ADO produced a display that has been coming now for the last few games. I think the draw against Ajax gave them a self belief that boosted the whole team's confidence.

The Haagenaars dominated this game entirely, from first to final whistle. From kick off ADO poured forward wave after wave of attacks. Judging by the early reactions of the NEC players, they were not up for this game at all. The first shot on goal was after four minutes following a quick interchange of passes between Berry Powel, Mitchell Pique and ending with a strike on goal by Richard Knopper, that the NEC goalkeeper Gabor Babos saved with ease.

Any possession that NEC had was dealt with quickly as the ADO players bit in to tackles and pressured the visitors constantly. The visitors could not get out of their own half. Ten minutes in and yet again a slick passing move from the home team carved their way through a slow defence. Timothy Derijck to a very energetic Knopper who found Lex Immers in space 25m out, who fired a shot straight at the keeper Babos.

After fifteen minutes Lasse Schone of NEC fouled Knopper outside the area. A quick incisive pass from Knopper found Powel unmarked inside the box-he swiveled and struck a good shot low to the right hand post. Babos got down quickly, making a good save.

NEC could not cope at all with the fight and passion that the entire ADO team was showing. At times it seemed that the only way to stop ADO attacking was to foul them. This lead to yet another free kick after twenty two minutes when Ramon Zomer clattered through the back of Powel on the edge of the D. Aleksandar Rankovic hit the free kick straight through the wall which was scrambled away by Babos for a corner, which was wasted.

Dani Fernandez of NEC earned himself the games first yellow card after twenty four minutes, as he crunched through the legs of Karim Saltani, whose scream could be heard from my seat in the press box high up in the stands. The resulting free kick taken by Knopper was floated in to meet the head of Derijck, it forced a good save from Babos as he palmed the ball away, only to see it roll agonisingly slowly over the line for ADO to take a very well deserved twenty fifth-minute lead.

Thirty eight minutes of the first half played and NEC finally mounted a serious attack on the ADO goal. A free kick wide on the left, taken by Youssef El-Akchaoui 40 metres from the goal was sent accurately into the 6 metre box and was headed clear by several ADO defenders who went for the same ball. As the ball fell, Lasse Schone hit an acrobatic volley just over the bar, to the relief of all the home support.

The halftime whistle blew, and as the players left the field, the applause and cheers from the fans was raucous. ADO at a guess had about 80% of the play. They could have been and should have been three or four goals up. Only some heroics from Babos in the NEC goal kept the visitors in the game.

Second half started with what looked like a new NEC team. They came charging forward with urgency and purpose. The ball came to Bas Sibum wide on the left hand side. Instead of looking up for his arriving team mates, he panicked and hit a wild shot high and wide of the goal. That was it, you could literally see the NEC players sigh and give up after forty seven minutes. Any fight they had, died right at that moment.

Sixty two minutes played and ADO was once again in full dominating flow. A foul by Milano Koenders on Danny Buijs wide on the left hand side gave Powel the chance to send in a good free kick. It was cleared away by Sibum, but only as far as Rankovic, who played a short ball forward to Immers. In one split second he played the perfect ball across the area behind three NEC defenders to an on rushing Knopper who smashed the ball into the roof of the net. 2-0 to ADO.

One funny moment occurred during this second half. NEC has strung about four nice passes together heading swiftly toward to the ADO penalty area. As Lorenzo Davids steamed forward, he was not watching where he was going and ran straight in to the back of the referee, Reinold Wiedemeijer, stopping him dead in his tracks and ending a promising move.

3-0 to ADO after seventy seven minutes. A corner swung in from the left hand side was met by the head of Christian Kum. As he rose, he twisted his whole body and neck muscles to get the power in to his header that flew in to the top right hand corner of the goal.

The rest of the game was played out with ADO keeping the ball and running down the last quarter of an hour. The final whistle blew and the stadium erupted. It has been a very long time since I have seen such a one-sided game between two top division teams in any country. Were NEC making ADO look good by playing badly? No. ADO were up for this match and they wanted the win a lot more than NEC did. To give credit where it is due, ADO could have won this match by a clear six goals very easily. I bumped in to Andre Wetzel, the ADO manager as I left the ground. He had a huge smile on his face, indeed a very happy man.

Man of the Match: Richard Knopper. Teased and terrorized the NEC back line throughout. An all-round excellent performance.

Attendance: 10,800

Next home game is on Saturday 11 April at 7:45 p.m. against Sparta Rotterdam.

Neal McClimon

neal@thehagueonline.com

www.itpphotography.com

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