Ajax cheers; AZ cries…

Sometimes life at the top is tough and unfair. Just ask Milli Vanilli or a couple of recent tour-winners… Anyway, Ajax wins and takes all (in this case the CL qualifications ticket) and AZ….well…AZ has nothing…

They entered the cup month May with three fronts active… UEFA Cup, Championship (and CL ticket) and National Cup. The Play-offs were some sort of consolation option to still grab that CL ticket, well… Louis and his young guns gotta cry and pick themselves up again for next season.

In an exciting match, Ajax won 3-0 and according to my sources, rightfully so, although there was quite some luck present for “Lucky Ajax”. Ajax coach Ten Cate relieved Mitea in the 30st minute and brought the speedy Tom de Mul. Ten Cate: “I normally don’t take players off in the first 30 minutes but Mitea choked. He was totally out of the game. De Mul with his speed gave us more depth and then we started playing.”

From the 30est minute onwards, it all clicked Ajax attacked. AZ came to Amsterdam to hold on to their 1-2 victory of last week and – totally against type – Van Gaal played counter-attacking football. And AZ did get some chances, Arveladze hit the cross-bar, headed a ball just past the post, but really it was Ajax with all the opportunities. Ajax got lucky in the 55st minute, when Heijtinga scored from a Perez free-kick, albeit in off side position! However, the ref couldn’t tell, so it was 1-0 Ajax. Not much later, AZ defender Ryan Donk was the unlucky one… He misjudged a cross from De Mul and knee-ed the ball behind his own goalie: 2-0. At the end of the match, Gabri was allowed to score the 3-0 after good preparation work by Huntelaar.

AZ coach Louis van Gaal was distraught and furious. “Bad referee-ing has ruined our season! Against Werder Bremen, against Excelsior, in the National Cup finals and now again. Football is a sports of moments and if in these moments the ref makes mistakes, your whole gameplan can be destroyed. Very very sad…”

Henk ten Cate was proud. “I am so proud of my team. Our season has been a success. We played for the championship till the last day, we qualified for the CL and we won the National Cup. We also have some youngsters breaking through again, I mean…overall our season is great.”