UEFA Cup: Ajax face Norway's IK Start in first round
24 August: The entire Ajax family is still recovering from
the enormous blow dealt by FC København on Wednesday
evening, but the show must go on... in the UEFA Cup, to be
precise. The first round draw was today in Monte Carlo,
Monaco, and Ajax were paired with last season's
runners-up from Norway: IK Start from the town of
Kristiansand. Ajax will travel north on Thursday 14 September,
not to Kristiansand but to nearby Lillestrøm, east of
Oslo, where Start play their European home games. The return
leg at the Amsterdam ArenA is two weeks later on Thursday 28
September (kick-off times t.b.a.). A berth in the second
round group stage will be at
stake.
Even in Norway, IK Start are a bit of an outsider. It
is only two years ago that the club returned to Norway's
top flight, the Tippeligaen. In the season of their
return to the top flight the club surprised everyone by
battling for the Norwegian title until the last day of the
league. They only just lost out to
Vålerenga, but their second slot was good enough for
their seventh ever European campaign. Skala Itrottarfelag
from the Faëroe Islands were brushed aside in
the first preliminary round of the UEFA Cup. The
second round saw a thriller against Ireland's
Drogheda United: Start won the home leg by 1-0, but lost
the return leg by the same score. The nervewracking
penalty shoot-out of 24 spotkicks in total (!) was
won by the Norwegians last night: 10-11.
The Club
Founded on 19 September 1905, Idrettsklubben Start
were a relatively anonymous club in Norwegian football for
decades. For almost 70 years the small club from Kristiansand,
a popular summer resort of some 75,000 inhabitants on Norway's
magnificent south coast, never made much of an impact in the
league or the Norwegian cup competition.
This changed in the 1970s, the by far
most glorious decade for the club. IK Start briefly
became a major force in Norwegian football,
qualifying for the UEFA Cup in 1974, 1976, 1977 and 1978. The
club's undisputed superstar and fan hero of that era was Svein
Mathisen, who played 663 league games for Start and is the
club's top goalscorer of all time (106 goals).
The best was yet to come: the Norwegian championship was
clinched in 1978 and 1980. After both titles, IK Start lasted
only one round in the European Champions Cup. In 1981 the
opponent to eliminate Start was... AZ '67 from Alkmaar,
Holland's reigning champions and a top side in Europe at
the time.
The golden years of the 1970s were followed by more than
two decades of decay and inconsistency, in which IK
Start dropped out of the highest division a few times (but
always jumped back). The second slot that gave them access to
the UEFA Cup was the best league result since the days of
Svein Mathisen and Helge Haugen for the club from Kristiansand,
who play their home games in a yellow shirt and black
shorts.
The current season has been a disappointment for
IK Start so far: the club had a poor start in the Norwegian
league. So poor that the club fired their head-coach and
made former Liverpool player Stig Inge Bjørnebye
the new man at the helm.
The Roster
The average follower of Ajax will not know (or even
recognize) many names from the current IK Start
squad. Head-coach Bjørnebye, formerly of Liverpool
and the Norwegian national team, is probably the biggest
name.
Defender Marius Johnsen and midfielders Kristofer
Hæstad and Fredrik Strømstad are internationals
for Norway, defender Steinar Pedersen played for Borussia
Dortmund in the past, Icelandic midfielder Johannes Hardarson
was on the payrole of FC Groningen for a while and the strikers
to keep an eye on are Stefan Bärlin (a Swede), Todi
Jónsson (from the Fäeroe Islands) and
especially David Nielsen, a 29 year-old Dane who played
for clubs such as FC København, Wimbledon and Norwich
City in the past.
There is an Englishman on the club's payrole (striker Ben
Wright, who played for Kettering and Bristol City), but he
was recently loaned out to Moss FK. Start's only field
goal against Drogheda United in the second preliminary round of
the UEFA Cup was scored by Fredrik Strømstad.
The Stadium
IK Start normally play their home games at Kristiansand
Stadium, a ground with an official capacity of 12,000,
although a record breaking 16,563 people attended IK Start
vs Fredrikstad in 2005. Most of them were standing on
the old ground's terraces. The number of seats is
very limited.
Since terraces are no longer allowed in UEFA
competition, IK Start will play their European home games
at Lillestrøm's Åråsen Stadion, which holds
13,000 spectactors and does meet UEFA
requirements. A new stadium for IK Start in Kristiansand is
being constructed as we speak: the new all-seater will be
officially opened in 2007 and hold 14,000 fans.
Ajax versus Norwegian opposition
Ajax visited Norway many times for friendly fixtures, even
before World War Two, but the opponent was never IK
Start.
However, the Amsterdam club does have a
history against Norwegian opposition in UEFA
competition. In August 1960, when Ajax played in the
brand-new European Cup for the second time, Fredrikstad FK came
out of the bowl as the first round opponent. Ajax crashed out
after a disappointing 4-3 defeat in Norway (Ajax goals by Cees
Groot [2x] and Sjaak Swart) and a 0-0 draw at Amsterdam's
Olympic Stadium.
The first round of the European Champions Cup in the fall
1977 saw an encounter between Ajax and Lillestrøm SK.
The first leg, at the ground where IK Start vs Ajax will
be played, was surprisingly lost by 2-0. In Amsterdam,
however, Ajax lashed out: 4-0, courtesy of Ruud Geels, Tscheu
La Ling (2x) and an unfortunate Norwegian defender. The
Dutch advanced. Funny little detail: Ajax played at
Lillestrøm's local stadium om 14 September 1977. The
first leg against IK Start will be played
exactly 29 years later.
The third and most recent time Ajax played a
Norwegian side was in the fall of 2002, in the group phase
of the Champions League. The opponent was Rosenborg BK, who
were Norway's finest by a lightyear for many years,
but slipped away from the top in recent seasons.
Rosenborg and Ajax settled for a 0-0 draw in Trondheim on 02
October 2002. Three weeks later, on 22 October
2002 at the Amsterdam ArenA, the Norwegians once again
remained upright: 1-1. Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored for Ajax.
For what it's worth: Ajax won only one out of six
games against Norwegian opposition in UEFA competition, lost on
aggregate two out of three times and never managed an
official win on Norwegian soil... (MP)
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