Summing Up the Season

Ajax's usual objective at the start of a new season is 'winning at least one trophy'. In the 2002-2003 season Ajax only won the Johan Cruyff Shield, normally not enough to be satisfied. Nevertheless, Ajax board, coaches, players and fans agree that 2002-2003 was an excellent season for the club. The main reason is, of course, Ajax's unexpectedly impressive run in the Champions League. Looking good in the Champions League and qualifying for the next one were Ajax's top priorities for this season. Both were achieved.

In the Eredivisie meanwhile, Ajax finished with no less than ten points more than last season, but last year's 73 were enough for the championship, whereas this year's 83 weren't. Ajax grabbed more points, scored more goals and defended better than last season. It was, however, not enough to finish ahead of the rock-solid champions, PSV.

	PLAYED	WON	DRAWS	DEFEATS	POINTS	GOAL DIFF.
2000-2001:	34	18	7	9	61	85-43
2001-2002:	34	22	7	5	73	73-34
2002-2003:	34	26	5	3	83	96-32

For the first time in years Ajax conceded less than one goal per game on average (0.94 goal), while the team scored 2.82 goal per game on average. A dramatic improvement compared with recent seasons.

This makes it even more remarkable that Ajax's topscorer (Rafaël van der Vaart) once again scored less than twenty goals. In recent season Ajax had a squad in which almost every player notched a goal every once in a while. Unlike last season, Ajax was the most productive team in Holland (96 goals) and those goals were scored by no less than 17 different Ajacieden (plus one FC Zwolle defender). Ajax's number of 'players having scored' is higher than at any other Dutch team. It must be noted, by the way, that Van der Vaart scored his 18 goals in only 21 appearances. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the second most productive Ajacied, needed 25 appearances for his 13 goals.

In the Champions League, the tall Swede was Ajax's unrivalled topscorer with 5 goals. Van der Vaart, Pienaar and Litmanen followed with two each. Quite logically, Ajax did not score as easily against Europe's greatest as they did in the Eredivisie. In fact, Ajax scored exactly 14 goals in 14 games. The Amsterdammers conceded 12 goals in those 14 games, an average 0.86 goal per game on average, which - quite remarkably - is a lower average than in the domestic league (0.94).

Scoring as easily as they did, Ajax booked considerably more large victories than in recent seasons. The largest league wins at home were a 7-1 over De Graafschap and a 6-0 over NEC. In away games, Willem II was beaten by 0-6 and FC Zwolle by 0-5. Ajax lost three games this season. The largest away defeat was suffered at PSV (2-0). The champion was also responsible for Ajax's only (and automatically largest) home stumble: 2-4.

Final standings, 2002-2003 season. [Image: NOS TeleTekst]

Coach Ronald Koeman had to deal with many injuries throughout the season, so that he ended up using no less than 29 different players in Eredivisie games. Not only a Dutch record for 2002-2003, but also a record in Ajax history.

A remarkable development in recent seasons is the fact that Ajax is no longer the undisputed 'fair play' team in Holland. The number of yellow cards given to Ajaciedem decreased by 12, but 33 bookings in 34 league games is still a relatively high score. Tomás Galásek was booked most frequently: 5 times, followed by Cristian Chivu (4 times). On four occasions an Ajacied was sent off (Chivu twice, Mido and Van der Meyde). Two more Ajacieden (Chivu and Zlatan) were handed considerable suspensions based on TV footage. If you count those suspensions as 'red cards' Ajax received 6 'reds' in the league (last year: 4).

Ajax's Romanian captain had a remarkable 'street fighting spirit' anyway this season. Apart from his four yellow cards in the Eredivisie, he was sent off in two league games (a direct red card at RKC Waalwijk and a double yellow at PSV). He received a third domestic 'red card' from the KNVB, based on TV footage of the Amstel Cup semi-final at Feyenoord. Chivu was also sent off in a Champions League game (away at Olympique Lyonnais) and saw another four yellow cards in 'Europe'.

Ajax collected an impressive number of cards in its Champions League battles anyway. Apart from Chivu, Jelle Van Damme also received a red card. No less than 30 yellow cards were shown to an Ajacied in 14 games. Cris Chivu was the 'topscorer' (4), followed by Andy van der Meyde (3).

Ajax's three Amstel Cup games of this season seem relatively insignificant in comparison with the Eredivisie and Champions League campaigns of 34 and 14 games, respectively. For the record: Ajax scored 5 goals in three Amstel Cup games. Topscorer was Zlatan Ibrahimovic (3 goals). Sneijder and Boukhari added one each. Ajax conceded two goals: one from FC Groningen and a fatal one from Feyenoord's Paul Bosvelt. Not one Ajacied was booked or sent off in an Amstel Cup game, although Chivu and Zlatan were suspended based on TV footage later.

What made the Amstel Cup games so insiginficant was the historically minimal interest from the Amsterdam crowd. The two cup games at home (Roda JC and FC Groningen) drew crowds of only 15,032 and 13,558, the two lowest attendances ever for an official Ajax-1 home game.

People were not interested in the Amstel Cup; they sure were interested in Ajax as such. Home attendances were booming this season. It must be noted, however, that Ajax changed its way of counting. In previous seasons the number of people going through the turnstiles was counted. This season Ajax started counting the official number of seasts sold, adding the number of sold tickets to the total number of season ticket holders. Season ticket holders that didn't show up were included in the official attendance figure. Nevertheless, the average 'real' attendance at Ajax home games also  increased by many thousands this season.

The average official attendance at Eredivisie home games was 47,571, the by far highest average in The Netherlands . The 'real' attendance is a few thousand lower than that figure, but still considerably higher than last season (35,857) or the year before (36,689).

Season tickets were not valid for Champions League home games. Everyone had to buy  a normal match ticket for European fixtures, so that the official attendance for Champions League games is a very 'clean' figure, almost exactly the same as the actual attendance. Ajax seven Champions League home games were attended by an average crowd of 47,218. Four out of seven of Ajax's European home games were sold out completely. (MP)