Kenneth Perez makes the difference against NEC: 2-0
2 (0) - 0
(0)
Eredivisie
Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam
Sunday, 24 September, 2006
After last Wednesday's KNVB Cup game at
Young RKC Waalwijk Ajax head-coach Henk ten
Cate fiercely lashed out at some of his players and
in the days prior to the Eredivisie home game against NEC he
once again explained why he was so angry:
"I fielded a number of players who are not
normally starters and have spent a lot of time on the bench. I
gave them a chance and I expected them to be extremely
eager. But they weren't."
How ironic... Four days later Ajax vs NEC was almost
singlehandedly decided by one of the 'bench
boys' the boss was so disappointed with in Waalwijk:
Kenneth Perez. Good for him, since the Danish
playmaker has had a pretty rough start in Amsterdam:
he lost his starting spot, failed to convince when he was
brought on and seemed to be at a loose end. Today, however, was
his day. Perez was brought on at half-time to
play at his favourite position: the 'number 10' spot, directly
behind the centre forward. The score was 0-0 at that
points and Ajax couldn't find an opening. Fifteen minutes
into the second half, precisely on the hour, an Ajax
corner kick was headed out of the penalty area - and there
was Perez, more than 20 yards out. He controlled the ball
and released a screamer that whistled past heads
of the players in the box before slamming into the top
corner: 1-0.
Kenneth Perez provided both goals
as a substitute. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
And that wasn't all. Perez didn't just break the deadlock;
he also wrapped things up for Ajax, 22 minutes later. This
time it started on the left flank. Ryan Babel chipped the
ball to substitute Markus Rosenberg, who very nicely gave
Kenneth Perez a free passage through the middle. The NEC
defenders seemed to have frozen up
as Perez calmly entered their Alamo and fired home,
once again into the corner that was the left for him, and
the right for goalkeeper Gabór Babos: 2-0 - and that
was that.
Ajax vs NEC was a very memorable game for Kenneth Perez, but
- unfortunately - much less so for the 46,081 spectators on the
stands of the ArenA. In spite of Henk ten Cate's 'promises' ("I
just know that we'll play a good game") they once
again watched a rather tepid, sometimes frustratingly slow Ajax
home game, in which real chances were scarce and in which
the home side once again were too lacklustre to entertain their
home crowd.
And they started so well. In the first ten minutes of
the game NEC goalkeeper Gabór Babos kept his team
upright with a series of fine saves, for example on a
face-to-face encounter with Ryan Babel, and on good shots on
target from Huntelaar, Emanuelson, Rosales and Babel - all
after good Ajax attacks. It was a promising start indeed, but -
unfortunately - Ajax failed to keep it up. They shifted
to a considerably lower gear, possibly without even
noticing it themselves, allowing NEC to dig in and
cherish the 0-0 score on the boards, a result that would
have doubled the number of points they got from their first
four league games.
In those four league games NEC only scored twice, and after
today's game the Ajax fans will
understand why. The visitors from
Nijmegen demonstrated a remarkable offensive impotence.
They had precisely one scoring chance in the whole
game, which was in fact an early Christmas gift from Roger,
whose erratic backpass in the first half put striker Chris
Eagles face to face with Maarten Stekelenburg,
who convincingly passed his only test of the
game, if only because Eagles' shot was terribly, terribly
poor.
Emanuelson provided most of the
energy and initiative for Ajax. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
Roger was one of the Ajacieden who simply didn't have their
day. The same can be said of Gabri and especially
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who had another
frustrating (and chanceless) afternoon, this time
against Peter Wisgerhof and Jonas Olsson. The best Ajax players
on the day were the ones on the left flank, where Urby
Emanuelson (easily the best man on the pitch) returned to
the form that made him the revelation of last season, whereas
Wesley Sneijder was diligent as ever and Ryan
Babel a constant threat, although his crosses still
aren't the crosses Klaas-Jan Huntelaar would
prefer.
But even the supplies from the left flank broke down as the
first half drew to a close, and after the tea-break things got
even worse. Just when Ajax's lack of pace and their inability
to create chances started to become seriously worrying,
Kenneth Perez's finest moment as an Ajacied arrived. After the
opening goal, NEC kindly rolled over. They simply surrendered
instantly, and lost their belief in a result.
Ajax started to create chances again, making for a
more or less entertaining apotheosis. All's well that ends
well, as they say.
Most of the Ajax supporters at the ArenA were not too
impressed with the level of entertainment of Ajax vs NEC, but -
for once - Henk ten Cate was a moderately satisfied man:
"I was particularly satisfied with our defending. We didn't
allow them any chances, the only one they had was a little
present from us, and we kept a clean sheet. Also, we
scored ten goals in three home games, while conceding
none. I don't think we were that poor today. We fully deserved
the win and we were considerably better than in recent
games."
Well, alright then, let's look at it that way: it wasn't
good, but at least it was better. The
next step towards top form can be made on Thursday
evening, as IK Start travel to the Dutch capital for
the return leg in the first round of the UEFA Cup. The
next serious test will follow on Sunday:
'Utrecht away', a game that Ajax always seem to lose.
In confrontations like those the Amsterdammers
can really prove that things are better than
they were last season. (MP)
GOALS
- 60' 1-0 Kenneth Perez
- 82' 2-0 Kenneth Perez
Referee: Nijhuis
Yellow cards: El Akchaoui, Olsson
(NEC)
Attendance: 46,081
Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Grygera,
Stam, Heitinga (87. Vermaelen); Gabri, Roger (46. Perez),
Sneijder, Emanuelson; Rosales, Huntelaar (77. Rosenberg),
Babel.
Vitesse line-up: Babos; Nalbantoglu,
Wisgerhof, Olsson, El Akchaoui; Barreto (66. Vanaudenaerde),
Otten, Boutahar, Snoyl; Denneboom, Eagles (46. Holman [73.
Niedzielan]).
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