Euro Cup final offers classic battle

By Vic Mills

LONDON (JP): The European Champions Cup final between Ajax and Juventus in Rome on May 22 promises a night of glorious club soccer.

While the team ethic runs high at this stage of the competition, it is difficult, given two sets of illustrious strikers, not to view this in terms of a Western shoot out with the likes of Litmanen, George and Kanu at one end of the saloon and Vialli, Ravanelli and Del Piero at the other.

The match will be live on RCTI on Thursday, starting from 01.30 Western Indonesian Time.

As to who will be left standing at the end of 90 frenetic minutes, only time will tell.

A mirror of the great Ajax team of the early 1970s, the current side is a collage of artistry and imagination.

Set to play a 3-4-3 formation, coach, Louis Van Gaal, insists that while lacking the speed of the English and the technique of the Italians, his side is tactically of a level that nobody can surpass.

Ajax demonstrated as much in the 2-0 demolition of Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in November. And it repeated that performance last month with a remarkable 3-0 win against Panathinaikos in front of 80,000 fanatic Greeks in the Olympic Stadium.

Led from defense by inspirational captain, Danny Blind, the strength of Ajax is its ability to attack in numbers from any position on the pitch.

Heavily involved in this strategy are midfield players Frank de Boer and the supremely gifted, Edgar Davids.

With doubt over the role of Patrick Kluivert, the likelihood is that Ajax will play Finn, Jari Litmanen, together with Nigerian imports Finidi George and Nwankwo Kanu up front.

The highest scorer in this season's Champions Cup, Litmanen, back after injury, has lost none of his pace or flair in front of the goal. Add this to the strength and close control of George on the right and the roving commission of Kanu and it has all the makings of a torrid night for the Italian defense.

Speculation is rife over the part to be played by Kluivert. Having received a suspended prison sentence last week for causing death by dangerous driving, it is now a question of whether he has sufficiently recovered from recent knee surgery to start the match.

The probability is that Van Gaal will name him as one of the substitutes along with Kiki Musampa and Ronald de Boer.

As ever, Ajax will be accompanied by an army of traveling fans. On the night, it may also find an ally or two among the fiercely parochial Roman public.

In light of the form Ajax has displayed in away ties, home country venue will be of little advantage to the Italians.

All the more reason then for Juventus to seek an early goal to settle nerves and silence the visiting support.

With club captain, Gianluca Vialli, set to move this summer -- Chelsea, with new manager Ruud Gullit, is favorite together with the small matter of US$40,000 a week -- then what better way to leave Italian soccer than with a vintage Vialli display.

No less a threat is the clinical finishing, especially from dead ball situations, of Alessandro Del Piero.

As a mark of his standing in the club, Juventus was more than happy to sell Roberto Baggio to AC Milan at the end of its championships winning season.

Having repaid its faith with crucial goals in the Champions Cup, Del Piero will hope to take his club form onto the international stage in Euro '96, a tournament in which he will play alongside Juventus teammate, Fabrizio Ravanelli.

And, do not underestimate the prematurely graying Ravanelli. His form in Serie A has been nothing short of sensational in the last two years.

Seven of the Juventus side appear in Arrigo Sacchi's squad for the European Championships. The others on show include goalkeeper, Peruzzi, defenders Torricelli and Ferrara, and midfield players Di Livio and Conte.

Combine the wealth of home produced talent with foreign stars Vladimir Jugovic and Paulo Sousa, and the traffic in Rome on Wednesday night will be anything but one way.

For the final that most neutrals craved, the abiding hope is that the sides do not cancel each other out as with Manchester United and Liverpool in the English FA Cup.

While finals and indeed finalists of this caliber rarely produce a classic confrontation, the feeling, this year, is that the forward shoot out, and likelihood of an early goal, will open up the game and produce a night of memorable soccer.