ADO Den Haag. The ‘ADO’ stands for “Alles Door Oofening” which translates from dutch as “everything through practice”. They probably needed a bit more practice because they shipped four goals by thirty minutes.
Ajax travelled to The Hague to taken on a team that tasted success by beating the giants of Amsterdam twice in the same year and going deep into the finals of the Europa league in the 2010/11 season.
Ajax had a bit of a panic attack in their last fixture thanks to Utrecht where the former had to score five goals to avoid getting knocked out of the KNVB cup early in December.
The action
Huntelaar had a great chance to draw first blood, heading a ball just wide of the net off a Ajax corner.
Dusan Tadic opened the scoring for Ajax again for a second game in a row in the 20th minute. He was allowed an arguably easy tap-in because Den Haag were too slow to press as Ajax made their way inside the opposition, half passing the ball around.
There was so much space ‘in between the lines’ for Ajax to operate in which you would say is bread and butter for a Ten Hag system to exploit.
Huntelaar continued his stunning vein of form with a dubious header off a Daley Blind cross into the middle of the box. The keeper managed to get a touch on the ball but not enough to stop the ball kissing the back net.
Well into the midsts of the first half and you can now see ADO pinned into their own half by the away team.
As a result of this, Labyad gets on the end of a sloppy pass by ADO and delights himself to his first in the game and Ajax’s third. In the end, it was an easy tap in.
We’ve seen it again and again. Anthony conjured up a beautiful cross into the box after cutting in on his left foot before Huntelaar saw it home and bagged a hat-trick. Dominance. Four before half time.
Home side manager, Ruud Brood looked disheveled at the display in front of him. Can’t imagine the fans at home being indifferent.
Klaiber put it on a plate for Tadic to secure another goal in the form of a volley, before sending into the empty stands from a great position.
Has Onona had anything to do at this point? Just before half time, he gets called into action. In the 44th minute, he blocks a great ADO counter-attack and probably their only good chance in the first half.
ADO forward, Kramer adds a goal on the other side of the break thanks to a solo run down the left flank. Tagliofico was nowhere to be seen when he should have been marking his man.
ADO were on a vicious counter-attack in the 70th minute. Bourard scored an empty net. Onana was not there. That might sound confusing. However, if he was actually there, he would have saved it as it literally rolled past his hand. Very poor keeping.
Verdict
Ajax looked less threatening in the second half but Ten Hag could argue that he rotated in the second half.
ADO offered up a lot of space and did not match the intensity brought by Ajax.
The game was put to bed at half time. However, management may not like the idea of conceding six goals in two games against mediocre opposition.