AZ wins 1st leg for CL ticket against Ajax

They fought each other for the Eredivisie Championship, for the National Cup and now again, for that last ticket. And other than that slugfest in the Rotterdam Kuip, where penalties needed to decide who’d win the Cup and players were sent off, this time the fans were thrilled.

In the new Football Temple in Holland, the DSB Stadium in Alkmaar both teams showed how the Dutch can play football. AZ pro-active. Ajax re-active. But enticing stuff from both sides. AZ showed the world – let’s not exaggerate: the country – what their intentions were: in the first 2 minutes AZ shadow-striker Cziommer scored the 1-0. A beautiful set-up and with a nice chip Ajax goalie Stekelenburg was beaten. But Ajax struck back. And who else than Wesley Sneijder, one of Holland’s most sought after player. A dribble, a shimmey and two defenders ended up wrong-footed. On the edge of the box Sneijder aimed and fired: 1-1.

The match could’ve gone both ways after that. AZ played their rypical pressure-play positioning football and Ajax used the space with Ryan Babel’s space. The only problem Babel has – apart from doing everything rather well – is…scoring. He appeared in front of AZ goalie Waterman four times but forgot to score.

It took the match all the way up to the 90est minute before AZ could crown themselves the rightful winner. A good set-up again and Shota “Showtime” Arveladze tricked Stekelenburg in the box to score the 2-1 in a deserted goal.

And to add to all this, a unique fact. Louis van Gaal and Henk ten Cate agreed on their post-match chat! Louis thought AZ deservedly had won. And so did Ten Cate. Ten Cate added: “It doesn’t make a lot of difference, playing 1-1 or 2-1. We need to score one anyway, so that’s what we’ll do.” Louis van Gaal agreed with that too, but quipped: “For us it is different though. Because we do not necessarely have to score in Amsterdam.”

One sour note for Ajax and Sneijder: the active midfielder was booked – yabbing at the ref – and will miss the 2nd leg. Apart from the fact that he will be sorely missed in that match, he might have played his last match for Ajax, if Valencia (or any other club) picks him up this summer break…

And on a little note for our new friend Ishmael: no one complained about fatigue, referees, the quality of the pitch or anything else. It seems even Fergusan and Mourinho – on the stands incognito – enjoyed this match .