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THE HAGUE, April 8 — “You can lose, but not like this. “Ajax captain Steven Bergwijn summed up the humiliation after yesterday’s 6-0 capitulation to arch-rivals Feyenoord sent the Dutch giants to the bottom.
It’s a record margin of victory in a ‘Klassieker’ between the two most sensible Dutch teams, but the fact remains that it may have been more: a seventh offside sending-off.
“Ten, ten,” sang De Kuip jubilantly in Rotterdam, filled only with local football enthusiasts; Away fans are welcome after years of violence between the two clubs.
Feyenoord had 30 shots, 15 of them on target. Ajax had one. Feyenoord managed Ajax’s defense in tatters, and the second half looked more like an exercise in ownership in the educational field.
It was, as the Algemeen Dagblad put it, “a blow for centuries. “
“Ajax is in a moment where things are going badly,” coach John van ‘t Schip said. “But they were men who were opposed to children, even schoolchildren. “
“It was embarrassing . . . It’s a day we need to temporarily erase from our minds, but it will be with us for a long time. “
It’s the lowest point of a season for Ajax, which has already had its percentage of weak moments.
The opposing team in Amsterdam dropped out after 55 minutes, when home enthusiasts threw flares onto the pitch when their team was already 3-0 down.
Frustration erupted as enthusiasts engaged in pitched battles with the Mounties. Some fans destroyed their own stadium, while the players were kept in the locker room for their safety.
To add insult to injury, Feyenoord scored a fourth goal when the match resumed three days later.
“This season we beat them 10-0. Es special,” sang Feyenoord’s Quinten Timber.
Ajax looked certain to have the worst season of 1964/65, finishing 13th in the Eredivisie.
That year Johan Cruyff joined the youth team and Ajax won the league the following season.
But it’s hard to imagine the four-time European Cup winners recovering so temporarily this time around: their first goal is to secure European football, which is a long shot.
They are currently in sixth place, 33 behind breakaway leaders PSV Eindhoven and seven behind fourth-placed AZ Alkmaar, who would qualify for Europe.
“The litter box is empty”
Off-field scandals don’t matter.
The word “playground” has been around lately among Ajax fans.
This comes from chairman Michael van Praag, who harshly criticized CEO Alex Kroes when he was suspended on suspicion of insider trading.
Kroes bought more than 17,000 Ajax shares a week before his appointment announced on August 2, 2023.
“Kroes is very naïve,” Van Praag said. We don’t want him back. It’s not a playground here.
But his words came back to him when it emerged on Friday that Van Praag had failed to report his own movements (about 100 actions) to the appropriate authorities.
“Welcome to the Ajax pitch,” read the bitter headline from the Ajax fans’ association.
They compare the club’s current state to a playground “full of landmines and where the swings are loose, the slide stops halfway and the sandpit is empty. “
The club of Cruyff, Marco van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp “played like a relegation team” against Feyenoord, according to public broadcaster NOS, while the fans’ association considered it “a fitting end to a disastrous week”.
“Feyenoord scores at Ajax,” headlined the association’s editor-in-chief in his timely report.
“To all Ajax fans we wish them the best of luck with the coffee machine in the office, as there are limits to what you can take away as a fan. “