KJH brace leads uninspired Ajax to 2-5 win in Norway
2 (1) - 5
(2)
UEFA Cup, First Round
Åråsen Stadium, Lillestrøm, Norway
Thursday, 14 September, 2006
A three goal lead after one leg and five goals in
a European away game... It sounds pretty great. Indeed,
Ajax have reduced the return leg at the Amsterdam
ArenA (28 September) to a formality: the Norwegian
small-timers will need at least four goals in the
Dutch capital - and they won't get them. However, the
result as such was the only thing Ajax could be
genuinely satisfied with at Lillestrøm's
nearly empty Åråsen Stadium. The Amsterdam
giants were uninspired and tepid, embarrassed themselves
by allowing IK Start two equalizers before
finally brushing the Norwegians aside in the latter half
hour of the encounter: 2-5.
In the days before the game, Ajax coach Henk ten
Cate had remarkable praise for the current #8 of
Norway's modest Tippeligaen: they were -
according to Ten Cate - essentially a better football team
than FC København, had some extremely talented
midfielders and would surely give Ajax one hell of a hard
time. Ten Cate's intentions were good, no doubt about it,
but after the fixture it was impossible to
still take his statements seriously. With all due
respect: IK Start would probably not survive in the Dutch
Eredivisie. They are a side of 'First Division level', and
yes: the fact that they levelled the score twice really
says everything about Ajax's sloppy performance.
'The Hunter' opens the scoring for the visitors. [Photo:
Ajax.nl]
The early stages of the UEFA Cup can bring you to places
like Lillestrøm, a small town just outside of Oslo,
where IK Start (from the southern town of Kristiansand) play
their European games at Åråsen Stadium,
because their own ground does not meet UEFA requirements.
It was an unforgettably odd place: Åråsen is a
football ground but also a block of appartments.
The owner-occupiers pretty much live inside
the stadium: their balconies look out over the pitch like
executives' boxes and the 180 travelling Ajax supporters behind
the goal could literally shake hands or have a
chat with the dwellers, who were kind enough to
attach some Ajax flags to their balconies and helped
putting up some banners. On one of the sideline stands,
approximately 1,560 IK Start supporters had
gathered. That's right: one thousand five hundred and
sixty of them. It takes about five hours
to drive from Kristiansand to Lillestrøm, you see.
Two police officers patrolled the ground, while one steward
kept an eye on the Ajax fans. He was very friendly guy
and he had a pretty good sense of humour.
Indeed, it was a low-key affair. UEFA Cup, round one
- Ajax had almost forgotten what it's like.
It
was soon obvious that IK Start were not better than FC
København. In the opening phase Ajax passed the ball
around as if they didn't even have opposition, and when
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar opened the scoring in the 17th minute
(after goalkeeper Rune Nilssen couldn't hold on to a Jaap Stam
header) you could almost hear the Ajax players
thinking: this is going to be a piece of cake - and quite
probably a goalfest!
It
was a mistake that marked the start of 45 embarrassing minutes.
The concentration, the accuracy and the work ethic of the boys
in red and white almost instantly dropped to a questionable
level after Huntelaar's goal. There were more erratic passes
and defensive mistakes than a man can count and it must have
been flabbergasting for the hosts to notice how the visitors
kindly allowed them to fight back. The weakest Ajacieden
were arguably Johnny Heitinga (who returned to the right
fullback position as Thomas Vermaelen returned to the heart of
Ajax's defense) and the two wingers: Markus Rosenberg, who
started on the left as Ten Cate wanted to rest Ryan Babel, and
Mauro Rosales. The latter's defensive laziness allowed Marius
Johnsen to level the score in the 27th minute. Rosales' was
punished with a substitution, well before half time. Ryan Babel
was going to see 55 minutes of action after
all.
Rosenberg's strike lets Ajax
re-take the lead. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
To
cut a long story short: when Markus Rosenberg's diagonal strike
made it 1-2, just before half-time, Ajax did not even deserve
the lead. In the fifteen minutes before half-time, IK Start had
more or less outplayed them, believe it or not. Oh, the
embarrassment.
Whatever
Henk ten Cate told his players in the dressing room: it didn't
have the desired effect. Ajax were still half asleep in the
opening phase of the second half. It allowed IK Start,
amazingly enough, to equalize again. The goal summed it all up:
Roger and Urby Emanuelson thought that Start's pass from
midfield would simply trickle wide for a goalkick. However,
Stefan Bärlin didn't think so and went for it. His cross
was tapped home by a completely unmarked Geir Ludvig Fevang at
the far post: 2-2 (55'). Ajax were semi-comatose at this point,
much to the frustration of Henk ten Cate and the 180
diehards behind the goal.
Luckily
enough, IK Start's second equalizer had the effect of a wake-up
call. In the latter half hour of the game Ajax finally
woke up and proved that, against an opponent as poor as IK
Start, they could basically score as many goals as
they wanted - that is: if they really wanted it.
Wesley Sneijder's pristine free-kick (63') was the knock-out
blow for the hosts and in the 27 minutes that followed Ajax
finally showed the 1,840 spectators some of their qualities,
with a brace of excellent goals as the result. After
a fine demonstration of one touch football, Roger could nicely
fire home from the edge of the penalty box (67'), after
which a superb individual run by Ryan Babel allowed
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to tap his second of the evening into the
net (87'). For what it's worth: 2-6 or 2-7 would have been
possible.
Henk
ten Cate had praise for only one man after the game: "To be
quite honest, there was only one player that I really liked.
Ryan Babel was very good as a sub. I wanted to rest him, but he
once again demonstrated why he is normally one of my starters.
Wesley Sneijder, Thomas Vermaelen and Jaap Stam were not too
bad, either. But we were quite
poor today."
"It
had to do with concentration," continued Ten Cate. "We lost our
focus, probably because it went so well in the first 20
minutes. I've said it before and I will say it again: quality
can only be the decisive factor if you work just as hard as the
opposition." Hopefully, the Ajax players will keep those
words in mind when they travel to Kerkrade on Sunday, for the
clash with Roda JC, one of the as yet unbeaten sides in the
Dutch Eredivisie. (MP)
GOALS
- 17' 0-1 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
- 28' 1-1 Marius Johnsen
- 42' 1-2 Markus Rosenberg
- 55' 2-2 Geir Ludvig Fevang
- 63' 2-3 Wesley Sneijder
- 67' 2-4 Roger García Junyent
- 87' 2-5 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
Referee: Gilewski (Poland)
Yellow card: Nielsen (IK Start)
Attendance: 1,840
Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Heitinga
(73. Ogararu), Stam, Vermaelen, Emanuelson; Gabri (62.
Lindenbergh), Roger, Sneijder; Rosales (35. Babel), Huntelaar,
Rosenberg.
IK Start line-up: Nilssen; S.
Pedersen, Håland, Engedal, Johnsen; Strømstad,
Schindzielorz (71. Garba), Hæstad, Fevang; Jónsson
(66. Nielsen), Bärlin (76. Hansen).
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