Total crisis at Ajax after third defeat in four games

Sunday 8 February 2009

Ajax are lost in the dark.

After defeats against FC Groningen and Heerenveen the Amsterdammers seemed to have reached their absolute low with the 2-2 draw at home against Heracles on Wednesday, but today Marco van Basten's men proved they could go one lower.

The 4-1 defeat at the hands of Vitesse Arnhem wasn't even exaggerated as a score of 5-1 or perhaps 6-1 would have been possible as well.

What a start of the year it has been for Ajax.

At the end of 2008 all was calm in the Arena, with Ajax trailing AZ by 2 points a new defender was brought in and no key players left Amsterdam.

The defeat in Groningen seemed an incident, the home defeat against Heerenveen was worrisome but okay losing to the Friesians can happen.

Yet when they went 0-2 down at home against Heracles it was clear something was wrong in the ranks of Holland's record champions.

They were able to squeeze out a draw and had the referee not wrongly disallowed a late goal they would have taken the three points.

Yet the fans had seen enough.

Angry fans locked the gate around the training pitch and demanded an explanation and Marco van Basten revealed he had thought about quitting.

He also reset the club's targets for the season as the gap with AZ had grown to 11 points the second place was now what Ajax should go for.

But after today even that second place might become a problem as Vitesse merciless exposed Ajax' problems.

The team of Theo Bos had no intentions of letting Ajax tank new confidence in the Gelredome.

Since Bos took over from Hans Westerhof Vitesse have taken the road back up again with seven points from the last three games.

Of course a wounded duck like Ajax were the ideal opponents to continue the positive series and from the kickoff Vitesse were on top of Ajax.

The first ten minutes the pitch was a one-way-street with the goal of Ajax keeper Maarten Stekelenburg at the receiving end, so Lasse Nilsson's opener in the 7th minute was fully justified.

Ajax' unexpected equalizer by Luis Suarez made the Vitesse storm subside but Ajax were unable to really do create anything and as the first half progressed Vitesse reclaimed the initiative and decided the game before the half-time whistle.

First Dalibor Stevanovic put his team ahead again with a wonderful curved shot to the far post and four minutes later Lasse Nilsson tapped in his second to make it 3-1.

Van Basten intervened during the break by taking off midfielders Anita and Emanuelson, but their replacements Lindgren and Bodul didn't make much of a difference.

Ajax were completely overrun in midfield and before Ricky van Wolfswinkel made it 4-1 in the 68th minute Sansoni and Molhoek could have scored as well.

Van Wolfswinkel should have scored a fifth for Vitesse a few minutes later but Ajax' ordeal wasn't made any worse than it already was.

In only two weeks Ajax have completely lost their wits, now trailing AZ by 14 points and with Twente, Heerenveen and PSV in much better shape even the second place is in serious danger.

Newt week the much deflated classic against Feyenoord could perhaps put them back on track.

Score

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