Sneijder commands respect as Ajax cruise past Quick '20
0 (0) - 8
(2)
Pre-Season Friendly
Sportpark Vondersweijde, Oldenzaal
Wednesday, 18 July, 2007
Ajax's technical director, Martin van Geel, still claims
that Ajax want to keep Wesley Sneijder in Amsterdam for another
season. The club do not expect to sell Sneijder, is Van Geel's
mantra, and Ajax have reportedly raised their price to 30
million euros. Valencia are actually bidding ("They will have
to offer considerably more if they want to do business,"
is Van Geel's comment), while Real Madrid are said to be lying
in wait. Will Sneijder still be an Ajacied on September 1st? We
have to face the truth: not much of a chance.
The above is a summary of the Ajax news story of
the moment. It overshadows the team's pre-season campaign and
it would be understandable
if Sneijder's thoughts were in Valencia or Madrid,
rather than in De Lutte, Goor or Oldenzaal. But no: so
far, Wesley Sneijder has been commanding respect of coaches,
team-mates and supporters with the way he devotes himself to
the club that has made him a star. He works hard,
in training as well as in friendly games, and
he seems genuinely focused on Ajax. "It's still pre-season
for me as well as for the rest of the team," Sneijder said
after Ajax's third pre-season friendly at Hoofdklasse
amateurs Quick '20 in Oldenzaal. "We can only grow and get
better. This morning we did some running in the woods
and tonight we played a match at a pretty fast pace, which was
good for us. As for me:there are still some steps to be made,
physically, but we're working on it."
Colin replaced Stam for the second half. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
These were Sneijder's words immediately after the game, a
game in which he was the best Ajacied of the lot and (just like
on Monday, at GFC) had netted three times. Wesley Sneijder lead
Ajax by example, in spite of all the developments that could
have undermined his concentration. You just have to respect the
bloke. The story of Wesley Sneijder at Ajax: how a little
midfielder has turned into a big footballer.
Henk ten Cate fielded a 'serious' starting
line-up against Quick '20, the highest
quality non-league opponent Ajax had faced so
far. The Oldenzaal hosts started furiously and looked good
for about 20 minutes, but they, too, are still in pre-season.
You just knew that they would, at some point, run out of
fuel. Ajax took the lead after 23 minutes (goal from Sneijder)
and doubled it less than 100 seconds later (goal from Sarpong).
0-2 was a half-time score Quick '20 could very well live with,
but after the break Ajax shifted to an even higher gear - and
then it went fast.
Jeffrey Sarpong (Ajax's left winger on the day) scored
another one, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar notched his goal
and Kennedy Bakirçioglü netted twice, but the
final word was for the man himself: Wesley Sneijder, who lifted
his total production to three on the day and six in precisely
152 minutes of pre-season action. Kennedy also deserves a
special mention: Ajax's Swede-with-the-Turkish-family-name
looks very good indeed, so far. He's energetic, does
entertaining things, he netted four times in three pre-season
appearances and he also has a particularly sharp eye
for team-mates in scoring position. The 'assist champion'
of the campaign so far, is definitely Kennedy
Bakirçioglü.
Three Ajcieden made their first appearance of the campaign
in the second half: Hedwiges Maduro, Robbert Schilder (back at
Ajax after a season on loan at Heracles Almelo) and, finally,
John Goossens, the most promising left winger of De Toekomst,
who was called up by Ten Cate due to Nicolae Mitea's
injury (the Romanian will be sidelined for up to four weeks and
most definitely miss Ajax's trip to Scotland). Goossens, 18,
replaced Jeffrey Sarpong in the 76th minute for his second
appearance in a first team friendly (the first was on
20 May 2006 in a post-season match at FC
Hilversum).
Quick '20 vs Ajax was, quite clearly, Ajax's best pre-season
performance so far. Henk ten Cate was a satisfied man: "Yes,
I've seen some good football. We could of scored sixteen times
or so, as we created many chances. It looked good. In this
phase of the campaign I want to give the usual starters a lot
of playing time together, and it shows. As a team we're
really improving now."
Time for some professional opposition then, starting
with First Division side Go Ahead Eagles, Saturday afternoon in
Deventer. It will be the last fixture of this
season's De Lutte training camp. (MP)
Source: Ajax.nl
GOALS
- 23' 0-1 Wesley Sneijder
- 25' 0-2 Jeffrey Sarpong
- 51' 0-3 Kennedy Bakirçioglü
- 60' 0-4 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
- 68' 0-5 Jeffrey Sarpong
- 73' 0-6 Kennedy Bakirçioglü
- 79' 0-7 Wesley Sneijder
- 90' 0-8 Wesley Sneijder
Referee: Hoopman
Cards: none
Attendance: 4,000
Ajax line-up: Gentenaar; Ogararu, Stam
(46. Colin), Heitinga, Emanuelson (72. Schilder); Gabri (69.
Maduro), Sneijder, Davids (66. Anita); Kennedy (79.
Doutie), Huntelaar (79. Fanteni), Sarpong (76. Goossens).
Quick '20 line-up: De Römph
(46. Nijmeijer [75. Weerkamp]); Breukers (46. Arslan), Engbers
(46. Bouakkez), Halteren (46. Damink), Klijndijk (46.
Woesthuis), Holteman (46. Damveld), Hulshof (46. Meer),
Kamphuis (46. Residay), Kemna (46. Weusthof), Lage Venterink,
Winkelhuis.
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