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'Aussie Ajacied' Joey Didulica: "Excited, not nervous"
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| Joey Didulica |
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Ajax USA members around the world will keep their
fingers crossed for Joey, tomorrow at 8:15 PM Dutch time.
Ajax was great to us during our inaugural Ajax USA trip
to Amsterdam, in April of this year, but one player
really stood out: Joey Didulica.
Right after having beaten Young De Graafschap with
Young Ajax, he bought our group a round of beers, showing
sincere interest in our club and talking extensively with
us about the game.
Hopefully we can discuss many Ajax-1 games with him
during our next trips. We owe him a beer, that's for
sure. But that's for later. For now: GOOD LUCK,
JOEY!
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18 December: How long was it? Two, maybe three minutes? Joey
Didulica's league debut in Ajax-1 took place on Saturday night,
in the very last minute of regulation, in Ajax' most distant
away game of the year, at Roda JC. The real thing is gonna
happen tomorrow, as Joey - as replacement for injured Fred Grim
- will make his ArenA debut before a crowd of some 35,000,
against one of Holland's biggest club teams: Vitesse
Arnhem.
An interesting and, usually, tough game for Ajax. Vitesse
will want to prove to Ajax coach Ronald Koeman, who was still
working for Vitesse only two weeks ago, that they're better
than the team he left Arnhem for. Vitesse has become one of
Ajax' most feared opponents in recent years: the black and
yellow Arnhem side was the only club to beat Ajax three times
last season, twice in the league and once in the Amstel
Cup.
"I am excited," the amicable, 24 year-old Australian told
Ajax.nl, in an interview conducted one day before the game.
"Maybe I'll get a little nervous when I wake up and drive to
the stadium tomorrow. But now? I'm just so happy that I'll be
playing."
Today's training session felt differently for Joey: "I felt
good. Tomorrow is gonna be the day for me and I was aware of
that. I was a little bit more cautious than usual, because I
was a little afraid to sustain an injury. Everything has to be
perfect now."
Joey is not the only one who's excited about his upcoming
debut in Ajax' main force. He immediately received a phone call
from Australia, from his extremely excited mother, an
enthusiastic member of Ajax USA. "She wanted to come to
Amsterdam. She loves football. I told her not to, because I
don't want to be disturbed on the day. I'd have to go to
Schiphol Airport to pick up people. That would not be right. I
want to be able to stick to my usual routine. Of course I'll
send her a video tape. And I'll discuss the game with her on
the phone."
The only thing he wants to think about now is Vitesse. What
are his thoughts on tomorrow's strong opponent? "They have a
lot of tall guys. But I'm not afraid of that. I'm not afraid of
anyone. I have this obsession to keep my goal clean, because
there is no worse feeling than losing."
One more thing Joey's not afraid of is communication trouble
with his new team-mates, especially the Ajax-1 defenders. "I've
already played with Maxwell, Heitinga, Bergdølmo and De
Cler in the second team. We understad each other. It's not
100%. It will get better by the game."
In fact, his debut as the goalkeeper of Ajax-1 has come
spectacularly quick, since it's only some seven years ago that
Joey Didulica first became a goalkeeper. He was a striker in
the North-Gellong youth team, when the goalkeeper of the squad
decided to quit. "And I was so crazy to volunteer as a
goalkeeper," Joey explains with a smile. It turned out to be a
good decision: two years later, he was playing for a major
club, Melbourne Kights. The Australian national coach knocked
on the door shortly after that; and his transfer to Ajax soon
was a fact.
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Joey Didulica makes his Ajax 1 debut in
the 90th minute of the Roda-Ajax league match on 15
December, 2001. [source: Louis van de Vuurst/Ajax.nl]
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Considering the meteoric start of his goalkeeper's career,
his debut in Ajax-1 comes relatively late. He's waited over two
years for it. "I even was loaned out to Germinal Beerschot
Antwerp for three months. That was not a nice time. I expected
a lot of it, was to become their first goalkeeper. When the
coach told me I was gonna be the second goalkeeper, it felt
like a punch in the stomach. There were two things I could do:
sitting down crying or trying to fight back. I decided to try
the latter. I wanted to show that I was the best
goalkeeper."
He did get to play in GBA's first team, in Belgium's highest
division, when goalkeeper Luciano got injured. He did well.
"But it's much better to be a second goalkeeper at Ajax than at
GBA. I am happy here as the second man. It's great for every
player to be at Ajax." (MP)
(Source: Ajax.nl)
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