BRING UP THE AJAX!
SOCCER HEAVEN
TURNED TO STONE
woe 8 augustus
AJAX - CELTIC
With a 3-0 lead, the main object in the
away match was solid defence. Celtic and
Ajax met at Queens Park Stadium, Scot
land's oldest club. 'Bring up the Ajax!' re
sounded from the stands of Hampden Park,
filled with almost 84,000 spectators. With
Horst Blankenburg, who was making his
first appearance, the Amsterdam players
held out against the expected Scottish
force. Star player Jimmy Johnstone, nick
named the Flea, managed to score once.
But that remained the only goal.'They al
ways say that Ajax knows how to attack
and Feyenoord knows how to defend. To
day we destroyed the myth that we are
useless at defending. That is the most im
portant thing for me about this match.'
Ruud Krol stated after the game. Ajax
made it through and won its first Euro
pean Cup in that year, in London against
the Greek team Panathinaikos.
'The stadium was located in a gloomy,drab
working-class area.The weather wasn't co
operating either', Leo van Veen recalls when
he thinks about the first match. 'But as
soon as we entered the stadium, soccer
heaven opened its doors. The ambience,
the atmosphere, the noise.'The Scots did
not get their revenge until eleven years
later, during the 1982-1983 season. Both
teams had undergone a facelift, but Johan
Cruijff had returned to Ajax as a player. At
Celtic,coach Billy McNeill was theonly one
who had experienced the previous encoun
ters as a player. In the first match, the deci
ding player wasn't Cruijff as had been ex
pected, but Jesper Olsen. The Danish left-
winger scored 1-0 and caused desperation
in the Scottish defence. McGrain the de
fender, Olsen's direct opponent, praised
theforward in the press:'It's a pity I wasn't
in the stands watching. That way I could
really have enjoyed Olsen. The way it was,
he made me look daft most of the time.
Such a virtuoso, what technique.'
'During the first match overthere.we ma
naged to silence the crowd. It was one of
our best games,' recalls Peter Boeve, who
played for Ajax in both matches against
Celtic alongside Van Veen. 'We were given
a standing ovation for the way we played.
I'd never experienced that after an away
match/The 2-2 result in Glasgow gave hope
for the return match at the Olympic Sta
dium. The 35year old Cruijff played in spite
of a knee injury.'The problem is that this
very young squad still has to get used to
me. Sometimes really simple things give
thataway.lt requires a lotoftalkingtoget
them to do what I want,' said the number
14 before the two matches against Celtic.
At 1-1 Cruijff left the field of the Olympic
Stadium afterwhat laterturned out to be
his final European match in the Ajax strip.
With only four minutes to go, the Am ster
dam players thought the second round
was within reach.'We missed him, he was
a true leader and personality,' reflects Leo
van Veen, Ajax's current assistent coach.
'But we should have compensated for it.
We thought we had the match in our poc
ket and that we had made it to the next
round.' But it was not to be.
George McCluskey turned the entire
Olympic Stadium to stone by scoring un
expectedly a minute before time. Ajax
and the whole of football loving Amster
dam were plunged into mourning. Peter
Boeve still remembers the disappoint
ment well. Defiantly he says: 'But as it
turns out, we have a chance to put that
straight in 2001. We've got a second
chance."
Erol Erdogan
Jimmy Johnstone
scored the only
goal in the return
of the quarter
finals. (Foto:
Frans Hemelrijk)
Cruijff played in
1982 with an
injured knee. Foto
George Verberne)
