Enjoyable night of six-a-side football in Volendam
30 March: 'Old Ajax' lost and the current
Ajax won their respective games in Volendam's Veronica
Stadium last night. But that was not what it was about this
time. The highly enjoyable night of six-a-side football
was organized by the Volendam United foundation to commemorate
the Volendam 'pub inferno' in the first minutes of the
year 2001, in which killed 14 teenagers and scarred
dozens for life. "There has always been a special bond
between Amsterdam and Volendam", explained Ajax boss Ronald
Koeman, "so when the organizers invited us once again, I
didn't have to think long."
It was the third year in a row for Ajax
to participate in the memorial event. However, this
was the first time that the event did not take place in early
January and also the first time for Volendam United to choose
for a six-a-side event. Last year the public turnout for the memorial match was
disappointing, due to the sharp frost and cutting wind. This
year the weather was pleasant. Spring was in the air in
Volendam.
The night started with a confrontation between the school
girls' six-a-side champions of Amsterdam (De Meer) and Volendam
(Spinmolen), followed by the school boys' champions of the
respective towns: De Wielewaal for Amsterdam and Blokwhere for
Volendam. The Volendam girls and the Amsterdam boys were the
strongest.
After that it was time for Ronald Koeman to get to work".
First the Ajax boss was the referee in the 'hardest shot of
Volendam' competition. After that he put on the Ajax jersey for
the game between 'Old Volendam' and 'Old Ajax'. Koeman's
team-mates on the occasion were Marco van Basten, Bryan
Roy, Sonny Silooy, Fred Grim, Danny Blind and Wim Kieft,
whereas the 'Old Volendam' side consisted of several players
who played for both clubs, such as Keje Molenaar, Gerrie
Mühren and Wim Jonk. The infamous Bobby Haarms served as
the referee.
Before the game Marco van Basten was kind enough
to reveal the 'Old Ajax' match tactics: "It's just a mess.
Everyone just stands around, trying to show some nice thingies.
On the pitch you try to coach the others, but some of them
don't do too much running anymore, so it's not always
effective."
This well-considered strategy did not yield the result:
'Old Ajax' lost by the score of 3-2, with Gerrie Mühren
showing one amazing trick after the other for Volendam. Even
the slightly biased referee, Mr Bobby Haarms, was unable to do
anything against it this year. With several of his Ajax-1 as
critical spectators Ronald Koeman scored one of the goals for
Ajax from long range, as you'd expect.
The main course of the evening was the six-a-side clash
between members of the current FC Volendam and Ajax teams.
Fielding eleven men would have been a problem for Ajax anyway,
as several first team players (such as Daniël de Ridder,
Rafaël van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder, Nigel de Jong,
Johnny Heitinga and Steven Pienaar) were 'on tour' with
their respective national teams.
Yet, the Ajax squad that entered the 42 x 28 metre pitch,
consisting of goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg, Yannis
Anastasiou, Julien Escudé, Victor Sikora, Maxwell,
Thomas Vermaelen and Young Ajax rookies Rasmus Lindgren and
Robin Muller van Moppes, was good enough to beat FC Volendam by
the score of 5-2, thereby taking revenge for the last year's
defeat. Sikora (14', 15') and Anastasiou (17', 19') made it 4-0
to Ajax within five minutes's time, before Esajas pulled a
goal back for Volendam (23'). Thomas Vermaelen made it 1-5
immediately from kick-off (23'), after
which Faria scored Volendam's second (25'). 2-5
was the final score.
During the game coach Ronald Koeman was relaxing at the
sideline. "It's fun to watch," he said, "and we're here for
charity, so having a good time is the most important thing. The
young Ajax team performed better than the oldies. Which is
good, as youth rules the future."
The Volendam United foundation called the night a "great
success" and hopes that this six-a-side event will become an
annual thing. For Ajax, meanwhile, it's back to business now:
four days left to prepare for Sunday's Eredivisie home
game against FC Groningen. (MP)
Source: Ajax.nl
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