Steven Berghuis is happy that Ajax got through the remainder of the away match against RKC Waalwijk (2-3) unscathed. The midfielder and winger was one of the goalscorers two months ago, before Etienne Vaessen's injury, and saw that goal finally converted into a win on Wednesday.
Ajax hardly got into trouble against RKC in the remaining ten minutes and thanked Brian Brobbey, among others, who won a lot of time by keeping the ball with him at the corner flag. Berghuis discussed this with trainer John van 't Schip when the two walked off the field.
“There was one moment when the assistant referee gave a goal kick, while it was clearly a corner,” Berghuis said during the press conference. The veteran is referring to a moment when Brobbey kept the ball with him for a long time.
“I really had the feeling that he (the linesman, ed.) did that to get out of that situation. So to make it easier for himself instead of judging objectively and giving a corner,” said Berghuis.
“It had been going on for three or four minutes. I got the feeling he was like, 'Back ball, we're out of here.' He made the choice based on making it easy. I got that feeling.”
The plan with Brobbey had been discussed in detail in advance. “The coach mentioned that game management“, says Berghuis. “Be smart where possible. We gained three, four or five minutes in that. Someone like Brobbey can of course do that wonderfully with his body and we took advantage of that.”
Thanks to the victory over RKC, Ajax (21 points) has risen to sixth place in the rankings and is only nine points behind numbers three and four AZ and FC Twente (both 30 points). The Amsterdam team will play at home twice more before the winter break: against Sparta Rotterdam and PEC Zwolle.