Toon dammed in Holland
Thursday, 15th March 2007
AZ Alkmaar 2 Newcastle United 0
Aggregate 4-4, Alkmaar win on away goals.
This was the year for us to get that long-awaited trophy. Four goals in the first leg, a two-goal cushion, we will score "over there". No problem? How wrong can we be --again! We all knew Alkmaar could play, so why did we let them?
Defensively we gave them so much space, none more so than for the first goal when Huntington--unfairly being asked to do a man's job out of his normal position--was caught hopelessly out of position and Jenner was given acres to pick out Arveladze to tap home from a couple of yards, again with the aid of dubious defending.
The Dutch team now had even more confidence and momentum and it was back to the wall stuff, but we somehow got through to half-time still ahead on aggregate.
Second half and more of the same with good old Shay keeping us in the game but the inevitable had to happen. A corner from the right, poor, poor marking and Koevermans heads home with ease. Yes, we can blame Titus Bramble but why is he the one who always gets the excessive "stick"? Should we not be looking at quite a few others? A chance for Dyer was our only vague chance and it only made matters worse having to watch Van Gaal celebrating excessively to the point that it was quite distasteful.
Back to the proverbial drawing board again, nay, yet again.
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