Rob Witschge looks back at Ajax – Marseille

Sometimes you find an interesting in depth look at how players experienced certain matches in their career. Rob Witschge looks back at Ajax’ classic semi finals against Olympique Marseille in the 1980s.

He still remembers the vibe in the Stade Velodrome in Marseille. Witschge smiles: “I vividly remember that horrible song blazing from the speaker boxes, what is it…”Eye ofd the Tiger”… That Rocky tune.. Bernard Tapie had just started at Marseille and he had just bought a radio station. Those people did a whole show before the game. There were fireworks, magicians, all sorts of flags and loud music. I remember entering the pitch like Rocky, like a boxer, having fun with the other players. Shadow boxing and all, haha. I told them, guys we can’t play bad tonight. It was actually very relaxing.”

Ajax would storm past Olympique in the first 45 minutes with left winger Witschge scoring twice. Ajax would reach the finals in the European II Cup tournament and one Dennis Bergkamp would score the 3-0 late in the game with a distance strike from 40 meters or more.

And although Ajax is the title holder in this European competition, they are seen as the underdog. Ajax is a bit in trouble. Frank Rijkaard left the club mid season after disagreements with coach Cruyff and the number 14 would leave the club himself with slamming doors not much later. In the Eredivisie, PSV is out of reach and Ajax was already ousted out the national cup competition.

Olympique Marseille was a top team under construction and would later become the first and only French club to win the European Cup I as it was called back then. Tapie had constructed a solid team with big name players like goalie Bell, Abedi Pele, Papi, Giresse, Genghini and Yvon le Roux. From Germany, Klaus Allofs and Karl Heinz Foster.

A young Eric Cantona, who had just signed for Marseille, was watching this game from the stands.

Ajax has to play this finals without Frank Rijkaard and Marco van Basten. Sub Hennie Meijer gets injured at training and Cruyff orders the 17 year old Ronald de Boer to catch the last plane to Marseille.

Danny Blind, still right back at that time, remembers the game well. “It was a tough season for us, but in Europe, we were strong. We won most of our away games and took clubs like HSV Hamburg to the cleaners. Our biggest strength I guess, were our wingers. Cruyff would bulge, we’d play with wingers always. In Hamburg for instance, Mannie Kaltz was the top dog and the flank was his. Until he played against Bryan Roy, who took Kaltz on and the German definitely didn’t like that.”

Witschge beams. “I was the first left winger in the hierarchy at Ajax, but we had a couple of very talented youngster waiting to replace me. Bryan Roy of course, and my little brother Richard. The latter got some playing time against HSV and he immediately tricked Kaltz. I asked him after the game how he felt when he played with him and he didn’t even realize he was against Kaltz when he did that. We didn’t care who we played, we just did our thing.”

“Ronald Spelbos accompanied Bruins Slot on his scouting mission. Spelbos was injured and deciced to analyze the Marseille defenders. He gave me the golden tip. He said: Fall doesn’t like it when you stay close to him, only to step away quickly when the cross comes in. He can’t seem to focus on both the player and the ball. I scored twice that way. Once on a Van ‘t Schip cross and once on a Blind cross. Fall would be subbed at half time.”

Witschge ponders. “And it’s funny. I played for St Etienne three years later. I’m watching an amateur match somewhere in France, and this bloke walks up to me. Do you remember me? I said, no…sorry. I’m Fall, from Marseille. Since playing against you, I never ever got one minute in the team. Yeah, that Tapie was quite a character…”

Two weeks later, Marseille does get their revenge, but it is just a consolation. Olympique wins 2-1 in Amsterdam, but Ajax plays the finale against Aad de Mos’ KV Mechelen.
“This was the red card game for Danny Blind. We needed to play them with ten players and Dutchman Piet de Boer scored the only goal.”

Rob Witschge would reach another European Cup II semi finals, with Feyenoord in 1992. And he’d score for Feyenoord as well. All his six European goals would be scored in semi finals, against Real Zaragoza (1987), Olympique Marseille and AS Monaco.

“Interesting football trivia, eh?,” laughs the current Ajax assistant coach. “I don’t know any other Dutch player who can say that. It sort of sums me up. I wasn’t too consistent, but in big games I was present.”