By Myles Palmer
I reckoned the ArenA game might be the same again. With Ajax defending their box. If it ain’t bust, don’t fix it.
And so it came to pass : much ado about 0-0.
The second game was similar, with Witschge coming in for the big Belgian at left back. But there was less spark about Ajax second time around.
They played in a functional, programmed way.And they suffocated Arsenal with shape and method.
There was less fire and trickery about them this time and the first 33 minutes was just sparring and shadow-boxing.
It didn’t look promising because Arsenal are often ineffective in a cagey game.
After 33, Vieira made a magnificent tackle, got up, found Henry, he found Pires, he put Bergkamp in on the right. But DB10 scuffed his shot beyond the far post.
That move was pure, brilliant, dynamic Arsene-football. To win the game they needed to do that six times.
But Ajax prevented those counter-thrusts by (1) skirmishing energetically just inside Arsenal’s half, the zone from which those killer passes are so often launched, and (2) defending the box in depth against a side who cannot score from crosses.
After 37, Trabelsi zigzagged inside Cole, Pires fouled him.
Cole headed a Chivu free-kick off the line.
After 52, Lauren made a great block when Zlatan ran in for a Trabelsi’s good low cross.
If he goes on like this, Trabelsi could be the new Cafu.
After 68, Vieira scuffed the best chance of the night from four yards.
Bergkamp’s free-kick came over everyone, Vieira cannily pulled back to an unmarked position at the far post. But he was off balance as the ball reached him and unable to place his volley across the keeper.
Henry made two dribbles in 47 and 77 minutes. But there was no final ball.
Zlatan was closer to scoring in three good moments.
He stabbed that cross from Trabelsi- but Lauren blocked in classic Lee Dixon manner.
He hit a shot which Keown deflected wide of the far post.
And then he played van Der Meyde in but the winger miscontrolled the ball on the edge of the box.
Main feature of the two Ajax-Arsenal games? Tactical discipline.
Ajax played with commendable tactical discipline in both games.
I thought anything could happen in Amsterdam.That either side could win. Instead, nothing happened because Ajax nullified Arsenal’s pace.
In the Premiership, Arsenal are faster than everybody.The games are open because the crowds and the TV companies demand that.
In the Champions League, the opposition is mentally sharper,able to anticipate, and often very athletic as well.
Amazingly, Roma won 3-0 in Valencia. The first team to win a Champions league game in the Mestalla.
It was the Totti show. In 12 first half minutes he headed in a Candela corner and sidefooted a Cafu cross and played in Emerson for 3-0.
It was 3-0 at half time and that score might explain Arsenal’s lethargic body language as they emerged late for the second half.
Arsene himself emerged after the game had re-started.Why did they all come out so late? A muddle? A row? A discussion about how to make sure the game finished 0-0?
We will never know.
Interestingly, Ajax manager Ronald Koeman talked about a “mutual result .”
Koeman said, “I was very surprised at the Valencia score. But I thought we could then have a ‘mutual result’ here. I thought Arsenal were more careful than at home too, they didn’t take any risks, you could see it with their substitutions.”
Replying to Wenger’s criticism of their caution, Koeman said,”When people say we play negative, let them say it. I prefer to say that we were not naive, like Manchester City were, we were smart.”
Arsene was obviously rattled.Yet again his team, his style of play, had been rumbled.
Yet again his substitutions had been too late and illogical.
For 77 minutes Bergkamp had needed Jeffers, but he took Bergkamp off as he put Jeffers on.
I was baffled by that.It looks as if the substitutions have beencalled before the game has started.
It’s becoming boring because Arsenal fail in the Champions League in the same way every year. It’s the same old script, the same rigid pecking order, even though Gulberto looks burned out.
You could say Gilberto hasn’t been the same player since he went to China.
But, in fact, he hasn’t been the same player since long before that. He has no impact on games any more. He doesn’t get as many tackles in and he hasn’t scored since October.
As I said earlier in the week, mini-leagues take time to unfold.The more games Arsenal draw, the longer the group will take toreveal two quarter-finalists.
Koeman and Krol, like others before them, sussed out Arsenal’s narrow, one-dimensional style of play. So they defended deep, kept a clean sheet, and almost nicked the game.
For Arsene to complain was just silly.
Why should Ajax come out and attack and play to Arsenal’s strengths on the counter?
It’s not Koeman’s job to make Wenger look good.
Alan Smith said it in The Telegraph yesterday: Ronald Koeman is not Kevin Keegan.
Basically, I saw nothing in the 1-1 game at Highbury to suggest that Arsenal were good enough to beat Ajax.
And I saw nothing in the ArenA to suggest that Arsenal can win the European Cup.
But I’m not disappointed. Because I never believed they could win the European Cup anyway.
Maybe Roma will play the same way as Ajax did at Highbury.
Although they don’t have as many zippy young players – Ajax had seven players under 21.
But maybe Koeman’s tactics has given Capello a template.
It’s a strange situation, really.
Sacchi loved pressing, Capello loved pressing, Wenger visited Milanello a lot, and he loves pressing. And what Ajax did is the opposite of pressing.
And, of course AC Milan is AC Milan, a legendary club.Roma is not AC Milan.
Is Capello flexible enough, imaginative enough, bold enough, to copy what worked twice for Ajax?
Or will Roma collapse as abjectly as Juventus did when they were whacked 3-0 by Man United this week?
On Tuesday March 11th we will find out.
28th February 2003.