Remko Pasveer took possession of a remarkable Eredivisie record on Sunday by sending no fewer than 71 passes in Ajax’s match at AZ (2-1 loss). Since the statistics by opta be kept up to date (the 2011/12 season), it never happened that a goalkeeper passed the ball so much in a Dutch league game. “And that’s not a good sign,” Kenneth Perez responds in the studio of ESPN.
Pasveer himself shares the opinion of the former midfielder. “I had the most contact with the ball in the first half, but that’s not what we want,” he says at the press conference. “I think we can do much better and have shown much better. We really have to pay attention to do better.” Against Liverpool (2-1 loss), Pasveer also had the ball very often last Tuesday. Then the keeper sent 58 passes, allowing only Calvin Bassey (60 passes) in front of him on the side of Ajax. On Sunday against AZ Pasveer played no less than 71 balls, exactly as many as Jurriën Timber.
Ajax took the lead early in Alkmaar via Mohammed Kudus, but then let itself be trumped on almost all fronts. AZ took off with the three points via hits from Mees de Wit and Jens Odgaard. “It was not good today,” says Pasveer. “We have to show that we want to have the ball. Then you get out of it playing football and we are in our strength. We control that best, but then we have to do it.”
Perez praised Pasveer for ‘two great saves’: in the opening phase on a bet by Odgaard, and in the second half on a shot towards the far post by Tijjani Reijnders. Pasveer just tapped the last ball onto the post with an extreme effort. “A goalkeeper is about grabbing exceptional balls. This one on Reijnders’ shot was exceptional,” said Perez. Arnold Bruggink goes one step further: “A world rescue.”
Pasveer has made the final selection of the Dutch for the first time in his career. Perez thinks that Ajax’s keeper is doing well, but tempers the euphoria somewhat. “I thought that after Liverpool people were way too important about Pasveer. There are also a lot of balls that a keeper should just grab. reach fall, you should just grab that, right? A keeper is there because he can keep, and then you can take balls within reason. It’s about the exceptional balls.”