Van Basten opens with defeat

Sunday 31 August 2008

Right from the start Ajax Amsterdam seem destined to chase, as they lost their first league game at Willem II Tilburg 2-1 and find themselves already three points behind their main competitor PSV Eindhoven .

Ajax are held as the favorites by many to win the league this season, but in last night's game they were unable to show just why.

The new manager Marco van Basten spent a casual € 30 million on transfers this summer.

But these big investments have not yet led to good, let alone attractive football.

Three of the five new guys started yesterday: Miralem Sulejmani (€16 million) was up front together with Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Luis Suarez.

Evander Sno replaced the injured Gabri in midfield, further made up of Rasmus Lindgren and Urby Emanuelson.

Oleguer formed a four men back line with Bruno Silva, Thomas Vermaelen, Jan Vertonghen in front of goal keeper Maarten Stekelenburg.

Dario Cvitianich and Ismail Aissati, the two other new signings started on the bench.

Playing without an offensive midfielder (Aissati) Van Basten saw that his team were incapable of feeding the forward trio with decent set ups.

Home goal keeper Maikel Aerts only got in some sort of trouble three times in the first half.

Still Ajax were 1-0 up at half-time, but that was due to a great solo effort by Sulejmani.

Cutting in from the right he beat Aerts with a left footed shot to the far top left corner.

But Willem II weren't beaten yet.

They had already gained an advantage over Ajax' weakest line, the midfield and shortly after the break the home team equalized.

Frank Demouge beat the sleeping Ajax defense and headed home a Said Boutahar corner:1-1.

The deserved goal spurred the Tilburgers to go and look for more and they did indeed get one.

After a messy situation in which Oleguer failed to clear a loose ball it fell to the feet of German Mehmet Akgün who didn't think twice and slotted it home: 2-1.

Van Basten reacted instantly and substituted three players: Cvitanich came for Sulejmani, Jeffrey Sarpong came on for Emanuelson and defender Gregory van der Wiel replaced full back Silva.

Despite the three new players nothing changed as to the system Ajax were playing.

Suarez went close towards the end, but Aerts kept the three points in Tilburg with a magnificent save.

To make matters worse for the Amsterdammers Evander Sno was shown a red card in the dying minutes of the game for a presumed elbow in the face of Akgün.

TV-replays showed that the decision of referee Pieter Vink was a bit harsh.

PSV take off where they left it
A few hours earlier PSV PSV Eindhoven had shown no mercy for a seriously depleted FC Utrecht as the reigning champions resumed where they had left it four months ago.

Led by a fantastic Ibrahim Afellay FC Utrecht were shown all four corners of the pitch in an impressive 1-5 away win.

A good start for new coach Huub Stevens who must hope that his main star Afellay does not get injured or suspended to often in the coming season, because it was the Holland midfielder and only he who holds the team together.

FC Twente gain hard fought point at Roda JC
The hopeless maneuver in London on Wednesday was explained by the big difference in quality between the English giants and Holland's number 4, but yesterday's match at RODA JC Kerkrade showed that Steve McClaren still has a lot of work to do.

FC Twente Enschede lost two points when they gave away a 0-1 lead five minutes before the end through a terrible mistake by Brazilian defender Douglas.

In a closed match with few chances FC Twente were the better side but it wasn't until the 56th minute that McClaren's side opened the score by Elia.

Roda then came on a bit more aggressive but almost saw N'Kufo decide the game ten minutes before the end.

Douglas' mistake then earned Roda a point as Andres Oper benefited to equalize five minutes before the end.

Other results on Saturday