Babel 102nd, Maduro 103rd Ajacied in Oranje
27 March: The Dutch national team booked an
excellent 0-2 win over Romania yesterday in group 1 of the
qualification for the World Cup 2006 in Germany.
Oranje started without a single Ajacied in the
starting eleven (Van der Vaart was on the bench; Sneijder and
Heitinga in the stands), but saw two other youngsters make
their official Holland début: Hedwiges Maduro and Ryan
Babel. The latter decided the game by scoring the second Dutch
goal.
The choices of Holland boss Marco van Basten were much
discussed in The Netherlands in recent weeks. According to many
he selected too many youngsters (Babel instead of Kluivert,
Maduro instead of Davids) and showed too much of an allegiance
to Ajax. His decision to play John Heitinga in midfield in
recent matches, and keep Mark van Bommel benched, was
criticized by press and public. In Bucharest, Romania, Holland
started without a single Ajax player and it was PSV's Phillip
Cocu who headed a corner kick against the netting after only 41
seconds.
Ryan Babel scores for Oranje on
his debut. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
However, Van Basten was forced to make an early
substitution: Arjen Robben of Chelsea picked up an injury and
had to be replaced with 18 year-old Ajax rookie Ryan Babel as
early as in the 23rd minute. Babel thereby became the 102nd
Ajax player to make his Oranje début. Ajacied
#103 followed 50 minutes later, as Hedwiges Maduro was brought
on for Mark van Bommel for the last 17 minutes of the game.
Interesting statistic: Maduro was Ajax's 'fastest'
Oranje débutant in the last 25 years. His first
appearance for Holland was a fact 27 days after his first team
début for Ajax. Maduro played only three matches for
Ajax-1 so far. In 1994 Patrick Kluivert made his Holland
début 80 days after his Ajax début. He had had 9
Ajax-1 appearanced at the time.
Hedwiges Maduro marks former Ajax
captain, Cristian Chivu. [Photo: Ajax.nl]
With Babel (18) and Maduro (20) on the pitch, Holland
decided the game against Romania in the 85th minute. AZ
midfielder Denny Landzaat passed to Babel, who beat his
team-mate - Romania goalkeeper Bogdan Lobont - with a low shot
and graced his début with his first goal for Holland.
The other Ajacied in the Romanian team, Nicolae Mitea, did
not see action, while 'good old' Cristian Chivu, former Ajax
captain, played the full 90 minutes.
As for the other Ajacieden around Europe...
Angelos Charisteas started for Greece and
booked a 1-3 win in Georgia with the reigning European
champions. Julien Escudé, meanwhile,
could have become the first ever Ajax player to make his
début for La France, but Ajax's 'Superior
Quality Defender' (unexpectedly called up and added to the
French side on Friday) watched from the stands as his
country settled for a rather disappointing 0-0 draw with
Switzerland.
Some of Ajax's Africans also played World Cup qualifiers for
their countries. The club's two South-Africans played
Uganda at home: Hans Vonk defended
Bafana Bafana's goal for 90 minutes
and Steven Pienaar became the hero of the
day by scoring the winner for South-Africa (2-1) in the 72nd
minute. Hatem Trabelsi played the full 90
minutes for Tunisia. Malawi were a piece of cake for the
Tunisians: 7-0. (MP)
Sources: NOS Teletekst, VI.nl
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