Almost there! One more point required after 0-5 win in Zwolle
0 (0) - 5
(1)
Holland Casino Eredivisie
Oosterenk
Stadium, Zwolle
Sunday, 02 May, 2004
The city of Amsterdam can prepare Leidseplein and the
balcony of the City Theatre for the official presentation of
Ajax's 29th Dutch championship shield to a red and white
sea of supporters. After a series of disappointing
draws the Amsterdam side returned to its winning ways at lowly
FC Zwolle (0-5), grabbing three of four points that
were still required to secure the title. Next week, in a
sold out Amsterdam ArenA, one point against NAC Breda
will suffice.
And it's about time! Ajax saw 50% of its twelve
point lead evaporate in recent weeks. It would be an
exaggeration to say that Ajax was 'getting nervous',
but the delay did start to gnaw, especially
as the converting of scoring chances seemed to
have become a tremendous problem overnight. To make
matters worse, Ajax boss Ronald Koeman had to make the trip to
the northern town of Zwolle without his two most productive
goalscorers: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who returned from a Sweden
friendly with a groin injury, and Rafaël van der Vaart,
who sustained a knock on the ankle in training on Saturday and
will be out for up to two weeks. Both players might not be fit
in time for the championship winner.
Sneijder congratulates
Tomás Galásek. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
As for the hosts: no follower of the Dutch
Eredivisie ever expected Zwolle to leave the bottom slot
of the table anymore, but the team of coach Hennie
Spijkerman grabbed an impressive 18 points out of the last 10
games (and seven out of the last three). They've been
unbeaten for six games in a row
now and defeated both AZ (#4) and SC
Heerenveen (#5) in recent home games. Conclusion: it
was not at all Ajax's position to underestimate
the relegation candidates from Zwolle, if only given
the team's remarkably poor record in away games this
season.
The Amsterdammers, playing in the new Adidas away kits
for next season, entered the pitch with Yannis
Anastasiou and Wesley Sonck as the strikers of choice,
but even with the two of them upfront Koeman chose
for a 4-3-3 formation, with Sonck playing as a right
winger. The Amsterdammers seemed to take the lead
as early as in the 3rd minute, as a Heitinga header seemed
to fly into the netting. However, Yannis
Anastasiou gave the ball an unnecessary final
push. Which he shouldn't have done, as he was off side.
Referee Vink was right in disallowing the goal.
It was Ajax's best moment of the first half - and that
says enough. Once again a tough, nerve-wracking struggle
seemed ahead for the Amsterdammers, who passed
inaccurately and made the mistake of running with the ball too
much. The Ajacieden played against themselves, as they did
so frequently in the past month, and
experienced a few scary moments. In the 11th minute,
for example, as Dominggus Lim-Duan released a nasty,
curving shot that sailed straight towards the top
corner of Bogdan Lobont's goal. The Ajax keeper seemed
unimpressed and about to simply catch the ball,
but collided with the far post as he ran backwards.
He dropped the ball and almost saw Jasar Takak take
advantage from close range.
Ajax took the lead in a rather fortunate way. In the
35th minute Portugese defender Maduro
Almeida required treatment at the sideline after an
unlucky collision with his own team-mate,
Takak. During this brief period of numerical
majority Tomás Galásek had the time and
space to aim in his own typical way and beautifully fire home
from almost 25 yards (36'). A superb goal, that makes
the Ajax fan wonder why the Czech doesn't shoot from long
range more frequently. It seems like the ball
always ends up in the back of the net whenever he gives it
a try.
In spite of the one goal lead Koeman could have
replaced half of his players for poor play at half
time. Tom Soetaers, Wesley Sneijder and even Steven Pienaar,
for example. The only 'victim', however, was Yannis
Anastasiou, who was (indeed) dreadful. Replacing him
turned out to be an extremely fortunate decision, because
Wesley Sonck was allowed to leave the right flank and move
to the centre. The Belgian seemed to score almost
immediately after the break on a fine Tom Soetaers cross.
His header was top notch, but a desperately diving goalkeeper
Johan van der Werff somehow found the ball stuck under his
body, inches in front of the goal-line. Minutes later an almost
identical situation did lead to Ajax's decisive
second goal: this time Soetaers' pass was low,
Sonck tapped it against Van der Werff's legs,
but then fumbled the rebouncing ball across the
goal-line: 0-2 (51').
Wesley Sonck celebrated all of
his goals with a spectacular backflip. [Photo:
ANP]
Ajax's second goal broke the resistance of the hosts, who
created two fine chances and a handful of minor ones in the
first half and made Ajax look poor for fifty minutes.
After the second goal, however, the
unrest disappeared from Ajax's combination play. The
team no longer played against itself, but only against FC
Zwolle, so that the enormous difference in quality became
evident in the latter 40 minutes of the game. The performance
of Anthony Obodai is worthy of a special mention. The
Ghanese was brought on as right fullback, so that Nigel de Jong
moved to midfield, and had a flawless second half.
In six minutes' time (between the 76th and 82nd) a
freeweheeling Ajax team lifted the score from a hard-fought 0-2
to a far too flattering 0-5. After Wesley Sonck had netted his
second (a beautiful chip over Van der Werff on a splitting
Sneijder thru-pass), the 'other Wesley' surprised the Zwolle
keeper with a quickly descending 'banana shot' from outside of
the penalty box. Another two minutes later Sonck added his
third (and his 9th of the season) in a rather fortunate way, as
his shot was decisively deflected by Marco Roelofsen. In
no-time a high score was on the boards and Ajax's form crisis
of recent weeks was instantly forgotten. Sonck should even have
scored another goal, on a free passage to Van der Werff.
The only bad news for Ajax in the second half was the yellow
card presented by referee Vink to Tomás Galásek,
for tackling an opponent with his leg stretched forward. It was
his fourth of the season, which means that he will be
automatically suspended for the game that will normally be the
championship winner for Ajax. Which raises the question who
will be the Ajax captain to receive
the shield next week: captain #1 (Jari Litmanen) is gone,
captains #2 and #4 (Van der Vaart and Ibrahimovic) might
not recover from their injuries in time and captain
#3 (Galásek) will be suspended. If Van der Vaart
and Ibrahimovic will be absent, it's a safe bet that
Ajax's 29th shield will (just like the 28th) be lifted
by a Romanian captain.
Every Ajacied agreed after the win at Oosterenk Stadium: it
just has to happen next week. For the first time since
the opening of the Amsterdam ArenA Ajax can officially
clinch a championship at home. "Today wasn't as easy as
the result suggests," said Ronald Koeman, "but we made a step
today that we should have made weeks ago." (MP)
GOALS
- 36' 0-1 Tomás Galásek
- 51' 0-2 Wesley Sonck
- 76' 0-3 Wesley Sonck
- 79' 0-4 Wesley Sneijder
- 82' 0-5 Wesley Sonck
Referee: Vink
Yellow cards: Van Dinteren (FC Zwolle),
De Jong, Galásek (Ajax)
Attendance: 6,800
Ajax line-up: Lobont; De Jong, Heitinga,
Escudé, Maxwell; Galásek, Pienaar (81. De
Ridder), Sneijder; Sonck, Anastasiou (46. Obodai), Soetaers
(75. Sikora).
FC Zwolle line-up: Van der Werff; Roelofsen,
Van der Haar, Almeida (41. Korf), De Ridder; Van Dinteren,
Takak, Hogenkamp (75. Yobo); Cvetkov, Lim-Duan, Zuurman.
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