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Match Report: Van der Vaart puts himself and Ajax on
top
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| 5 (3) |
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1 (1) |
Amsterdam Arena
19 December, 2001 |
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For the very few who didn't already know, Rafael van der
Vaart again showed his great importance for Ajax, scoring no
fewer than three goals in tonight's 5-1 victory over Vitesse.
The three goals bring the 18-year old to the top of the
Eredivisie goal scorers, with fourteen strikes in total. And
since Feyenoord lost three points, his goals helped to lift
Ajax back to the top of the league standing as well.
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Rafael van der Vaart gets past Michel
Kreek and Marc van Hintum of Vitesse, on his way to
scoring a hat-trick against the Arnhem club.
[source: ANP]
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Van der Vaart is not the kind of player who only scores when
a match has already been decided; he often scores the
most-important first goal of the match for Ajax. This season,
he has opened the scoring for Ajax eight times; nine of his
fourteen goals have been scored within the first half hour of
the game.
Coach Ronald Koeman realizes how important the individual
contributions of the Ajax youngster are: "When you look at the
5-1 result one would think that we've played fantastically, but
that was certainly not the case in the first half hour. Then
you have to be glad that you have Van der Vaart in your team.
Because of his qualities, we took the lead two times."
After just fifteen minutes, Van der Vaart opened the scoring
with a precise shot in the left corner of the Vitesse goal. But
only two minutes later Vitesse striker Claessen scored the
equalizer as a result of bad defending. Joey Didulica who
replaced the injured Grim couldn't do much about it, and it was
an unfortunate start for his first Ajax 1 start.
The rest of the match didn't offer many opportunities for
the young Australian to demonstrate whether he's a good
substitute for Fred Grim. After the goal, Didulica was required
to make just one tough save in a game in which the Vitesse
attack failed to make things very difficult for him.
After half an hour, the match was effectively settled when
Van der Vaart (25') and O'Brien (30') each scored beautiful
goals. First it was Van der Vaart who, after a brilliant pass
from Bergdølmo, nicely curved the ball around goalie
Jevric (2-1).
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John O'Brien, who scored his second goal
of the season. [source: Gerard van
Hees/Ajax.nl]
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Five minutes later it was John O'Brien who - even more
beautifully - volleyed the ball into to the upper ninety (3-1).
O'Brien: "Scoring the 3-1 gave me a great feeling. I have
scored with my left foot before, but this one was very special.
The ball jumped up just before me and therefore I had to lift
my leg a bit higher. But it was a great goal."
O'Brien agreed that the 3-1 was a turning point in the
match: "The first half hour was pretty tough, and the match
went up and down. Bbut after the 3-1, everything went easier.
And after the 4-1 we could easily bring the match to a good end
and that's comforting when you have three matches in one week.
"
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Andy van der Meyde was very effective at
right wing. [source: Gerard van
Hees/Ajax.nl]
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The 4-1 was scored in the second half when Jevric couldn't
control a Van der Meyde shot well enough and Wamberto reacted
quickly to score on the rebound (47'). Van der Meyde also laid
the foundation for Ajax's fifth goal of the evening when he
presented a beautifully low and snug ball across the face of
goal for Van der Vaart, allowing the young phenom to score his
first easy goal of this season. It was probably his
first unimportant one, too.
The victory attained more luster with the defeat of
Feyenoord against Twente on the same night. As a result, Ajax
is now on top of the table again with one point more than
Feyenoord. But Koeman is watchful for too much optimism: "In
three days everything can be different again."
A very true remark since, in three days (next Sunday), Ajax
have to play a difficult away game against Utrecht. O'Brien,
who was loaned out to Utrecht two years ago, knows perfectly
well how difficult that fixture will be: "The atmosphere is
even bigger than when I played there. Mentally you have to be
very strong, otherwise the crowd can be very intimidating."
(BV)
GOALS
- 15' 1-0 Rafael van der Vaart
- 17' 1-1 Gert Claessens
- 25' 2-1 Rafael van der Vaart
- 30' 3-1 John O'Brien
- 47' 4-1 Wamberto
- 82' 5-1 Rafael van der Vaart
Referee: Haverkort
Yellow cards: none
Attendance: 34,818
Ajax line-up: Didulica, Heitinga, Bergdølmo,
Chivu, De Cler (70' Maxwell), Yakubu, Van der Vaart, O'Brien,
Van der Meyde, Machlas (61' Zlatan), Wamberto (75' Mido)
Vitesse line-up: Jevric, Knol, Van Hintum (48'
Cornelisse), Diarra, Sikora (36' Martel), Kreek, Amoah, Laros,
Claessens (46' Peeters), Van der Schaaf, Nanu
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