Ajax Slump In Heerenveen Disaster

Marco Van Basten is discovering the difficulties and challenges that come with day-to-day club management the hard way. Ajax were unable to break Heerenveen’s unbeaten home record as they wilted to a 5-2 defeat.

Within eight minutes, Ajax were staring down the barrel of defeat as goals from veteran striker Gerald Sibon and Roy Beerens placed Heerenveen in an excellent position which they retained for the remainder of the match. The visiting defence were left shattered and crushed after the deficit doubled to 4-0 – Sibon claiming his second while Danijel Pranjic’s penalty put to doubt any possibility of a remarkable comeback. Such a hope was pure fiction for the Amsterdam outfit as they were condemned to an embarrassing 5-2 finishing scoreline. Huntelaar’s curled a free-kick and Suarez’s converted penalty acted only as consolatory goals before Pranjic acted quickly to finish a rebounded penalty. Heerenveen’s unbeaten home form remained intact while Ajax failed to cure their away day despair.

Ajax manager Marco Van Basten was infuriated with his team’s defective spectacle, saying “I was hoping for our first away win this Eredivisie season, but this was just a disgrace. We really have to be ashamed of ourselves, because this is totally unacceptable. It was 2-0 at halftime and there were still chances to grab a good result, but it was 4-0 minutes after the break. We didn’t show anything today and we weren’t focused.” Any desires of trumping PSV to the title crown will have to be re-examined should a performance like this become a regular occurrence.

In other news, Ajax are hoping to lure former South African goalkeeper Hans Vonk out of retirement to aid them in their injury crisis. Regular Maarten Stekelenburg has been ruled out for six weeks with a shoulder injury and reserve Dennis Gentenaar is also on the sidelines with a hernia. Vonk is familiar with Eredivisie football and in particular life at the Amsterdam ArenA – the 38 year-old began his career at RKC Waalwijk and had spells at FC Den Bosch and Heerenveen before he previously joined Ajax in 2004.

PSV rose to 2nd in the table following their 3-0 triumph over De Graafschap with Lazovic scoring twice, while Steve McClaren suffered his first domestic defeat as manager of Twente as they lost 3-0 to FC Utrecht. FC Groningen are the surprise leaders on 13 points having beaten ADO Den Haag 3-0.