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Ajax win overshadowed by loss of Huntelaar
Monday 10 November 2008
Ajax gained a very easy victory
over Sparta Rotterdam on Sunday, but the 5-2 win was
overshadowed by a possible serious injury of center
forward Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.
The loss was double painful as
Huntelaar seemed to have found back to his scoring form
in recent weeks.
Ajax' top scorer twisted his ankle
when chasing a Sparta defender in the 37th minute of
the game and chances that he can play in the upcoming
league games against PSV and AZ seem small.
It's yet another disappointment
for Marco van Basten who spent big on Miralem Sulejmani,
Ismaïl Aissati and Dario Cvitanich but with the
trio now being joined by Huntelaar in the sick bay those
investments can not pay off in the first part of the
season.
Van Basten's problems have grown
so big that midfielder Evander Snow played center forward
for the last 50 minutes of yesterday's game.
The former Celtic player did reasonably
well against the toy defense of Sparta, but whether
he can be the lone center forward against ;ore serious
opposition remains to be seen.
Yesterday Sno crowned his performance
with a goal four minutes after coming on for Huntelaar.
It was already Ajax' third after
Huntelaar and Suarez had given Ajax a 2-0 lead.
Van Basten came with one surprise
in his lineup with Jan Vertonghen playing in front of
the defense in the role of playmaker.
Sparta never found an answer.
Yet they were the first team to
score an away goal in the Amsterdam Arena when Joshua
John pulled one back to make it 3-1 in the 57th minute.
By goals of Bakircioglü and
substitute Leonardo Ajax eased away to a 5-1 lead before
Yuri Rose was allowed a small personal success in the
form of Sparta's second goal of the afternoon.
All in all it was an entertaining
afternoon with a just winner that now see themselves
level with AZ and NAC at the top of the table.
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