Ajax USA
July 12 2005

Four goals from the ‘old guard’ at Quick ’20: 0-4

0 (0) – 4 (3)
Pre-Season Friendly
Sportpark Vondersweijde, Oldenzaal
Tuesday, 12 July, 2005

After an early morning ‘marathon’ in the woods of De Lutte (a
‘punishment’ for yesterday’s poor performance against WHC) and a two
hour training session the same morning Ajax drove to the town of
Oldenzaal in the early evening for a game against Quick ’20, the
local Hoofdklasse outfit. Blind’s sanctions had the desired effect —
sort of. Ajax still didn’t play well, but worked considerably harder
and were far better concentrated in the back. Hosts Quick ’20 never
had a chance to score. Ajax, meanwhile, netted three times in the
first half, but added only one in the second: 0-4.

Newly appointed captain Escudé played in the second half. [Photo:
Ajax.nl]

As usual in this phase of the pre-season campaign some of the Ajax
players are suffering from some minor pains and injuries due to the
stiff training schedule. Blind replaced nine players at half-time in
previous games. In Oldenzaal he decided to rest a few players: De
Mul, Obodai and Manucharyan. Vonk and Rosales are still injured and
didn’t see action either, so that Blind made ‘only’ six substitutions
at half-time. Heitinga, Grygera, De Jong, Sneijder and Mitea played
the full match.

Two of them (Mitea and De Jong) notched a goal in the first half, but
the nicest one was Ajax’s first, scored by Nourdin Boukhari, whom
Danny Blind told that he should not only focus on the position of
left winger but also on that of left midfielder this season. Only
three minutes had been played when Boukhari chipped a Daniël de
Ridder cross over goalkeeper De Römph and into the net.

The second half was a rather dull affair: Wesley Sneijder hit the
cross-bar, the Oldenzaal crowd said goodbye to ‘local hero’ Barry van
Ierssel who played his last game for Quick ’20 after 14 years in the
first team and Zdenek Grygera netted Ajax’s fourth goal, eight
minutes before the final whistle.

Once again it was not great.