Anouar Hadouir struck with four minutes remaining to inflict another damaging defeat on ADO Den Haag and keep Roda JC's hopes of making the European play-offs alive.

On yet another cold and windy Friday night, the walk from the Randstad Rail to the Forepark Stadion was personified by the ADO Den Haag fans. As the wind battered against the fans, the fans battled against it. Hope and expectation were slightly higher as a potential three home game winning streak was up for grabs.

The 2-2 draw the week before against Feyenoord had finally sparked ADO’s season to life, but you could sense a feeling that these high expectations may distract ADO from the 3 points on offer. From now on ADO must play every game as if it were the World Cup final, if they are to keep their dreams of staying in the Eredivisie alive.

The whistle blew and the game started with Roda playing towards their fans, chased by a huge roar from the home fans which created an atmosphere only possible in the metal dome of the Forepark Stadion.

From the kick-off you could tell that this match would be decided in the midfield, due to the constant position of the ball in and around the half-way line. Several scrappy challenges followed and neither team succeeded in taking the upper hand.

After 24 minutes, exciting Yulu-Matondo of Roda muscled his way past left-back, Christian Kum and then drove in a low cross for top-scorer Roda’s Junker to tap in.

The restless ADO fans and players realised that they weren’t in a windy-wonderland, but in a classic 3 pointer. ADO began to improve with Soltani having the majority of the chances, but failed to convert any of them. Both keepers, Zwinkels and Tyton had to be on their toes now as the game opened up and shots and crosses bombarded both penalty areas.

After 39 minutes, Hulst came off for Verhoek who brightened ADO’s chances by immediately pulling off a shot. Moments later Verhoek’s long throw-in found Luijckx who managed to get the ball in the back of the net, to level the game at 1-1. Verhoek made all the difference.

ADO kicked-off the second-half, looking to make an immediate impact upon the game. However an exact copy of the first half ensued with many loose passes and scrappy challenges.

The 11,898 strong crowd bellowed a sarcastic cheer when the under achieving Bogdan Milic was replaced with Andres Oper. Milic had played a game to forget.

Sometimes strange things happen. As Yulu-Matondo lunged to keep the ball in play, he snapped the corner-flag which lead to a long time-out, waiting for the flag to be replaced. Luijckx was soon fed up with waiting and leaving aside the shattered pole, stuffed the flag itself into the hole, demonstrating his desire to get on with the game. Moments later ADO-staff used sticky-tape to repair the pole and the game restarted.

After 16 minutes of the second-half, the first meaningful chance developed when Soltani floated a ball in from the left-flank, which was punched away by Tyton.

Poor ADO passing almost lead to a second Roda goal but Derijck blocked well.

Richard Knopper came on for Rick v/d Bergh, in the hope of securing a winning-goal for ADO. Substitute Oper received a yellow card after recklessly shunting Roda JC’s keeper off the ball. Richard Knopper almost immediately made an impact by taking the ball past Tyton, but one touch too many resulted in a goal-kick.

Suddenly the ball broke to Junker who found himself one-on-one with the keeper but could only hit the side-netting. This was Junker’s last touch of the ball as he came off for Arnout Djoun Sutchuin.

A run of good interplay passing around ADO’s box ended up with Hadouir mercilessly stiking under the arms of Zwinkels and into the bottom-right corner of the goal. This late winner broke ADO’s hearts. The warm, positive almost party-like atmosphere turned to silence with the small group Roda fans making all the noise.

Three minutes of added-time was given and head Roda coach, Harm van Veldhoven, demonstrated his knowledge of “professionalism” when he substituted Jan-Paul Saeijs off for Pa Kah, to waste time during the last minute of the game.

The team from Limburg climbed to 10th place with 29 points from 25 matches whilst ADO stayed 16th with 22 points. ADO’s problems worsen as they let 3 points slip and remain 2 places from bottom of the league.

ADO Man of the match: Kees Luijckx, the number 14 who controlled the midfield and scored ADO’s goal to level the game. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to continue their run of good form.

Attendance: 11,898

Next ADO home match is against Vitesse on Saturday 6th March, kick off 19:45. Day tickets are available for this game. You must produce photo I.D. to get a ticket. Tickets can be purchased from the stadium ticket office throughout the week and before the kick off.

ADO Den Haag: R. Zwinkels, D. Buijs, T. Derijck, P. Bosschaart, C. Kum, K. Luijckx, R. van den Bergh (Knopper 69’), J. Toornstra, S. Hulst (Verhoek 39’), K. Soltani, B. Milic (Oper 59’).
Subs: A. Oper, R. Knopper, A. Ammi, W. Verhoek, C. Horváth, K. van Hese, B. Ditewig.

Roda JC: P. Tyton, J. Saeijs (Kah 90’), D. De Fauw, A. Kruiswijk, M. de Jong, R. Vormer, W. Janssen, B. Bodor, A. Hadouir, J. Yulu Matondo, M. Junker (Sutchuin Djoum 84’).
Subs: E. Addo, B. Castro, V. Lachambre, J. Vandamme, R. Meulens, P. Kah, A. Sutchuin Djoum.

ADO Den Haag 1 - 2 RODA JC (Limburg)
Luijckx 41’ Junker 25’, Hadouir 88’

Text by Wilf Elliott
Photos by Neal McClimon
neal@thehagueonline.com www.itpphotography.com

Images

1. Another ADO chance goes begging
2. Luijckx celebrates his equalizing goal
3. Tyton in the Roda goal punches clear

4. ADO final effort on goal
5. Milic tries to get around Tyton

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