| FMF's Toon Army Spiderman and member of the Writers Crew Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: wiltshire Posts: 2,360 Thanks: 299 Thanked 611 Times in 583 Posts Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0 | 
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The elation following our last game subsided pretty quickly as rather disappointingly we were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Anderlecht in the opening Champions League match. Despite a rasping shot from Luque giving us the lead dead on half-time, Mbo Mpenza's 76th minute penalty and a subsequent 10 man Anderlecht barricade in front of goal ensured the spoils were shared. I left the stadium in a grim mood, and on the news the following day it seemed the Ajax fans were quick to voice their disapproval. However, maybe luckily, our poor display was hardly the front page news, as the following day brought two other newsworthy items.
Luis Arragones had been sacked as coach of Spain following a huge bust up with the Spanish FA, some new guy I hadnt heard of was to take charge bringing in his own team of unknowns which had the media of europe buzzing, and Hank ten Cate had joined Chelsea as Avram Grant's new assistant, much to the uproar of the Chelsea fans.
In retaliation for their poor display, the 1st team were subjected to a whole morning of watching videos of our next opponents, VVV. Later that day I had them working on their passing, moving and finishing until a couple of players dropped to the deck in exhaustion. Satisfied my message had got home, I gave them friday off and told them to report for light training on saturday morning. Not wanting to tackle my mounting pile of paperwork in the training ground office, I took time out on my schedule on the friday to watch the reserves in action against Roda JC Res. I arrived after they kicked off and sat in the stands so they wouldnt know I was spying on them.
The youngsters were starting to gel extremely well. Within minutes of the start, Torje whipped a ball from the right to the far post, for Fernandez to nod down into the path of Wijnaldum who tucked a placed shot into the bottom left. Just before the break, Georgino returned the favour, playing a lovely through ball between Bodor and van Kouwen, for Fernandez to run onto, round the keeper and smash into an empty net.
I popped my head round the door at halftime, told a suprised bunch of lads they were doing fantastic and to keep it up. Adi Koster winked at me and I left the changing room and retook my seat. 45 minutes later, the reserves had recorded a staggering 9-2 victory, with a Fernandez hattrick, and goals from Wijnaldum, Dalla Valle, with Torje and Stanton Lewis getting a brace each. I was delighted, and joined the 2000 or so fans in a standing ovation as the guys left the pitch.
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Sunday brought VVV to our door. The noise at the start was absolutely deafening, a little under 47000 Ajax fans expectant of a win. I left the changing room last with Hennie and stand-in captain, John Heitinga.
"Just keep the lads tight and disciplined" I told John, giving some last minute instructions "VVV aren't a bad team, we just need to play to our strengths." He nodded, and sprinted over to the lineup of Ajax players. Hennie and I took our seats in the dugout, I was nervous as hell.
An explosion of noise greeted the whistle, and we were off, and within minutes the guys were knocking the ball about confidently. Kennedy raced off down the right flank, and was brought to a crashing halt when he cut inside by Niels Flueren. Flueren was lectured by the referee for a second, the play restarted with the freekick. Kennedy sent a curling effort to the far post which everyone missed, and to the delight of everyone Ajax, we all watched it bounce straight into the net! 1-0!!!! An air of stunned disbelief was shattered by the north stand errupting into cheering, Kennedy ran past the bench looking at me shrugging his shoulders and grinning from ear to ear.
Into the break it finished 1-0, and we were showing few signs of weakness. I told them it was great stuff so far, congratulated Kennedy Bakircilogu on his crazy goal, and sent them back into the fray. We went 2-0 up nearly straight away, with Huntelaar nodding in Dsudzsak's cross following an earth shattering run down the left. On 66 minutes VVV pulled a goal back through Paul Jans, though quite how the referee missed the gbh foul on Heitinga just before he netted was anyones guess. To his credit John got up and got on with it, and got his revenge by clattering Jans into the hoardings a minute or so later. Jans had to leave the field for treatment. I brought on Stancu for Luque. Twenty seconds later Stancu scored the goal of the game.
VVV got a throw-in by our left hand corner flag which Emmanuelson mugged Oost for. Spotting Stancu breaking sixty yards away on the right, Emmanuelson sent a soaring hollywood ball seventy yards diagonally over the backline of VVV who were rooted. Watching Bogdan's inch perfect run, we were off the bench as the ball was met so casually by the outside of his right Nike-clad boot, just as VVV keeper Wintjens got to the outside of his area. The poor guy could only watch as the perfectly weighted half volley screamed over his head and crashed into the center of the empty net.
My elated shout of "GET IN!!!!!" was lost in a massive roar as 47000 Ajax fans exploded in appreciation of a stunning goal van Basten would've been proud of. There was no headless chicken from Stancu this time, He ran straight to the by-line and excecuted a textbook Klinnsman dive, followed by nearly the whole of his team mates. Hennie had me round the throat. "It was his first touch!" he screamed at me "HIS FIRST BLOODY TOUCH!!!" I could only nod!
We finished the game 3-1 winners though in truth it could have been 5 or 6. As we made our way out to the bus park I turned to Bogdan. "Well son, how did that feel?" He looked at me and smiled "I scored a better one against FC Willy in the cup last year"
Giving me a cheeky wink he hopped on the bus. I couldn't wait for the next game.
Last edited by Hartynips; 16-06-08 at 03:14 AM. |
