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Amstel Cup: FC Utrecht advances after penalty shoot-out, 7-6

29 March: The Young Ajax fairy tale is over. The Ajax teenagers played the best game of their Amstel Cup campaign and outplayed FC Utrecht in the second half. Two superb Nando Rafaël goals leveled the score after FC Utrecht had taken a 0-2 lead on the hour. Ironically, the only Ajax-1 player in the team, Petri Pasanen, was also the only one to miss from the penalty spot. FC Utrecht won the decisive shoot-out, 6-7, and advances to the final.

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See Nando Rafaël's dramatic equalizer (AVI video) on SuperShota

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Young Ajax started their unique tour on August 10 when they played their first group match, beating amateur side Huizen, 5-1. Surprisingly they also won their next two games in the group including victories against ADO '20 and first divisionist Volendam. Ending number one in their group, they reached the real Amstel Cup tournament in which they successively eliminated professional teams like Haarlem, De Graafschap, FC Twente and Telstar/Stormvogels.

At the beginning of their impressive victory march the names of the young players still sounded rather unfamiliar. Names that after Friday's match never will be forgotten. Walker, Seedorf, Culina, Bechan and Stekelenburg are names that will always be remembered with a unique chapter in Ajax' big history book. And not to mention Steven Pienaar and Johnny Heitinga who already made it to the first team during the season and were lacking in Friday's match.

In the semi-final against FC Utrecht, the youngsters of Ajax played another unforgettable match. Beforehand, Utrecht player Stijn Vreven stated that he would eat his shoes if he lost to 'these midgets'. Indeed, Utrecht was theoretically the better team: the Utrecht players were bigger, perhaps stronger, and certainly far more experienced than their young opponents. But this evening they couldn't really make the difference. The oldest player in the Ajax line-up was Petri Pasanen, but even he is still 21 years old. The Ajax-1 player is recovering from an injury and therefore joined the Young Ajax team.

Despite the fact that Young Ajax was dominant and had more ball possession, Utrecht opened the scoring after 25 minutes. A harmless attempt by Dirk Kuyt unluckily slipped under two defenders and goalie Stekelenburg. Just before that, Stekelenburg had shown to be a reliable keeper as he saved superbly in a face-to-face situation with Utrecht player Stefaan Tanghe. The best Ajax attempt in the first half was a bicycle kick by Kwame Quansah, only a few minutes later.

After an hour the match seemed to be decided when Igor Gluscevic scored Utrecht's second goal. After a cross pass from Tanghe, Gluscevic beautifully tipped in with the heel of his foot. But in the match against FC Twente, the youngsters of Ajax had proven their great resilience. In that match, it was Jason Culina who unexpectedly equalized a few seconds before time.

The great man of today was Nando Rafaël, an 18-year old Angolan boy who is officially still an A1-youth player. He showed that the Ajax slogan "the youth has the future" is still true. All by himself, he carried Young Ajax from 0-2 to 2-2, first with a good shot (after he had fortunately received the ball) and then with a splendid header after a good cross pass from Valencia.

In the extra time that followed, Rafaël almost headed for the golden goal, but his attempt was just saved by Utrecht goalie Wapenaar. Utrecht also created several good chances to secure the victory, but Stekelenburg showed what a great talent he is. With his tall stature, and also with his great saves, he reminds one of former Ajax goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.

And just as Van der Sar wasn't such a great penalty killer, neither could Stekelenburg do much against the penalties taken after 120 minutes of play. No Utrecht player had any problems in taking his penalty, and neither did any Ajax player in the mandatory round of five or the first knock-out round. But after 12 penalties, it was Ajax-1 player Petri Pasanen who finally missed from the spot.

That was the last act in the long fairy tale of Young Ajax. The fairy tale is over now, but what a nice story it was! (BV)

Goals

• 25' 0-1 Dirk Kuyt
• 62' 0-2 Igor Gluscevic
• 66' 1-2 Nando Rafaël
• 85' 2-2 Nando Rafeël

Penalty Shoot-out

• 1-0 Stefano Seedorf
• 1-1 Stefaan Tanghe
• 2-1 Kiran Bechan
• 2-2 Paulus Roiha
• 3-2 Nando Rafaël
• 3-3 Pascal Bosschaart
• 4-3 Walker
• 4-4 Robert Roest
• 5-4 Gabriël Mofokeng
• 5-5 Patrick Zwaanswijk

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• 6-5 Jason Culina
• 6-6 Tom Van Mol

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• Petri Pasanen MISSED
• 7-6 Jean-Paul de Jong

Referee: Haverkort
Yellow cards: Culina, Valencia (Young Ajax), Vreven Kuyt, Roest (FC Utrecht)
Attendance: 19,000

Young Ajax line-up: Stekelenburg; Mofokeng, Pasanen, Kras (64. Van Damme), Valencia (105. De Jong); Obodai, Walker, Seedorf; Bechan, Quansah (64. Rafaël), Culina.

FC Utrecht line-up: Wapenaar; Vreven, Zwaanswijk, Roest, Van Mol; Bosschaart, Tanghe, De Jong, Van den Bergh (68. Jochemsen); Gluscevic (100. Roiha), Kuyt (115. Schut).

Second Semi-Final: Ajax vs PSV (10 April)