such a dull affair for
75 minutes was now totally on fire. Ajax suddenly looked like a
losing team, but the Amsterdammers were fortunate enough to
level the score almost straight from kick-off. Good cross from
Tom De Mul, fine header at the far post from Gabri, who nodded
his second goal of the season into the net: 2-2 (80').
Anything could happen now and both teams actually came close
to scoring a later winner. Instead of tapping the ball to an
unmarked Andrzej Niedzielan, Brett Holman went for personal
success and failed face-to-face with Gentenaar, but the very
best chance in the totally crazy dying minutes of the encounter
was for Markus Rosenberg, who was offered a close range scoring
opportunity by Kenneth Perez (86'), but clumsily fired
wide.
More damage sustained... Ajax enter the winter break as
Holland's #2, but they are eleven points behind league leaders
PSV. The statistics are bizarre. From 20 August to 09 November,
a period of more than and a half months, Ajax were
not only the league leaders in The Netherlands, but
they also had their best start in the Eredivisie since 1997
(!). Who could ever have predicted on 09 November, during the
half-time break of Ajax vs PSV, that Ajax were going to be
eleven points behind PSV by Christmas....? An
exceptionally good start of the season, until mid-November, but
pretty much beaten for the league title before New
Year... It goes to show that Ajax have seriously blown
it in the past six, seven weeks of Eredivisie
football...
On Monday 08 January they will fly to South Africa for a
nine-day training camp in Cape Town, South Africa. Ajax's first
match of 2007 will be a friendly, on Sunday 14 January, against
their Cape Town 'sister club'. But first: a week
off to think things over. Coaches, players and
supporters can sure as hell use it. (MP)
GOALS
- 62' 0-1 Kenneth Perez
- 76' 1-1 Romano Denneboom
- 78' 2-1 Peter Wisgerhof
- 80' 2-2 'Gabri' García de la
Torre
Referee: Luinge
Yellow cards: Wisgerhof, Snoyl (NEC)
Attendance: 12,500
Ajax line-up: Gentenaar; Ogararu,
Stam, Grygera, Emanuelson; Gabri, Heitinga, Sneijder (77.
Lindenbergh); Perez, Huntelaar (57. De Mul), Babel (71.
Rosenberg).
NEC line-up: Babos; Nalbantoglu,
Wisgerhof, Olsson, El Akchaoui; Kivuvu, Pothuizen (67.
Barreto), Snoyl; Denneboom, Niedzielan, Holman (89.
Eagles).
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